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AmazonSearch indexing

Amzn-SearchBot

Amzn-SearchBot is a crawler run by Amazon. It indexes the web for Alexa and Amazon search experiences.

What it does

Amzn-SearchBot crawls pages to build the search index an AI platform answers from. Most operators use a separate user agent for each job, so you can usually allow or block one without affecting the others.

Crawlers that build search indexes used by AI platforms. Access supports discovery but does not guarantee a listing or citation.

User agent

Amzn-SearchBot

Requests from Amzn-SearchBot carry this token in their user agent string. Match the token rather than a full string, which changes as Amazon updates versions.

robots.txt

To block Amzn-SearchBot, add this to the robots.txt at the root of your site:

User-agent: Amzn-SearchBot Disallow: /

Blocking it keeps your pages out of that index, so the platform has less of your content to find and cite. Allowing it makes your pages eligible, not guaranteed, to appear in answers.

To allow it explicitly, for example after a broader rule blocks other crawlers:

User-agent: Amzn-SearchBot Allow: /

Check what your robots.txt allows for Amzn-SearchBot and the other AI crawlers in this directory.

Verifying requests

Amazon publishes the IP addresses Amzn-SearchBot uses. A request that claims to be Amzn-SearchBot from any other address is not genuine.

In SurfacedBy

SurfacedBy's AI traffic tracking recognizes Amzn-SearchBot in the user agent and checks each request against Amazon's published addresses. Only requests that pass count as crawls; the rest are shown separately.

Operator documentation

Details on this page come from Amazon's own documentation: developer.amazon.com/amazonbot.

More from Amazon

Common Questions

What is Amzn-SearchBot?
Amzn-SearchBot is a crawler run by Amazon. It indexes the web for Alexa and Amazon search experiences.
How do I block Amzn-SearchBot in robots.txt?
Add a group for Amzn-SearchBot with "Disallow: /" to the robots.txt at the root of your site. Blocking it keeps your pages out of that index, so the platform has less of your content to find and cite. Allowing it makes your pages eligible, not guaranteed, to appear in answers.
How can I tell if a request is really Amzn-SearchBot?
Amazon publishes the IP addresses Amzn-SearchBot uses. A request that claims to be Amzn-SearchBot from any other address is not genuine.