AI Crawlers
AI crawlers are bots such as GPTBot and PerplexityBot that fetch web content for AI training and retrieval; allowing them is a prerequisite to being cited.
AI crawlers are automated bots — such as GPTBot, ChatGPT-User, PerplexityBot, ClaudeBot, and Google-Extended — that fetch web content for AI training and real-time retrieval. Site owners control their access through robots.txt directives.
Allowing reputable AI crawlers is a prerequisite to being cited: a page that is blocked cannot be retrieved or referenced in an answer. Blocking them protects content from training but also removes it from AI answer visibility.
Key points
- ▸Bots like GPTBot, PerplexityBot, ClaudeBot, Google-Extended
- ▸Controlled via robots.txt
- ▸Blocking them removes a site from AI answer visibility
Frequently asked questions
- Should I allow AI crawlers?
- If AI visibility is a goal, yes — a blocked page cannot be cited. Some publishers block them to protect content from training, which is a trade-off between control and visibility in AI answers.