Perplexity
AI search
PerplexityBot
Indexes pages so Perplexity can surface and link them in its answers.
Follows robots.txt- User agent token
- PerplexityBot
- Operator
- Perplexity
- Verification
- Published IP list
- Source
- Perplexity documentation
What an AI search crawler does
An AI search crawler builds the index an assistant searches before it answers. Being in that index is how a page gets quoted and linked in AI answers, which is a growing source of visitors.
Block or allow PerplexityBot in robots.txt
Add one of these to the robots.txt file at the root of your domain. Crawlers read it before they fetch anything else.
Block PerplexityBot
User-agent: PerplexityBot
Disallow: /Allow PerplexityBot
User-agent: PerplexityBot
Allow: /More from Perplexity
Questions, answered.
PerplexityBot is an AI search crawler run by Perplexity. Indexes pages so Perplexity can surface and link them in its answers.
Yes. Perplexity says PerplexityBot follows robots.txt.
Add "User-agent: PerplexityBot" and "Disallow: /" to your robots.txt.
Check the request's IP address against the list Perplexity publishes. A user agent alone proves nothing, since any script can copy it.
It can. Pages PerplexityBot indexes may be cited and linked in Perplexity's AI answers, and those links bring readers.
Only if you don't want to appear in Perplexity's AI answers. Blocking PerplexityBot removes your pages from what it can cite.
In its own documentation at https://docs.perplexity.ai/guides/bots. Every fact on this page comes from there.
Still have questions? We're happy to help.
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