Kimi-SearchBot user agent
Operated by Moonshot AI
Kimi-SearchBot is Moonshot AI's crawler that builds the search index behind Kimi's search features.
The Kimi-SearchBot bot at a glance
- Kimi-SearchBot is operated by Moonshot AI and indexes web pages so an AI search product can show and cite them in answers.
- The robots.txt token for Kimi-SearchBot is Kimi-SearchBot.
- Blocking an AI search crawler has no effect on Google or Bing rankings.
- Kimi-SearchBot robots.txt support: Yes.
- Recommendation for Generative Engine Optimization (GEO): Allow.
What is Kimi-SearchBot?
Kimi-SearchBot analyzes pages for relevance so Kimi can find and cite them.
Blocking it removes a site from Kimi search results.
Should you block Kimi-SearchBot?
Allow Kimi-SearchBot unless it causes a measurable load problem.
| Effect on search rankings | Blocking an AI search crawler has no effect on Google or Bing rankings. |
|---|---|
| Effect on AI visibility | Blocking removes your pages from that AI search index, so its answers can no longer cite or link to your website. |
| Follows robots.txt | Yes |
| Recommendation | Allow |
How to block or allow Kimi-SearchBot
Put the robots.txt rule in the file at the root of every domain and subdomain, for example https://example.com/robots.txt. The token Kimi-SearchBot is matched case-insensitively.
robots.txt: block
# Block Kimi-SearchBot
User-agent: Kimi-SearchBot
Disallow: /robots.txt: allow
# Allow Kimi-SearchBot
User-agent: Kimi-SearchBot
Allow: /robots.txt: partial
# Keep Kimi-SearchBot out of private areas only
User-agent: Kimi-SearchBot
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Disallow: /cart/
Disallow: /checkout/
Disallow: /my-account/
Allow: /Nginx
# Nginx: return 403 to Kimi-SearchBot
if ($http_user_agent ~* "(Kimi\-SearchBot)") {
return 403;
}Apache
# Apache .htaccess: return 403 to Kimi-SearchBot
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} (Kimi\-SearchBot) [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]Cloudflare WAF
# Cloudflare > Security > WAF > Custom rule, action: Block
(http.user_agent contains "Kimi-SearchBot")How to verify real Kimi-SearchBot traffic
Moonshot AI publishes no IP list or reverse DNS pattern for Kimi-SearchBot, so the user agent cannot be verified. Anyone can send the same string. Rate-limit unusual volume instead of trusting the name.
How to find Kimi-SearchBot in your server logs
Search the web server access log for the token. The command below counts Kimi-SearchBot requests per URL on Nginx or Apache.
grep -i "Kimi-SearchBot" access.log | awk '{print $7}' | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn | head -20For a full report per AI bot, upload the log to the AI Log File Analyzer, a free tool by Justin Hà.
Kimi-SearchBot FAQ
Kimi-SearchBot uses the robots.txt token "Kimi-SearchBot". Moonshot AI does not publish a full user-agent string, so match the token inside the User-Agent header.
Yes. Moonshot AI states that Kimi-SearchBot follows robots.txt rules written for the "Kimi-SearchBot" token.
Blocking an AI search crawler has no effect on Google or Bing rankings. Blocking removes your pages from that AI search index, so its answers can no longer cite or link to your website.
Add two lines to the robots.txt file at the root of each domain and subdomain: "User-agent: Kimi-SearchBot" followed by "Disallow: /". The token is case-insensitive. Changes can take up to 24 hours to be picked up.
Not reliably. Moonshot AI publishes no IP list or reverse DNS pattern for Kimi-SearchBot, so anyone can send the same user agent. Rate-limit unusual volume instead of trusting the name.
Search your server access log for "Kimi-SearchBot", for example with: grep -i "Kimi-SearchBot" access.log. The AI Log File Analyzer by Justin Hà counts visits per AI bot from an uploaded log file.
Sources: Moonshot AI crawler documentation. Last reviewed by Justin Hà.
See which of these bots actually reach your website
The AI Log File Analyzer by Justin Hà counts visits from GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot and other AI crawlers in your server log, for free. The GEO Technical Package sets up robots.txt, llms.txt and crawler access for AI search.
