Amzn-SearchBot (Amazon): User Agent & robots.txt Block Rules

Q: What is the official user-agent string for Amzn-SearchBot?

The official user-agent string for Amzn-SearchBot is: Amzn-SearchBot . This is the exact string you must use in robots.txt, Nginx, Apache, or Cloudflare firewall rules to target this bot. User-agent matching in robots.txt is case-insensitive, but the string must be spelled correctly. You can verify that a request genuinely comes from Amzn-SearchBot by performing a reverse-DNS lookup on the source IP - legitimate bots resolve back to their operator's domain.

Q: Is Amzn-SearchBot safe?

Yes, Amzn-SearchBot is a safe and legitimate crawler. It is operated by Amazon, which publicly documents its crawler at an official URL and follows the Robots Exclusion Protocol (RFC 9309). The user-agent string Amzn-SearchBot is verifiable via reverse-DNS lookup on the crawling IP addresses. You can safely allow it unless you have a specific reason to block (e.g., AI training opt-out or SEO tool visibility).

Q: Will blocking Amzn-SearchBot hurt my SEO?

⛔ Critical Impact - Blocking Amzn-SearchBot will stop Amazon from crawling and indexing your pages. Within days or weeks you may see pages drop out of Amazon's search index entirely, resulting in a significant loss of organic search traffic. This is the most severe possible SEO consequence. Only do this intentionally, for example if you are migrating to a different search engine or decommissioning a domain. If you accidentally blocked Amzn-SearchBot, remove the rule immediately and request re-indexing via Amazon's webmaster tools.

Q: How do I block Amzn-SearchBot in robots.txt?

Add the following lines to your /robots.txt file: User-agent: Amzn-SearchBot Disallow: / This instructs Amzn-SearchBot not to crawl any path on your site. The Disallow: / directive covers the entire domain including subfolders. To only block specific sections, replace / with the path (e.g., Disallow: /blog/ ). Note: robots.txt is publicly readable - any bot or human can inspect it at yourdomain.com/robots.txt .

Q: How do I verify if Amzn-SearchBot is crawling my site?

Search your web server access logs for the string Amzn-SearchBot (case-insensitive grep: grep -i "Amzn-SearchBot" /var/log/nginx/access.log ). You can also check Google Search Console → Coverage → Crawl Stats for Googlebot variants. For Amzn-SearchBot specifically, filter by user-agent in your log analysis tool (GoAccess, AWStats, etc.).

Quick Facts

User-Agent:: Amzn-SearchBot
Category:: Search Engines
Operator:: Amazon
Safety:: Safe
Blocking Impact:: Critical - Blocking removes you from search results
SEO Impact Score:: 10/10
Official docs:: developer.amazon.com

Confirmed by the operator

Amazon names Amzn-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 October 19, 2026.

What is Amzn-SearchBot?

Amazon's search crawler, specifically used for ensuring product visibility in Amazon's ecosystem (e.g., Rufus). Blocking this can de-index products from Amazon search.

Amazon's search crawler, specifically used for ensuring product visibility in Amazon's ecosystem (e.g., Rufus). Blocking this can de-index products from Amazon search.
Amzn-SearchBot is a production-grade search engine crawler operated by Amazon. It uses a distributed crawl infrastructure that respects crawl-delay directives, follows RFC 9309 (robots.txt) spec, and processes Sitemaps to prioritise fresh content. The user-agent string Amzn-SearchBot must be whitelisted if your site uses rate-limiting or WAF rules. Blocking impact is Critical - Blocking removes you from search results.

What happens if you block Amzn-SearchBot?

⛔ Critical Impact - Blocking Amzn-SearchBot will stop Amazon from crawling and indexing your pages. Within days or weeks you may see pages drop out of Amazon's search index entirely, resulting in a significant loss of organic search traffic. This is the most severe possible SEO consequence. Only do this intentionally, for example if you are migrating to a different search engine or decommissioning a domain. If you accidentally blocked Amzn-SearchBot, remove the rule immediately and request re-indexing via Amazon's webmaster tools.

Never block - it will remove your site from major search results.

How to block Amzn-SearchBot with robots.txt

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

Block completely (robots.txt)

User-agent: Amzn-SearchBot
Disallow: /

Allow all (robots.txt)

User-agent: Amzn-SearchBot
Allow: /

Block private only (robots.txt)

User-agent: Amzn-SearchBot
Disallow: /private/
Disallow: /api/
Disallow: /admin/
Allow: /

Nginx server block

# Nginx: Hard-block Amzn-SearchBot if ($http_user_agent ~* "Amzn\-SearchBot") { return 403 "Bot blocked"; }

Apache .htaccess

# Apache: Hard-block Amzn-SearchBot
SetEnvIfNoCase User-Agent "Amzn\-SearchBot" 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 Amzn-SearchBot safe to allow?

Yes, Amzn-SearchBot is a safe and legitimate crawler. It is operated by Amazon, which publicly documents its crawler at an official URL and follows the Robots Exclusion Protocol (RFC 9309). The user-agent string Amzn-SearchBot is verifiable via reverse-DNS lookup on the crawling IP addresses. You can safely allow it unless you have a specific reason to block (e.g., AI training opt-out or SEO tool visibility).

Verify by reverse-DNS lookup: legitimate Amzn-SearchBot requests resolve to amazon's domain.

What does Amzn-SearchBot do?

Understanding Amzn-SearchBot's purpose helps you decide whether to allow or block it.

Crawls and indexes web pages for search results
Discovers new and updated content on your website
Analyzes page structure, content, and links for ranking
Renders JavaScript to understand dynamic content
Checks for mobile-friendliness and page speed

Amzn-SearchBot in context

Amzn-SearchBot is a search engine crawler operated by Amazon. In plain terms, it builds a search or answer index. Our database files it under search engines and ranks it Tier 3, mid-priority crawlers with a clear purpose but a smaller audience. 62 of the 63 search engines in our database share this tier.

Its safety rating is safe and its blocking impact is critical. So Amzn-SearchBot is both well behaved and costly to lose: the strongest case for allowing it. How we rate safety and impact.

How site owners treat Amzn-SearchBot

Our robots.txt study of the Tranco top 10,000 did not track Amzn-SearchBot as a named token, so we do not publish an adoption figure for it. If you run a large site, your own logs are the best evidence of how often it visits.

Does it follow robots.txt?

Amzn-SearchBot's operator says it follows robots.txt, so a correctly written Amzn-SearchBot group is enough to control it.

Amazon crawlers and close alternatives

Amzn-SearchBot is one of 8 Amazon crawlers in our database. A User-agent: Amzn-SearchBot group controls Amzn-SearchBot only; the other Amazon tokens below need their own lines.

Amzn-SearchBot: this crawler (Tier 3)
Amazon Kendra: Amazon Kendra, harvests pages for a dataset or data product (Tier 6)
amazon-QBusiness: Amazon Q Business, builds a search or answer index (Tier 3)
Amazonbot: Amazon Nova AI, collects pages to train AI models (Tier 2)
AmazonBuyForMe: Amazon Buy For Me, fetches a page when a person asks an assistant or app to open it (Tier 2)
Amzn-User: Amazon User Agent, fetches a page when a person asks an assistant or app to open it (Tier 2)
bedrockbot: AWS Bedrock Bot, collects pages to train AI models (Tier 2)
NovaAct: Amazon Nova Act, harvests pages for a dataset or data product (Tier 2)

To give Amzn-SearchBot the same answer as its siblings, stack User-agent: Amzn-SearchBot with their lines above one set of rules; to treat Amzn-SearchBot differently, give it its own group.

Other search engines that do the same job (builds a search or answer index) include Applebot from Apple, baidu from Baidu, Baiduspider from Baidu, Baiduspider-favo from Baidu, Baiduspider-image from Baidu, Baiduspider-news from Baidu. Deciding about Amzn-SearchBot is usually a decision about the whole group, so check how your file treats these too.

We first recorded Amzn-SearchBot on March 17, 2026. Amazon documents it on developer.amazon.com, and we recheck that page before each release.

Which rule Amzn-SearchBot actually follows

Amzn-SearchBot reads exactly one group in robots.txt, the most specific one that names Amzn-SearchBot, and never combines rules across groups. This short file shows the trap:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /private/

User-agent: Amzn-SearchBot
Disallow: /drafts/

Find the group. Amzn-SearchBot looks for a group naming Amzn-SearchBot. One exists, so it ignores User-agent: * completely.
Apply only that group. It is refused /drafts/ and nothing else.
The surprise. /private/ is open to Amzn-SearchBot, because that rule lives in the * group it no longer reads. To keep it out of both, repeat Disallow: /private/ inside its own group.

Test yourself: does a rule under User-agent: * apply to Amzn-SearchBot if the file also has a User-agent: Amzn-SearchBot group?

No. Once a group names it, Amzn-SearchBot reads only that group. Put every rule you want it to follow inside its own group.

Test yourself: will blocking Amzn-SearchBot remove your pages from AI answers?

Often, yes. Amzn-SearchBot is a search engine crawler, so pages it cannot fetch can drop out of the answers or results it supports.

Test yourself: is User-agent: amzn-searchbot the same as User-agent: Amzn-SearchBot?

Yes. RFC 9309 makes user-agent matching case-insensitive. Paths are a different story: Disallow: /Blog/ does not block /blog/.

Should you allow Amzn-SearchBot? Decide by situation

Recommended setting for Amzn-SearchBot by type of site
If you are...	Recommended setting
You publish content and want AI answers to cite it	Allow it. It is how this search engine finds your pages.
You license content and want to stop AI training	Blocking it does not stop training, because Amzn-SearchBot is a search engine crawler. Block the operator's training crawler instead.
You run an online shop	Allow it unless it is overloading your servers.
Your server is under load from bots	Rate-limit before blocking. It is rated safe in our database.

Check Amzn-SearchBot on your own site

Open /robots.txt on your domain and search for Amzn-SearchBot. If it is not named, it follows User-agent: *.
List the Disallow lines in the group Amzn-SearchBot follows and test your key URLs against them; the longest match wins, and Allow wins a tie.
Look beyond the file. A firewall or bot manager can refuse Amzn-SearchBot even when robots.txt allows it, and that never shows in the file.
Run our AI search visibility check to see how Amzn-SearchBot and every other crawler we track are treated in one pass, including firewall refusals.

Common mistakes with Amzn-SearchBot

The errors we see most often with Amzn-SearchBot in the files and firewalls we test:

Blocking Amzn-SearchBot to save bandwidth and then wondering why pages drop out of that search engine. Use crawl-rate settings or caching first.
Writing a User-agent: Amzn-SearchBot group to add one rule for Amzn-SearchBot and accidentally dropping every rule it used to follow under User-agent: *.
Disallowing CSS and JavaScript folders, which can stop Amzn-SearchBot rendering your pages properly.

All three hide inside a file that looks correct, so check Amzn-SearchBot from outside after every change.

Spotting Amzn-SearchBot in your logs

robots.txt says what Amzn-SearchBot 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 "Amzn-SearchBot" /var/log/nginx/access.log \
  | awk '{print $4}' | cut -d: -f1 | sort | uniq -c

And this shows which paths it requested most, which is the quickest way to see whether your Disallow lines are being respected:

grep -iE "Amzn-SearchBot" /var/log/nginx/access.log \
  | awk '{print $7}' | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn | head -20

Check the requests are genuine

Anyone can send the Amzn-SearchBot user-agent, so confirm the source before acting on a match:

Amzn-SearchBot: we hold no published IP list, so use reverse DNS where the operator documents a hostname and treat an unverifiable Amzn-SearchBot request with caution.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the official user-agent string for Amzn-SearchBot?

The official user-agent string for Amzn-SearchBot is: Amzn-SearchBot. This is the exact string you must use in robots.txt, Nginx, Apache, or Cloudflare firewall rules to target this bot. User-agent matching in robots.txt is case-insensitive, but the string must be spelled correctly. You can verify that a request genuinely comes from Amzn-SearchBot by performing a reverse-DNS lookup on the source IP - legitimate bots resolve back to their operator's domain.

Is Amzn-SearchBot safe?

Yes, Amzn-SearchBot is a safe and legitimate crawler. It is operated by Amazon, which publicly documents its crawler at an official URL and follows the Robots Exclusion Protocol (RFC 9309). The user-agent string Amzn-SearchBot is verifiable via reverse-DNS lookup on the crawling IP addresses. You can safely allow it unless you have a specific reason to block (e.g., AI training opt-out or SEO tool visibility).

Will blocking Amzn-SearchBot hurt my SEO?

⛔ Critical Impact - Blocking Amzn-SearchBot will stop Amazon from crawling and indexing your pages. Within days or weeks you may see pages drop out of Amazon's search index entirely, resulting in a significant loss of organic search traffic. This is the most severe possible SEO consequence. Only do this intentionally, for example if you are migrating to a different search engine or decommissioning a domain. If you accidentally blocked Amzn-SearchBot, remove the rule immediately and request re-indexing via Amazon's webmaster tools.

How do I block Amzn-SearchBot in robots.txt?

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

User-agent: Amzn-SearchBot
Disallow: /

This instructs Amzn-SearchBot not to crawl any path on your site. The Disallow: / directive covers the entire domain including subfolders. To only block specific sections, replace / with the path (e.g., Disallow: /blog/). Note: robots.txt is publicly readable - any bot or human can inspect it at yourdomain.com/robots.txt.

Does Amzn-SearchBot respect robots.txt?

Yes - Amzn-SearchBot is a well-behaved bot operated by Amazon. It fetches and parses /robots.txt before crawling any page, following RFC 9309.

How do I verify if Amzn-SearchBot is crawling my site?

Search your web server access logs for the string Amzn-SearchBot (case-insensitive grep: grep -i "Amzn-SearchBot" /var/log/nginx/access.log). You can also check Google Search Console → Coverage → Crawl Stats for Googlebot variants. For Amzn-SearchBot specifically, filter by user-agent in your log analysis tool (GoAccess, AWStats, etc.).

What is the crawl frequency of Amzn-SearchBot?

Critical-impact search crawlers like Amzn-SearchBot typically crawl popular pages daily and less popular pages weekly. You can manage crawl rate via the crawl-delay directive or via the search console.

Can I block Amzn-SearchBot from specific pages only?

Yes. Instead of a global Disallow: / you can restrict Amzn-SearchBot to specific paths:

User-agent: Amzn-SearchBot
Disallow: /private/
Disallow: /staging/
Allow: /

This allows Amzn-SearchBot everywhere except the listed paths. Path matching in robots.txt uses prefix matching - Disallow: /private/ blocks /private/page.html but NOT /public/private/.

How do I check if Amzn-SearchBot is blocked by my robots.txt?

Use Google's robots.txt Tester in Search Console, or a third-party checker to simulate a Amzn-SearchBot request. You can also manually check by opening https://aicrawlercheck.com/robots.txt and scanning for Amzn-SearchBot entries. If a block exists, immediately test it against your most important URLs using the Google Search Console URL Inspection tool.

My site is blocked by Amzn-SearchBot in Search Console - what do I do?

1. Open yourdomain.com/robots.txt and look for any User-agent: Amzn-SearchBot or User-agent: * Disallow rules covering your key pages.
2. Remove or restrict the blocking rules.
3. Validate via Google Search Console → robots.txt Tester.
4. Request re-indexing using the URL Inspection tool.
5. Wait 1-2 weeks for re-crawl. Monitor Coverage report for recovery.