What is Kimi-SearchBot?

Kimi-SearchBot is a web crawler operated by Moonshot AI that powers Kimi's search functionality. It analyzes and indexes web pages so they can appear in Kimi search results. You can set up Agent Analytics to see when Kimi-SearchBot visits your website.

Overview

Operated By Moonshot AI
Source Official Website
Expected To Follow Robots.txt Yes
Insights Last Updated September 13, 2026

Do you operate this agent? Contact us to suggest an update.

Category

AI Search Crawler
Indexes website content to possibly include as citations in AI-powered search results

Expected Behavior

Kimi-SearchBot revisits your site on a flexible schedule, often requesting several pages in a burst. Activity usually increases when your content changes or its index refreshes, with quiet intervals between crawl passes.

Kimi-SearchBot's User Agent

User Agent Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Kimi-SearchBot/1.0; +https://kimi.ai/)

How To Block Kimi-SearchBot With Robots.txt

Add this rule to your robots.txt file to block Kimi-SearchBot from accessing your website, or use Automatic Robots.txt to block all AI search crawlers at once. You can customize which pages are blocked by swapping out / for a different path.

User-agent: Kimi-SearchBot # https://knownagents.com/agents/kimi-searchbot
Disallow: /

Insights for Kimi-SearchBot

As of September 13, 2026, this data reflects agent visits measured across thousands of websites using Agent Analytics, combined with daily scans of the top 1000 websites and their robots.txt files.

Robots.txt Blocked Percentage

7%
7% of top websites are blocking Kimi-SearchBot
Learn How →

Country of Origin

United States
Kimi-SearchBot normally visits From the United States

Robots.txt Blocking Trend

7% of top websites block Kimi-SearchBot in their robots.txts.

Overall AI Search Crawler Traffic

3.6% of all web traffic came from AI search crawlers.

Top Visited Website Categories

Beauty and Fitness
Pets and Animals
People and Society
Law and Government
Health

The types of websites most frequently visited by Kimi-SearchBot.

Frequently Asked Questions

Should I Block Kimi-SearchBot?

Usually not. Blocking Kimi-SearchBot keeps your pages out of its AI search results and can eliminate referral traffic from that channel. It does not improve traditional search rankings. For context, 7% of the top websites we track currently have robots.txt rules for Kimi-SearchBot.


Does Kimi-SearchBot Follow Robots.txt Rules?

Yes. Kimi-SearchBot is expected to follow robots.txt rules, so a disallow rule is the appropriate first step. Automatic Robots.txt can add and maintain that rule, while Agent Analytics lets you verify whether Kimi-SearchBot respects it.


Does Kimi-SearchBot Access Private Content?

No special access. Kimi-SearchBot can reach only content available to anonymous visitors. Make sure staging sites and other sensitive areas require authentication.


How Can I Tell if Kimi-SearchBot Is Visiting My Website?

Agent Analytics tracks visits from Kimi-SearchBot and every other known AI agent, crawler, and scraper, then authenticates each visit using Kimi-SearchBot's published verification method. You can also check your server logs for requests whose user-agent string contains "Kimi-SearchBot". Look for bursts that follow links across several pages and recur over time. A matching log entry alone is not proof because any bot can claim to be Kimi-SearchBot.


Why Is Kimi-SearchBot Visiting My Website?

Kimi-SearchBot is updating an AI search index so your pages can appear in its results. It may have discovered your site through links, a sitemap, or mentions of your domain.