Safe Official docs AI & LLM Bots

Kimi Search

Operated by Moonshot AI

Quick Facts

User-Agent:
Kimi-SearchBot
Category:
AI & LLM Bots
Operator:
Moonshot AI
Safety:
Safe
Blocking Impact:
Low - No SEO ranking impact
SEO Impact Score:
2/10
Official docs:
www.kimi.ai

Confirmed by the operator

Moonshot AI names Kimi-SearchBot on its own documentation page, linked above. The token, purpose and robots.txt behaviour on this profile come from that page, re-checked on September 22, 2026.

What is Kimi Search?

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

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

✅ No SEO Impact - Blocking Kimi Search does not affect your rankings in Google, Bing, or any other search engine. Kimi Search 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.

Want to see whether Kimi Search actually visits you? Read how do I monitor AI bot traffic to my website?

How to block Kimi Search with robots.txt

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

Block completely (robots.txt)
User-agent: Kimi-SearchBot Disallow: /
Allow all (robots.txt)
User-agent: Kimi-SearchBot Allow: /
Block private only (robots.txt)
User-agent: Kimi-SearchBot Disallow: /private/ Disallow: /api/ Disallow: /admin/ Allow: /
Nginx server block
# Nginx: Hard-block Kimi Search if ($http_user_agent ~* "Kimi-SearchBot") { return 403 "Bot blocked"; }
Apache .htaccess
# Apache: Hard-block Kimi Search SetEnvIfNoCase User-Agent "Kimi-SearchBot" bad_bot Order Allow,Deny Allow from all Deny from env=bad_bot
Meta robots tag
<meta name="robots" content="noindex, nofollow">
X-Robots-Tag header
X-Robots-Tag: noindex, nofollow

Is Kimi Search safe to allow?

Yes, Kimi Search is a safe and legitimate crawler operated by Moonshot AI. It follows the Robots Exclusion Protocol (RFC 9309) and can be controlled with standard robots.txt rules.
Verify by reverse-DNS lookup: legitimate Kimi Search requests resolve to Moonshot AI's domain.

What does Kimi Search do?

Understanding Kimi Search'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
  • Respects robots.txt directives

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the official user-agent string for Kimi Search?
The official user-agent string for Kimi Search is: Kimi-SearchBot. Use this exact string in robots.txt, Nginx, Apache, or Cloudflare firewall rules to target this bot. Matching in robots.txt is case-insensitive. Verify a request genuinely comes from Kimi Search by performing a reverse-DNS lookup on the source IP.
Is Kimi Search safe?
Yes, Kimi Search is a safe and legitimate crawler operated by Moonshot AI. It follows the Robots Exclusion Protocol (RFC 9309) and can be controlled with standard robots.txt rules.
Will blocking Kimi Search hurt my SEO?
✅ No SEO Impact - Blocking Kimi Search does not affect your rankings in Google, Bing, or any other search engine. Kimi Search 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 Kimi Search in robots.txt?
Add the following lines to your /robots.txt file:
User-agent: Kimi-SearchBot
Disallow: /

This instructs Kimi Search not to crawl any path on your site. To block only specific sections, replace / with the path (e.g., Disallow: /blog/).
Does Kimi Search respect robots.txt?
Kimi Search is operated by Moonshot AI and is expected to fetch and parse /robots.txt before crawling, following RFC 9309. For hard enforcement, combine robots.txt with server-level IP or user-agent blocking.
How do I verify if Kimi Search is crawling my site?
Search your web server access logs for the string Kimi-SearchBot (case-insensitive: grep -i "Kimi-SearchBot" /var/log/nginx/access.log). Filter by user-agent in your log analytics tool (GoAccess, AWStats, etc.).

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