Google-Extended in Robots.txt: What It Means for AI Search
Google-Extended is often discussed when teams separate ordinary Google Search crawling from broader AI training and model-related controls.
What is Google-Extended?
Google-Extended is a control publishers may use in robots.txt for certain AI-related use cases. It should not be confused with ordinary Googlebot crawling for Search.
Robots.txt example
A common setup is to keep Googlebot allowed for search discovery while setting a separate policy for Google-Extended. Always test robots.txt changes before deploying them broadly.
- Do not block Googlebot unless you intend to affect Google Search crawling.
- Block private paths for all crawlers.
- Keep sitemap references visible.
- Monitor crawler behavior after publishing changes.
Recommended handling
Make crawler policy decisions page by page where possible. Use crawl monitoring to verify that high-value public pages remain accessible to the systems you want to reach.
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