What is Amzn-User? Amazon's AI crawler
Amzn-User is the agent Amazon says handles user-initiated requests, such as fetching live web information to answer Alexa questions. Amazon says it does not crawl for generative AI training.
79 of the 1662 major websites we measure block Amzn-User in robots.txt (5%), making it number 30 of the 36 AI crawlers we track for how often it is blocked. 52 of those sites name it directly in their robots.txt; the rest are covered by a wildcard rule.
Key facts
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Operator | Amazon |
| Used for | Alexa |
| Type | On-demand fetch. Visits a page because someone asked a question. Several operators say robots.txt may not apply. |
| robots.txt token | Amzn-User |
| Operator's documentation | Read it here |
What blocking Amzn-User does
Amazon says that because a user may start the fetch, Amzn-User may not follow all robots.txt directives.
How to allow or block Amzn-User
Add one of these groups to the robots.txt file at the root of your domain. It is a stated preference that well-behaved crawlers read, not an enforcement mechanism.
User-agent: Amzn-User Disallow: /
User-agent: Amzn-User Allow: /
To see whether your own site lets Amzn-User in, and which rule decides it, run the free AI crawler checker.
Amzn-User user agent string
Amazon's page doesn't list a full string, so look for Amzn-User in the user agent field of your logs.
How to verify a request is really Amzn-User
Anyone can put a crawler's name in a user agent string, so the name alone proves nothing. Amazon publishes the addresses Amzn-User uses: developer.amazon.com/amazonbot/live-ip-addresses/. Check a request's source address against that list.
How to whitelist Amzn-User in a firewall or CDN
robots.txt only states a preference. A firewall, CDN or bot protection service can still refuse the request, and the crawler then gets an error even though robots.txt allows it.
- Check that no group in your robots.txt blocks it, using the rule above.
- Add an allow rule in your firewall or CDN that matches the name and the published IP addresses. Keep the rule narrow, because anyone can copy a name.
- Check your server logs for a 200 response from Amzn-User afterwards.
On Cloudflare, also check AI Crawler and Agent access policies, which can block search, agent and training traffic across a site.
Why Amzn-User gets a 403 or 405 error
A 403 means the server refused the request, which usually points to a firewall or bot rule. A 405 means the server refused the request's method, so check any rule that only permits certain methods. A crawler that obeys robots.txt won't request a page it is told to avoid, so an error in your logs points to your server's configuration. To stop it deliberately at the server, this nginx rule returns a 403:
if ($http_user_agent ~* "Amzn-User") {
return 403;
}Which sites recently changed their rules for Amzn-User?
None that lasted since 17 August 2026. See the full change log.
Who blocks Amzn-User, by sector
| Sector | Sites measured | Blocking | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| News publishers | 182 | 25 | 14% |
| Social and media platforms | 115 | 15 | 13% |
| Health publishers | 88 | 9 | 10% |
| Technology media | 126 | 11 | 9% |
| Finance and business media | 94 | 4 | 4% |
| Reference and research | 114 | 4 | 4% |
| AI companies | 128 | 3 | 2% |
| Government and institutions | 98 | 2 | 2% |
| Developer references | 159 | 1 | 1% |
| E-commerce and retail | 92 | 1 | 1% |
| Hosting and infrastructure | 98 | 1 | 1% |
| SaaS platforms | 196 | 2 | 1% |
| Travel | 86 | 1 | 1% |
| SEO and marketing tools | 86 | 0 | 0% |
Sites blocking Amzn-User
abc.es, academia.edu, afterpay.com, al.com, allrecipes.com, azcentral.com, babycenter.com, barrons.com, bbc.co.uk, channel4.com, cleveland.com, cnn.com, consilium.europa.eu, devclass.com, disneyplus.com, distill.pub, dn.se, elpais.com, eluniversal.com.mx, eurogamer.net, everydayhealth.com, ew.com, extremetech.com, facebook.com, flickr.com, fortinet.com, gamesindustry.biz, globeandmail.com, hackernoon.com, healthline.com, ign.com, instacart.com, instagram.com, investopedia.com, jsbin.com, justice.gov, lifehacker.com, linguee.com, lobste.rs, magento.com, marketwatch.com, mashable.com, medicalnewstoday.com, meta.ai, mlive.com, nation.africa, netflix.com, news.com.au, nj.com, nzherald.co.nz, oregonlive.com, parents.com, people.com, pinterest.com, poe.com, publico.pt, reddit.com, rockpapershotgun.com, sap.com, sciencedirect.com, and 19 more in the full dataset.
Sites that allow Amzn-User by name
getyourguide.com, imdb.com, loom.com, pcmag.com, reuters.com, sbs.com.au, sophos.com, twitch.tv.
Other Amazon crawlers
Amazonbot (model training).
See all 36 AI crawlers, the rule change log or the full study. Being reachable is only the first step: how AI search engines choose what to cite covers the rest.
Cite this data
You are welcome to quote or republish these figures. Please credit IndexHalo with a link to this page (CC BY 4.0). All our datasets are on the data page.
IndexHalo. "Amzn-User block rate across major websites." Measured 12 November 2026. https://www.indexhalo.com/ai-crawlers/amzn-user/
<a href="https://www.indexhalo.com/ai-crawlers/amzn-user/">Amzn-User block rate across major websites, IndexHalo</a>