AI ANSWER ENGINE

What is Apple Siri and Spotlight AI answers?

Listed in this research as “Apple Siri and Spotlight AI answers (Applebot)”.

Apple Siri and Spotlight AI answers is an AI answer engine run by Apple Inc. It is built on Apple's own Applebot crawl. On structured data, this research records the stance “Says it uses structured data”. Its pages do not limit it to listed countries.

Last checked November 10, 2026 · 3 sources, 1 of them could not be fetched

Type: AI answer engine
Run by: Apple Inc.
Results come from: Built on Apple's own Applebot crawl
Recorded markets: Not limited to listed countries in its pages
Where its AI chatbot share is highest: StatCounter does not track Apple Siri and Spotlight AI answers in its AI chatbot figures.
AI chatbot share, worldwide: StatCounter does not track Apple Siri and Spotlight AI answers in its AI chatbot figures.
Structured data formats: Documented: JSON-LD
Rich result types: 1 active of 1 on record

Who runs it

Run by Apple Inc.

support.apple.com/en-us/119829

Where does Apple Siri and Spotlight AI answers get its results?

Applebot's crawl powers search in Spotlight, Siri and Safari and supplies the context for AI-generated answers with source links^[1]. Same operator and crawler as Apple search; no syndication is described.

Engines and providers it names

Apple searchSame company
Built on Apple's own Applebot crawl^[1]
Conditions recorded: Same operator. The Applebot crawl that powers Spotlight, Siri and Safari search also supplies the context for AI-generated answers. No direct quote taken; paraphrased from the page.

Engines that use results from Apple Siri and Spotlight AI answers

The research records no engine that takes its general results from Apple Siri and Spotlight AI answers or is built on it by the same company.

Which countries use Apple Siri and Spotlight AI answers?

StatCounter does not track Apple Siri and Spotlight AI answers in its AI chatbot figures. None of the labels in its AI chatbot figures for October 2026 maps to Apple Siri and Spotlight AI answers in this research. StatCounter Global Stats

Recorded markets

The research records no country limit for Apple Siri and Spotlight AI answers: its pages do not limit it to listed countries.

Does Apple Siri and Spotlight AI answers use structured data?

Stance recordedSays it uses structured data

Apple says Applebot reads the schema.org isAccessibleForFree property in page-level JSON-LD, and that a page marked false is not used as context for AI-generated answers. This is the only structured data statement on the Applebot page.^[1]

Structured data formats for Apple Siri and Spotlight AI answers
Format	Documented support	What the research records
JSON-LD	Yes	The Applebot page says the schema.org property isAccessibleForFree is read from page-level JSON-LD to decide whether a page may be used as context for AI answers. No other use of JSON-LD is described.^[1]
Microdata	Not documented	Apple's 2016 archived guide shows microdata-style examples for Spotlight and Safari search^[2]. Nothing ties that markup to AI answers. See the Apple search page. Not documented is not the same as not supported.^[2]
RDFa	Not documented	Not mentioned on the Applebot page^[1]. Not documented is not the same as not supported.^[1]
Open Graph	Not documented	Named in Apple's 2016 archived guide for Spotlight and Safari search^[2], not on the Applebot page^[1]. Nothing ties it to AI answers. Not documented is not the same as not supported.^[2]
Microformats	Not documented	Not mentioned on the Applebot page^[1]. Not documented is not the same as not supported.^[1]
Twitter Cards	Not documented	Named in Apple's 2016 archived guide only as a deep-link option^[2]. Nothing ties it to AI answers. Not documented is not the same as not supported.^[2]

“Not documented” means the pages read do not say; it does not mean the format is ignored.

Which rich results can Apple Siri and Spotlight AI answers show?

The research records 1 rich result type for Apple Siri and Spotlight AI answers: 1 active. Each entry shows the schema.org types it is documented for, where the research records them. Valid markup can make a page eligible; it does not guarantee the result.

Active 1

Paywalled content signal for AI context (isAccessibleForFree) Active
Documented for: no schema.org type recorded
Required: isAccessibleForFree
Where: not stated
Formats: JSON-LD
Page-level markup only; section-level hasPart is not supported. A page marked false stays eligible for search results but is not used as context for AI-generated answers. Apple's example carries no @type, so no schema.org type is recorded. Also recorded on the Apple search page.
Documentation^[1]

How does Apple Siri and Spotlight AI answers crawl the web?

The research lists 2 crawler tokens for Apple Siri and Spotlight AI answers: the names a site uses in robots.txt rules, with what each one does where the source says.

Applebot
Apple's crawler. Its data powers search in Spotlight, Siri and Safari, supplies context for AI-generated answers and may be used to train Apple foundation models. Identified by reverse DNS in the *.applebot.apple.com domain or by published CIDR ranges; the page gives no single user agent string. follows robots.txt.^[1]
Applebot-Extended
Robots.txt token that does not crawl. Disallowing it opts a site out of training Apple's generative AI foundation models. It has no effect on inclusion or ranking in search. A control token that does not crawl.^[1]

How do I test my markup for Apple Siri and Spotlight AI answers?

The research records no markup testing tool of its own for Apple Siri and Spotlight AI answers.

Inject the World

Test a page for Apple Siri and Spotlight AI answers

See what the research records for Apple Siri and Spotlight AI answers against the structured data on your page.

Test a page

What does Apple Siri and Spotlight AI answers ask of site owners?

Guidelines

robots.txt: Applebot respects Allow and Disallow rules that name it. When a robots.txt file has no Applebot rules but has Googlebot rules, Applebot follows the Googlebot rules. Crawl-delay is not followed.^[1]
meta robots: Supported values: noindex, nosnippet, nofollow, none and all. nosnippet also keeps the page out of AI context. Applebot-specific meta tags are supported, and so is the header form, for example X-Robots-Tag: applebot: nosnippet.^[1]
ai training opt-out: A robots.txt Disallow rule for Applebot-Extended opts content out of training Apple's generative AI foundation models. Pages that disallow it can still appear in search results.^[1]
structured data: Setting isAccessibleForFree to false in page-level JSON-LD marks paywalled, metered or subscription content. The page stays eligible for search but is not used as AI context.^[1]
rendering: Applebot may render pages in a browser. Blocking JavaScript, CSS or XHR resources in robots.txt can prevent proper rendering.^[1]
verification: Applebot traffic is identified by reverse DNS in the *.applebot.apple.com domain or by matching published CIDR ranges.^[1]
legacy markup: Apple's 2016 archived guide lists markup for Spotlight and Safari search under the labels AggregateRating, Offers, PriceRange, InteractionCount, Organization, Recipe, SearchAction and ImageObject. The guide predates AI answers and current behaviour is not confirmed. Details are on the Apple search page.^[2]

What could not be verified?

These claims about Apple Siri and Spotlight AI answers came up in the research, but no page that could be read confirms them. They are kept apart, and nothing above rests on them.

Apple's App Search API validation tool is still available for checking markup.
Why it is open: The tool page was not served. A redirect is not proof that the tool was removed.
How it was checked
Fetched the tool URL^[3]. The server answered with a 307 redirect to https://developer.apple.com/, which was not followed.
Apple uses schema.org types other than the isAccessibleForFree property when it composes AI answers.
Why it is open: Not documented either way.
How it was checked
Read the Applebot page^[1] and the 2016 archived guide^[2]. The Applebot page names only isAccessibleForFree; the 2016 guide predates AI answers.

Sources

The pages the research used for Apple Siri and Spotlight AI answers, numbered as cited above. Accessed November 10, 2026 unless shown.

1.About Applebot · Apple · updated September 4, 2026
2.Mark Up Web Content (App Search Programming Guide, Apple Documentation Archive) · Apple · updated December 15, 2016
3.search.developer.apple.com/appsearch-validation-tool (title not captured; 307 redirect to https://developer.apple.com/, not followed; the tool page was not served) · AppleCould not be fetched

Market share figures: StatCounter Global Stats, AI chatbot market share, October 2026, licensed CC BY-SA 3.0.