AddSearch AI
Operated by AddSearch
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
Reported, not operator documented
AddSearch has not published a crawler page that names AddSearchBot. It is listed here on our own evidence. Verified by AI Crawler Check: 66 of the 5,583 valid robots.txt files in the Tranco top 10,000 carry a rule for AddSearchBot, so site owners treat it as a real crawler name (how we measure this). That proves the spelling is in use, not who sends it. Reported AddSearch indexer. No vendor UA page.
What that means for you: the AddSearchBot rule on this page is the best available spelling, but AddSearch has made no statement of purpose, crawl rate or robots.txt compliance. Treat a AddSearchBot request in your logs as a clue, not proof of who sent it, and add a firewall rule if that 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?
User-agent / Disallow: / without any SEO penalty.Want to see whether AddSearch AI actually visits you? Read how do I monitor AI bot traffic to my website?
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.
Is AddSearch AI safe to allow?
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
AddSearch AI in context
AddSearch AI is a retrieval crawler that feeds AI search answers operated by AddSearch. In plain terms, it builds a search or answer index. Our database files it under AI and LLM crawlers and ranks it Tier 2, important crawlers from established AI and search operators. 74 of the 104 AI and LLM crawlers in our database share this tier.
Its safety rating is safe and its blocking impact is low. So the decision about AddSearch AI rests on what you want from AddSearch, not on its behaviour. How we rate safety and impact.
How site owners treat AddSearch AI
In our own scan of the Tranco top 10,000 (5,583 valid robots.txt files), 66 files (1.2%) name AddSearchBot in a User-agent line. That shows site owners treat the token as a real crawler worth a rule. It does not, on its own, prove who operates it.
Does it follow robots.txt?
AddSearch AI's operator does not clearly document how it treats robots.txt. Write the AddSearch AI rule anyway, then confirm in your logs that its requests stop.
AddSearch crawlers and close alternatives
AddSearch runs only this one crawler in our database, so a single User-agent: AddSearchBot group controls everything AddSearch fetches through it.
Other AI and LLM crawlers that do the same job (builds a search or answer index) include AIWebIndex from Lyrenth, atlassian-bot from Atlassian, AzureAI-SearchBot from Microsoft, Cloudflare-AI-Search from Cloudflare, Cloudflare-AutoRAG from Cloudflare, ExaBot from Exa. Deciding about AddSearch AI is usually a decision about the whole group, so check how your file treats these too.
We first recorded AddSearchBot on June 18, 2026. We could not find a page where AddSearch names it, so treat the token as reported rather than documented.
Which rule AddSearch AI actually follows
AddSearch AI reads exactly one group in robots.txt, the most specific one that names AddSearchBot, and never combines rules across groups. This short file shows the trap:
User-agent: *
Disallow: /private/
User-agent: AddSearchBot
Disallow: /drafts/- Find the group. AddSearch AI looks for a group naming
AddSearchBot. One exists, so it ignoresUser-agent: *completely. - Apply only that group. It is refused
/drafts/and nothing else. - The surprise.
/private/is open to AddSearch AI, because that rule lives in the*group it no longer reads. To keep it out of both, repeatDisallow: /private/inside its own group.
Test yourself: does a rule under User-agent: * apply to AddSearch AI if the file also has a User-agent: AddSearchBot group?
No. Once a group names it, AddSearch AI reads only that group. Put every rule you want it to follow inside its own group.
Test yourself: will blocking AddSearch AI remove your pages from AI answers?
Often, yes. AddSearch AI is a retrieval crawler that feeds AI search answers, so pages it cannot fetch can drop out of the answers or results it supports.
Test yourself: is User-agent: addsearchbot the same as User-agent: AddSearchBot?
Yes. RFC 9309 makes user-agent matching case-insensitive. Paths are a different story: Disallow: /Blog/ does not block /blog/.
Should you allow AddSearch AI? Decide by situation
| If you are... | Recommended setting |
|---|---|
| You publish content and want AI answers to cite it | Allow it. AddSearch AI fetches pages for answers, so blocking it can remove you from them. |
| You license content and want to stop AI training | Blocking it does not stop training, because AddSearch AI is a retrieval crawler that feeds AI search answers. Block the operator's training crawler instead. |
| You run an online shop | Allow it on product and category pages, which are the pages shoppers ask assistants about. |
| Your server is under load from bots | Rate-limit before blocking. It is rated safe in our database. |
Check AddSearch AI on your own site
- Open
/robots.txton your domain and search forAddSearchBot. If it is not named, it followsUser-agent: *. - List the
Disallowlines in the group AddSearch AI follows and test your key URLs against them; the longest match wins, andAllowwins a tie. - Look beyond the file. A firewall or bot manager can refuse AddSearch AI even when robots.txt allows it, and that never shows in the file.
- Run our website crawlability test to see how AddSearch AI and every other crawler we track are treated in one pass, including firewall refusals.
Common mistakes with AddSearch AI
The errors we see most often with AddSearch AI in the files and firewalls we test:
- Blocking AddSearch AI while trying to stop AI training. Retrieval crawlers fetch pages so answers can cite them; blocking it can remove you from those answers without affecting training.
- Letting a firewall or bot-fight mode refuse AddSearch AI while robots.txt allows it. The file looks right, but the crawler still gets a 403 or a challenge page.
- Forgetting that once a
User-agent: AddSearchBotgroup exists, AddSearch AI ignores every rule underUser-agent: *.
All three hide inside a file that looks correct, so check AddSearch AI from outside after every change.
Spotting AddSearch AI in your logs
robots.txt says what AddSearch AI may do; your access logs show what it actually did.
Count requests
On a server with standard Nginx or Apache logs, this counts matching requests per day (adjust the log path for your host):
grep -iE "AddSearchBot" /var/log/nginx/access.log \
| awk '{print $4}' | cut -d: -f1 | sort | uniq -cAnd this shows which paths it requested most, which is the quickest way to see whether your Disallow lines are being respected:
grep -iE "AddSearchBot" /var/log/nginx/access.log \
| awk '{print $7}' | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn | head -20Check the requests are genuine
Anyone can send the AddSearch AI user-agent, so confirm the source before acting on a match:
AddSearchBot: we hold no published IP list, so use reverse DNS where the operator documents a hostname and treat an unverifiable AddSearch AI request with caution.
Frequently Asked Questions
What user-agent string does AddSearch AI use?
AddSearchBot. Evidence that the spelling is in real use comes from our own robots.txt study: 66 of the 5,583 valid robots.txt files in the Tranco top 10,000 name it (fetched October 20, 2026), 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?
Will blocking AddSearch AI hurt my SEO?
User-agent / Disallow: / without any SEO penalty.How do I block AddSearch AI in robots.txt?
/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?
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?
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.