GPTBot vs Applebot-Extended: Which AI Crawler Should You Allow or Block?
Complete side-by-side comparison of GPTBot (OpenAI) and Applebot-Extended (Apple): user-agent strings, safety ratings, SEO impact, and copy-paste blocking rules. Updated August 2026.
Quick Verdict
GPTBot has the better safety profile (Safe) compared to Applebot-Extended (Caution). If you allow only one, GPTBot 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 | GPTBot | Applebot-Extended |
|---|---|---|
| Operator | OpenAI | Apple |
| User-agent string | GPTBot |
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 | GPTBot docs | Applebot-Extended docs |
What is GPTBot?
GPTBot is OpenAI's training crawler. The full profile covers the rest.
What is Applebot-Extended?
Applebot-Extended is not a crawler. The full profile covers the rest.
GPTBot vs Applebot-Extended by the numbers
GPTBot is a training crawler and Applebot-Extended is an opt-out token rather than a crawler. They do different jobs, so a sensible policy often treats them differently.
| Measure | GPTBot | Applebot-Extended |
|---|---|---|
| robots.txt token | GPTBot | Applebot-Extended |
| What it does | collects pages to train AI models | collects pages to train AI models |
| Crawler type | a training crawler | an opt-out token rather than a crawler |
| Priority tier | Tier 1 | Tier 2 |
| Follows robots.txt | Yes, per operator | Not applicable (token) |
| Top-10k robots.txt files | 1,008 named (18.1%), 859 blocked (15.4%) | 600 named (10.7%), 694 blocked (12.4%) |
| Blocked by top 1k / middle / tail | 20.4% / 15.5% / 14.5% | 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), GPTBot is blocked more often than Applebot-Extended: 859 files against 694. That gap shows many site owners already treat the two differently.
Writing rules for both
Because each crawler reads only the group that names it, you can give GPTBot 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: GPTBot
Disallow: /
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 AI bot access checker shows how each is treated on your live site.
Test yourself: if you write User-agent: GPTBot 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 GPTBot also block Applebot-Extended?
No. Each token is matched separately.
Which to allow, by goal
| Your goal | GPTBot | Applebot-Extended |
|---|---|---|
| You want AI answers to cite you | Optional | Allow |
| You want to stop AI training | Block | 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
Block GPTBot if you do not want your content used for training. Set Applebot-Extended to control how content is used, not whether it is fetched.
The rest of each operator's family
OpenAI also runs ChatGPT Agent, ChatGPT Operator, ChatGPT-User, ChatGPT-User/2.0, OAI-AdsBot. Rules for GPTBot 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 GPTBot and Applebot-Extended together
GPTBot is named in 18.1% of the top-site robots.txt files in our study and blocked in 15.4%; 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 GPTBot more often, which usually reflects a decision about training rather than about Applebot-Extended.
- They are different kinds of agent (a training crawler versus an opt-out token rather than a crawler), so the usual error is giving them the same rule out of habit. Blocking both to stop training only needs the GPTBot line; the other one changes something else entirely.
- They come from different operators (OpenAI 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: GPTBotandUser-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.
Why Applebot-Extended never shows up next to GPTBot in your logs
Applebot-Extended is a control token from Apple, not a crawler: nothing with that name ever requests a page. GPTBot is a a training crawler from OpenAI that does send requests, so it is the only one of the two you can count, verify or rate-limit.
- A firewall rule can act on GPTBot but not on Applebot-Extended. The token only works as a robots.txt line.
- Blocking Applebot-Extended does not slow Apple's crawling. It changes what Apple may do with pages its other crawlers already fetch.
- In our study of top sites, 12.4% block Applebot-Extended and 15.4% block GPTBot. Blocking the crawler is the more common choice here.
How GPTBot and Applebot-Extended moved in our latest scans
Between our scans of October 17, 2026 and October 20, 2026, files naming GPTBot went from 941 to 1,008 (+67) and files blocking it from 789 to 859 (+70), so more sites wrote a rule for GPTBot 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 GPTBot moved +70 files and blocking of Applebot-Extended moved +51. Owners are acting faster on GPTBot, which is the one to recheck first if you have not touched your file this month.
We first recorded GPTBot on March 17, 2026. OpenAI documents it on developers.openai.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.
Related: writing content AI engines can cite
Among the 104 AI and LLM crawlers in our database, GPTBot sits ninth 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 GPTBot and Applebot-Extended
From our robots.txt study of the Tranco top 10,000 (5,583 valid files, fetched October 20, 2026):
GPTBot, the most blocked of the GPTBot and Applebot-Extended tokens: blocked in 15.4% of files (663 with its own group, 196 throughUser-agent: *), more often by the top 1,000 (20.4%) than the long tail (14.5%).Applebot-Extended, second of the GPTBot 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. GPTBot is one of the tokens driving that figure.
More questions about GPTBot 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 AI crawler access test after any announcement.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between GPTBot and Applebot-Extended?
GPTBot is operated by OpenAI (GPTBot is OpenAI's training crawler. OpenAI says it crawls "content that may be used in training our generative AI foundation models".) 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 (GPTBot vs Applebot-Extended) and must be blocked separately in robots.txt.
Should I block GPTBot or Applebot-Extended?
GPTBot has the better safety profile (Safe) compared to Applebot-Extended (Caution). If you allow only one, GPTBot 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 GPTBot or Applebot-Extended hurt SEO?
GPTBot: 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 GPTBot and Applebot-Extended?
Add both user-agent groups to your robots.txt: "User-agent: GPTBot" 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 GPTBot in robots.txt
User-agent: GPTBot Disallow: /
Block Applebot-Extended in robots.txt
User-agent: Applebot-Extended Disallow: /
Setting GPTBot, 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.
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