Does Amazon allow AI agents?

Dispute this

The Conditions of Use Agents section lets an agent use Amazon only if it identifies itself in every request, does not hide that it is an agent (for example by mimicking human keystrokes or completing or circumventing CAPTCHAs), and does not use Amazon once Amazon has asked it to refrain. The site license separately excludes data mining, robots, and similar data gathering and extraction tools. The Ninth Circuit vacated the preliminary injunction against Perplexity's Comet agent on 2026-08-04 and remanded; it denied rehearing en banc on 2026-09-10. That was a ruling in a preliminary-injunction appeal, not a final judgment.

Our testing

Report-only: we cite public reports and never test agents here

What the site's own pages say

Each line links to the page it comes from. Lines marked as crawler rules come from the site's robots.txt and tell automated crawlers what not to fetch; they are not legal terms.

• Amazon's statement about Perplexity (Nov 4, 2025) says: third-party applications that offer to make purchases on behalf of customers from other businesses should operate openly and respect service provider decisions whether or not to participate

  Owner statement Source as of 2025-11-04 Owner statement: what the site's owner said. It is not the site's terms of service.

• Amazon's statement about Perplexity (Nov 4, 2025) says: we’ve repeatedly requested that Perplexity remove Amazon from the Comet experience

  Owner statement Source as of 2025-11-04 Owner statement: what the site's owner said. It is not the site's terms of service.

• The Ninth Circuit (Aug 4, 2026) wrote: we VACATE the preliminary injunction granted by the district court and REMAND for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

  Court ruling Source as of 2026-08-04 Court ruling: what the court wrote. It is not the site's terms of service.

• The Ninth Circuit (Aug 4, 2026, footnote 5) wrote: This outcome does not impair Amazon’s ability to regulate access to Amazon.com via private terms of service for its users.

  Court ruling Source as of 2026-08-04 Court ruling: what the court wrote. It is not the site's terms of service.

• The Ninth Circuit order (Sept 10, 2026) says: The Petition for Rehearing En Banc is DENIED.

  Court ruling Source as of 2026-09-10 Court ruling: what the court wrote. It is not the site's terms of service.

• Conditions of Use define an Agent as software or a service acting autonomously or semi-autonomously for a person

  Official source Source as of 2026-08-14

• No Agent may use Amazon unless it identifies itself at all times and follows the Agent Terms technical rules

  Official source Source as of 2026-08-14

• No Agent may use Amazon Services if Amazon has asked it to refrain

  Official source Source as of 2026-08-14

• Agents must name themselves in every HTTP request's user agent string ("Agent/[agent name]")

  Official source Source as of 2026-08-14

• Agents must not hide that they are agents, including by mimicking human keystrokes or completing or circumventing CAPTCHAs

  Official source Source as of 2026-08-14

• Agents must not get around measures Amazon uses to block or limit agents

  Official source Source as of 2026-08-14

• The site license excludes data mining, robots, and similar data gathering and extraction tools

  Official source Source as of 2026-08-14

• Amazon's robots.txt (a crawler rule, not a legal ban): disallows the whole site for named AI user agents, including ChatGPT-User, Claude-User, Perplexity-User and GoogleAgent-Shopping

  Official source Source source undated, checked 2026-10-27 Crawler rule in the site's robots.txt: it tells automated crawlers what not to fetch. It is not a legal ban.

Sources

• Amazon.com Conditions of Use 2026-08-14
• Amazon robots.txt source undated, checked 2026-10-27
• Amazon: Statement about Perplexity 2025-11-04
• Amazon.com Services v. Perplexity AI, 9th Cir. No. 26-1444 opinion 2026-08-04
• Ninth Circuit order denying rehearing en banc, No. 26-1444 (hosted by Courthouse News) 2026-09-10