AddSearch AI: User Agent, robots.txt Rules & Safety Rating

Q: What user-agent string does AddSearch AI use?

AddSearch AI is reported to identify itself with AddSearchBot. That spelling comes from ai.robots.txt, not from AddSearch, which has not published crawler documentation naming it. Use it in robots.txt as the best available match, and treat a request carrying it as a clue rather than proof of who sent it.

Q: Is AddSearch AI safe?

AddSearch AI is rated Safe in this directory, meaning there are no credible public reports of abusive crawling under this name. It is a Reported token: AddSearch has not published documentation for it, so its purpose, crawl rate and robots.txt behaviour are not confirmed by the operator, and anyone can send the same user-agent string. Allow or block it on its stated purpose, and back the robots.txt rule with a firewall rule if the traffic matters to you.

Q: Will blocking AddSearch AI hurt my SEO?

✅ No SEO Impact - Blocking AddSearch AI does not affect your rankings in Google, Bing, or any other search engine. AddSearch AI is an AI crawler, not a traditional search indexer. You can freely block it via User-agent / Disallow: / without any SEO penalty.

Q: How do I block AddSearch AI in robots.txt?

Add the following lines to your /robots.txt file: User-agent: AddSearchBot Disallow: / This instructs AddSearch AI not to crawl any path on your site. To block only specific sections, replace / with the path (e.g., Disallow: /blog/).

Q: How do I verify if AddSearch AI is crawling my site?

Search your access logs for AddSearchBot (for example grep -i "AddSearchBot" /var/log/nginx/access.log). Because the operator publishes no IP ranges or reverse-DNS pattern, a match shows that something used the name, not that AddSearch sent it.

Quick Facts

User-Agent:: AddSearchBot
Category:: AI & LLM Bots
Operator:: AddSearch
Safety:: Safe
Blocking Impact:: Low - No SEO ranking impact
SEO Impact Score:: 2/10
Official docs:: None published by AddSearch
Named by:: ai.robots.txt

Reported, not operator documented

AddSearch has not published a crawler page that names AddSearchBot. It is listed here because a credible public source does: ai.robots.txt. Reported AddSearch indexer. No vendor UA page.

What that means for you: the robots.txt rule on this page is the best available spelling, and a well-behaved crawler using this string will honour it, but there is no vendor statement of purpose, crawl rate or robots.txt compliance to rely on. Treat a matching request in your logs as a detection clue, not proof of who sent it, and combine the rule with a firewall rule if the traffic matters to you. If the operator publishes documentation, this profile moves to Official docs.

What is AddSearch AI?

AddSearch AI is an AI search-index crawler operated by AddSearch. It collects and indexes web content so it can be surfaced as citations or answers inside AddSearch's AI search experience. Allowing AddSearch AI can increase your visibility in AI-powered search results, which is why most sites choose to permit it.

AddSearch AI is an AI search-index crawler operated by AddSearch. It collects and indexes web content so it can be surfaced as citations or answers inside AddSearch's AI search experience. Allowing AddSearch AI can increase your visibility in AI-powered search results, which is why most sites choose to permit it.
AddSearch AI uses the user-agent token AddSearchBot. You can control it via robots.txt, meta tags (noai), or the emerging llms.txt standard. Robots.txt is voluntary; for hard enforcement, combine it with server-level IP blocking.

What happens if you block AddSearch AI?

✅ No SEO Impact - Blocking AddSearch AI does not affect your rankings in Google, Bing, or any other search engine. AddSearch AI is an AI crawler, not a traditional search indexer. You can freely block it via User-agent / Disallow: / without any SEO penalty.

Generally safe to allow; provides legitimate crawling value.

How to block AddSearch AI with robots.txt

<code>User-agent: AddSearchBot</code> - Matching is case-insensitive. Robots.txt is fetched from the root of each subdomain separately.

Block completely (robots.txt)

User-agent: AddSearchBot
Disallow: /

Allow all (robots.txt)

User-agent: AddSearchBot
Allow: /

Block private only (robots.txt)

User-agent: AddSearchBot
Disallow: /private/
Disallow: /api/
Disallow: /admin/
Allow: /

Nginx server block

# Nginx: Hard-block AddSearch AI
if ($http_user_agent ~* "AddSearchBot") {
    return 403 "Bot blocked";
}

Apache .htaccess

# Apache: Hard-block AddSearch AI
SetEnvIfNoCase User-Agent "AddSearchBot" bad_bot
Order Allow,Deny
Allow from all
Deny from env=bad_bot

Meta robots tag

X-Robots-Tag header

X-Robots-Tag: noindex, nofollow

Is AddSearch AI safe to allow?

AddSearch AI is rated Safe in this directory, meaning there are no credible public reports of abusive crawling under this name. It is a Reported token: AddSearch has not published documentation for it, so its purpose, crawl rate and robots.txt behaviour are not confirmed by the operator, and anyone can send the same user-agent string. Allow or block it on its stated purpose, and back the robots.txt rule with a firewall rule if the traffic matters to you.

AddSearch publishes no IP ranges or reverse-DNS pattern for AddSearch AI, so the user-agent string cannot be verified. Rate-limit unusual volume instead of trusting the name.

What does AddSearch AI do?

Understanding AddSearch AI's purpose helps you decide whether to allow or block it.

Indexes web pages for AI-powered search answers
Surfaces your content as citations inside AI search results
Builds a knowledge index used to answer user questions
Allowing it can increase visibility in AI search
robots.txt behaviour not documented by the operator

Frequently Asked Questions

What user-agent string does AddSearch AI use?

AddSearch AI is reported to identify itself with AddSearchBot. That spelling comes from ai.robots.txt, not from AddSearch, which has not published crawler documentation naming it. Use it in robots.txt as the best available match, and treat a request carrying it as a clue rather than proof of who sent it.

Is AddSearch AI safe?

AddSearch AI is rated Safe in this directory, meaning there are no credible public reports of abusive crawling under this name. It is a Reported token: AddSearch has not published documentation for it, so its purpose, crawl rate and robots.txt behaviour are not confirmed by the operator, and anyone can send the same user-agent string. Allow or block it on its stated purpose, and back the robots.txt rule with a firewall rule if the traffic matters to you.

Will blocking AddSearch AI hurt my SEO?

✅ No SEO Impact - Blocking AddSearch AI does not affect your rankings in Google, Bing, or any other search engine. AddSearch AI is an AI crawler, not a traditional search indexer. You can freely block it via User-agent / Disallow: / without any SEO penalty.

How do I block AddSearch AI in robots.txt?

Add the following lines to your /robots.txt file:

User-agent: AddSearchBot
Disallow: /

This instructs AddSearch AI not to crawl any path on your site. To block only specific sections, replace / with the path (e.g., Disallow: /blog/).

Does AddSearch AI respect robots.txt?

Not documented. AddSearch has published no statement that AddSearch AI reads robots.txt. A rule for AddSearchBot will stop a client that chooses to honour it; for enforcement, add a firewall or CDN rule as well.

How do I verify if AddSearch AI is crawling my site?

Search your access logs for AddSearchBot (for example grep -i "AddSearchBot" /var/log/nginx/access.log). Because the operator publishes no IP ranges or reverse-DNS pattern, a match shows that something used the name, not that AddSearch sent it.