Google-Extended vs Applebot-Extended: Which AI Crawler Should You Allow or Block?
Complete side-by-side comparison of Google-Extended (Google) and Applebot-Extended (Apple): user-agent strings, safety ratings, SEO impact, and copy-paste blocking rules. Updated August 2026.
Quick Verdict
Google-Extended has the better safety profile (Safe) compared to Applebot-Extended (Caution). If you allow only one, Google-Extended is the lower-risk choice. Applebot-Extended warrants closer monitoring in your server logs, and server-level blocking if robots.txt directives are not respected.
| Attribute | Google-Extended | Applebot-Extended |
|---|---|---|
| Operator | Apple | |
| User-agent string | Google-Extended |
Applebot-Extended |
| Category | AI & LLM Bots | Search Engines |
| Safety rating | Safe | Caution |
| SEO impact if blocked | Low - No SEO ranking impact | Critical - Blocking removes you from search results |
| Recommendation | Generally safe to allow; provides legitimate crawling value. | Consider blocking based on your content strategy. |
| Official docs | Google-Extended docs | Applebot-Extended docs |
What is Google-Extended?
Google-Extended is not a crawler. The full profile covers the rest.
What is Applebot-Extended?
Applebot-Extended is not a crawler. The full profile covers the rest.
Google-Extended vs Applebot-Extended by the numbers
Google-Extended and Applebot-Extended do the same kind of job (an opt-out token rather than a crawler), so most sites give them the same answer. The difference is who receives your content: Google or Apple.
| Measure | Google-Extended | Applebot-Extended |
|---|---|---|
| robots.txt token | Google-Extended | Applebot-Extended |
| What it does | collects pages to train AI models | collects pages to train AI models |
| Crawler type | an opt-out token rather than a crawler | an opt-out token rather than a crawler |
| Priority tier | Tier 1 | Tier 2 |
| Follows robots.txt | Not applicable (token) | Not applicable (token) |
| Top-10k robots.txt files | 801 named (14.3%), 723 blocked (13%) | 600 named (10.7%), 694 blocked (12.4%) |
| Blocked by top 1k / middle / tail | 18.6% / 13.1% / 11.9% | 17.6% / 12.7% / 11.3% |
In our robots.txt study of the Tranco top 10,000 (5,583 valid files, fetched October 20, 2026), Google-Extended is blocked more often than Applebot-Extended: 723 files against 694. The counts are close, which suggests most sites that think about one also think about the other.
Writing rules for both
Because each crawler reads only the group that names it, you can give Google-Extended and Applebot-Extended different answers in the same file. A common pattern, refusing training while allowing search and assistant fetches, looks like this for these two:
User-agent: Google-Extended
Allow: /
User-agent: Applebot-Extended
Allow: /- One group each. Do not rely on
User-agent: *to cover either crawler if you have named the other; name both. - Copy shared rules. Any
Disallowlines from the*group that should still apply must be repeated in each named group. - Mind the edge. A bot manager can refuse one and admit the other regardless of robots.txt.
- Verify both. The crawler access checker shows how each is treated on your live site.
Test yourself: if you write User-agent: Google-Extended and User-agent: Applebot-Extended on consecutive lines above one Disallow: /, are both blocked?
Yes. Several User-agent lines in a row form one group, and the rules below apply to every name in it.
Test yourself: does blocking Google-Extended also block Applebot-Extended?
No. Each token is matched separately.
Which to allow, by goal
| Your goal | Google-Extended | Applebot-Extended |
|---|---|---|
| You want AI answers to cite you | Allow | Allow |
| You want to stop AI training | No effect | No effect |
| Your server is under load | Rate-limit | Rate-limit |
| You need search traffic | No effect | No effect |
Related: how AI engines choose their sources
Set Google-Extended to control how content is used, not whether it is fetched. Set Applebot-Extended to control how content is used, not whether it is fetched.
The rest of each operator's family
Google also runs AdsBot-Google, AdsBot-Google-Mobile, APIs-Google, Chrome-Lighthouse, FeedFetcher-Google. Rules for Google-Extended do not cover them. Apple also runs Applebot. Rules for Applebot-Extended do not cover them.
Read the full profiles for both crawlers, linked in the table above, for documentation links, user-agent strings and server-side rules.
Mistakes when writing rules for Google-Extended and Applebot-Extended together
Google-Extended is named in 14.3% of the top-site robots.txt files in our study and blocked in 13%; Applebot-Extended is named in 10.7% of the top-site robots.txt files in our study and blocked in 12.4%. Large sites block Google-Extended more often, which usually reflects a decision about training rather than about Applebot-Extended.
- Both are an opt-out token rather than a crawlers, so the usual error is treating a rule for one as a rule for both. A group for
Google-Extendedsays nothing aboutApplebot-Extended; if you want the same treatment, list both lines above one set of rules. - They come from different operators (Google and Apple), with different documentation and different update cycles. Do not assume a change one of them announces applies to the other.
- Putting
User-agent: Google-ExtendedandUser-agent: Applebot-Extendedin separate groups and then editing only one. Two groups drift apart over time; keep a comment above each that says why it differs from the other.
Each crawler's own profile lists the mistakes that apply to it alone; this list is only about combining the two.
Google-Extended and Applebot-Extended are both control tokens
Neither Google-Extended (Google) nor Applebot-Extended (Apple) ever requests a page, so comparing them is comparing two promises rather than two crawlers. Each operator reads its own token through its ordinary crawlers. Setting one tells that operator nothing about the other, so a site that wants to opt out of both needs both lines.
How Google-Extended and Applebot-Extended moved in our latest scans
Between our scans of October 17, 2026 and October 20, 2026, files naming Google-Extended went from 743 to 801 (+58) and files blocking it from 666 to 723 (+57), so more sites wrote a rule for Google-Extended and more of those rules block it. For comparison, 2026 and October 20, 2026, files naming Applebot-Extended went from 556 to 600 (+44) and files blocking it from 643 to 694 (+51), so more sites wrote a rule for Applebot-Extended and more of those rules block it.
Over the 3 days between those scans, blocking of Google-Extended moved +57 files and blocking of Applebot-Extended moved +51. Owners are acting faster on Google-Extended, which is the one to recheck first if you have not touched your file this month.
We first recorded Google-Extended on March 17, 2026. Google documents it on developers.google.com, and we recheck that page before each release. We first recorded Applebot-Extended on March 17, 2026. Apple documents it on support.apple.com, and we recheck that page before each release.
Among the 104 AI and LLM crawlers in our database, Google-Extended sits eighth by priority (Tier 1), level with ChatGPT Agent, ChatGPT Operator, ChatGPT-User, ChatGPT-User/2.0. 81 of the 104 share its safe rating. On the Applebot-Extended side: Among the 63 search engines in our database, Applebot-Extended sits first by priority (Tier 2), alone in its tier. 1 of the 63 share its caution rating.
How top sites treat Google-Extended and Applebot-Extended
From our robots.txt study of the Tranco top 10,000 (5,583 valid files, fetched October 20, 2026):
Google-Extended, the most blocked of the Google-Extended and Applebot-Extended tokens: blocked in 13% of files (519 with its own group, 204 throughUser-agent: *), more often by the top 1,000 (18.6%) than the long tail (11.9%).Applebot-Extended, second of the Google-Extended and Applebot-Extended tokens: blocked in 12.4% of files (478 with its own group, 216 throughUser-agent: *), more often by the top 1,000 (17.6%) than the long tail (11.3%).
For scale, 20.1% of all files block at least one AI training crawler. Google-Extended is one of the tokens driving that figure.
More questions about Google-Extended and Applebot-Extended
- Can I allow one and block the other?
- Yes. Give each its own
User-agentgroup with its own rules. Each crawler reads only the group that names it. - Which of the two visits more often?
- It depends on your site, your audience and how often your content changes. Your access logs are the reliable answer; the commands above count both.
- How long until a change applies?
- Crawlers commonly cache robots.txt for up to a day, so allow about 24 hours and confirm in your logs.
- Do I need to update my rules when either operator launches a new crawler?
- Often, yes. A new token is not covered by rules written for the old ones. Check this comparison and both profiles periodically, or rerun the robots.txt AI crawler test after any announcement.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Google-Extended and Applebot-Extended?
Google-Extended is operated by Google (Google-Extended is not a crawler. It is a robots.txt token: disallowing it tells Google not to use content crawled by Googlebot for Gemini training and grounding.) while Applebot-Extended is operated by Apple (Applebot-Extended is not a crawler. It is a robots.txt token: disallowing it tells Apple not to use content crawled by Applebot to train Apple Intelligence models.). They use different user-agent strings (Google-Extended vs Applebot-Extended) and must be blocked separately in robots.txt.
Should I block Google-Extended or Applebot-Extended?
Google-Extended has the better safety profile (Safe) compared to Applebot-Extended (Caution). If you allow only one, Google-Extended is the lower-risk choice. Applebot-Extended warrants closer monitoring in your server logs, and server-level blocking if robots.txt directives are not respected.
Does blocking Google-Extended or Applebot-Extended hurt SEO?
Google-Extended: Low - No SEO ranking impact. Applebot-Extended: Critical - Blocking removes you from search results. Neither is a traditional search-ranking crawler, so blocking them does not affect Google or Bing rankings, but it may reduce your visibility in AI-generated answers.
How do I block both Google-Extended and Applebot-Extended?
Add both user-agent groups to your robots.txt: "User-agent: Google-Extended" with "Disallow: /" and "User-agent: Applebot-Extended" with "Disallow: /". Remember robots.txt is voluntary; combine with server-level rules for enforcement.
How to block each bot
Block Google-Extended in robots.txt
User-agent: Google-Extended Disallow: /
Block Applebot-Extended in robots.txt
User-agent: Applebot-Extended Disallow: /
Setting Google-Extended, Applebot-Extended and the rest in one go? Tick both in the robots.txt generator (265+ presets), then confirm the result with the AI crawler checker.
Are Google-Extended and Applebot-Extended allowed on YOUR site?
Run a free check to see exactly which AI crawlers can access your website, plus your AI Visibility Score.
Free AI Crawler Access Check