diff --git a/lib/middleware/anonymous_cache.rb b/lib/middleware/anonymous_cache.rb
index f2539b06106..2cd57198767 100644
--- a/lib/middleware/anonymous_cache.rb
+++ b/lib/middleware/anonymous_cache.rb
@@ -26,6 +26,8 @@ module Middleware
         !@request.xhr? &&
         !@request.path.ends_with?('robots.txt') &&
         !@request.path.ends_with?('srv/status') &&
+        @request[Auth::DefaultCurrentUserProvider::API_KEY].nil? &&
+        @env[Auth::DefaultCurrentUserProvider::USER_API_KEY].nil? &&
         CrawlerDetection.is_blocked_crawler?(@request.env['HTTP_USER_AGENT'])
       end
 
diff --git a/spec/components/middleware/anonymous_cache_spec.rb b/spec/components/middleware/anonymous_cache_spec.rb
index 4d63d4f5e45..de52d9a205f 100644
--- a/spec/components/middleware/anonymous_cache_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/components/middleware/anonymous_cache_spec.rb
@@ -189,6 +189,16 @@ describe Middleware::AnonymousCache::Helper do
       expect(@status).to eq(200)
     end
 
+    it "doesn't block api requests" do
+      SiteSetting.whitelisted_crawler_user_agents = 'Googlebot'
+      api_key = Fabricate(:api_key)
+
+      get "/latest?api_key=#{api_key.key}&api_username=system", headers: {
+        "QUERY_STRING" => "api_key=#{api_key.key}&api_username=system"
+      }
+      expect(@status).to eq(200)
+    end
+
     it "applies blacklisted_crawler_user_agents correctly" do
       SiteSetting.blacklisted_crawler_user_agents = 'Googlebot'