Understanding AI Crawlers: Who's Reading Your Website?

Understanding AI Crawlers: Who's Reading Your Website?

Beyond traditional search engine bots like Googlebot, a new generation of crawlers is visiting your website. These bots support AI products in three main ways: training, search/indexing, and user-triggered retrieval.

TL;DR

• Not all “AI bots” are the same.
• Some bots collect content for training (e.g., GPTBot, ClaudeBot).
• Some bots crawl for AI search and results quality (e.g., OAI-SearchBot, Claude-SearchBot, PerplexityBot).
• Some bots fetch pages because a user requested it (e.g., ChatGPT-User, Claude-User, Perplexity-User).

If your goal is discoverability, your baseline should be:

• Clear public crawl rules
• Fast, stable pages
• Strong content structure

If you want a practical improvement plan, start here: How to Improve Your AI-Readiness Score.

Meet the AI Crawlers

OpenAI bots (training, search, user fetch)

OpenAI publishes separate tokens for different use cases.

• GPTBot Training data collection.
• OAI-SearchBot Search/indexing for OpenAI search experiences.
• ChatGPT-User User-triggered fetches (when a user asks ChatGPT to open a page).

Anthropic (Claude) bots

Anthropic also separates training vs. user-triggered vs. search.

• ClaudeBot Training data collection.
• Claude-User User-triggered fetches.
• Claude-SearchBot Crawling to improve Claude search results.

PerplexityBot

Powers Perplexity AI's search and answer engine.

• User-agent: PerplexityBot
• Purpose: Search and citations

Perplexity also uses:

• Perplexity-User User-triggered fetches. According to Perplexity, this fetcher generally ignores robots.txt rules.

Google-Extended

Google-Extended is a token you can use to control whether content may be used for training and grounding for Gemini products. It does not impact inclusion in Google Search and is not used as a ranking signal in Google Search.

• User-agent: Google-Extended
• Purpose: Gemini training and grounding

How AI Crawlers Differ from Search Bots

Reality check: many “AI crawlers” still behave like classic bots (HTTP requests, HTML parsing). The difference is how the content is reused downstream.

What AI Crawlers Look For

Content Quality

AI crawlers prioritize:

• Well-written, informative content
• Clear structure with headings
• Factual, verifiable information
• Original insights and perspectives

Technical Signals

They also evaluate:

• Page load speed
• Mobile responsiveness
• Structured data presence
• Clean HTML markup

Trust Indicators

• Author information
• Publication dates
• Sources and citations
• Site reputation

Managing AI Crawler Access

Allowing access (recommended for discoverability)

To maximize AI visibility:

User-agent: GPTBot
Allow: /

User-agent: OAI-SearchBot
Allow: /

User-agent: PerplexityBot
Allow: /

User-agent: ClaudeBot
Allow: /

User-agent: Claude-SearchBot
Allow: /

User-agent: Google-Extended
Allow: /

If you only want to allow user-triggered fetchers, you can allow those tokens specifically (where supported) and still disallow training bots.

Blocking Access

If you prefer to opt out:

User-agent: GPTBot
Disallow: /

User-agent: ClaudeBot
Disallow: /

User-agent: Google-Extended
Disallow: /

Selective Access

Allow public content, block sensitive areas:

User-agent: GPTBot
Allow: /blog/
Allow: /products/
Disallow: /admin/
Disallow: /private/

Important nuance:

• robots.txt controls crawling.
• For search engines, it is not a reliable way to keep a URL out of search results. For that you typically need noindex or access controls.

The Impact on Your Business

When AI Can Access Your Content

• Your brand gets mentioned in AI responses
• Users discover you through AI assistants
• Your expertise reaches new audiences

When AI Cannot Access Your Content

• Competitors may be cited instead
• You miss AI-driven traffic
• Your brand voice is absent from AI conversations

Best Practices

1. Monitor your logs: Track which AI crawlers visit your site
2. Keep content fresh: AI systems prefer up-to-date information
3. Be authoritative: Establish expertise in your domain
4. Use structured data: Help AI understand your content context
5. Check your score: Use friendly4AI to see how AI-ready you are

Related articles

• What is AI-readiness?
• Structured Data for AI: A Practical Guide
• How to Improve Your AI-Readiness Score

FAQ

How do I identify AI crawlers in my logs?

Look at the User-Agent header and match tokens like GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, ClaudeBot, Claude-SearchBot, PerplexityBot, and Google-Extended.

If I block training bots, will I disappear from AI answers?

Not necessarily. AI assistants can still discover and cite your pages via search indexes or user-triggered fetches. But blocking may reduce the breadth of how your content is used.

References (official docs)

• OpenAI bots overview (tokens and JSON): https://platform.openai.com/docs/gptbot
• OpenAI GPTBot JSON: https://openai.com/gptbot.json
• OpenAI SearchBot JSON: https://openai.com/searchbot.json
• Anthropic bots overview: https://support.claude.com/en/articles/8896518-does-anthropic-crawl-data-from-the-web-and-how-can-site-owners-block-the-crawler
• Google-Extended: https://developers.google.com/crawling/docs/crawlers-fetchers/google-common-crawlers
• Perplexity crawlers: https://docs.perplexity.ai/guides/bots

The Future of AI Crawling

As AI systems become more sophisticated, expect:

• More specialized crawlers
• Real-time content fetching
• Deeper content understanding
• New standards for AI-website interaction

Stay ahead by making your website AI-friendly today.