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Robots.txt
Generator

Generate a robots.txt file that correctly configures AI crawler access — GPTBot, PerplexityBot, ClaudeBot, Googlebot and more. A misconfigured robots.txt is the most common reason brands rank on Google but disappear entirely from AI answers. Fix it in 30 seconds.

Configure AI crawler access
GPTBot
ChatGPT (OpenAI)
HIGHAllow
PerplexityBot
Perplexity
HIGHAllow
ClaudeBot
Anthropic Claude
HIGHAllow
Googlebot
AI Overviews + AI Mode
HIGHAllow
Bingbot
Copilot (Microsoft)
MEDAllow
Grok-Bot
Grok (xAI)
MEDAllow
AI bot reference

Every AI crawler you need to know,
ranked by citation impact.

Each AI engine sends its own crawler with a distinct user-agent string. Your robots.txt must explicitly name these agents — a generic Disallow: / rule blocks all of them simultaneously, and many legacy robots.txt files from 2022–2023 were written before most of these crawlers existed.

Bot name
Powers
Risk
Note
GPTBot
ChatGPT (OpenAI)
HIGH
Blocking silently kills ChatGPT citations. Most commonly blocked by accident via wildcard rules.
PerplexityBot
Perplexity
HIGH
Perplexity crawls in near real-time. Missing this is the fastest way to disappear from Perplexity answers.
ClaudeBot
Anthropic Claude
HIGH
Used by Claude for Browsing and citation. Separate from CCBot (training data only).
Googlebot
AI Overviews + AI Mode
HIGH
Drives all Google AI features. Blocking this removes you from Google entirely, not just AI.
Bingbot
Copilot (Microsoft)
MED
Copilot is powered by Bing index. Block Bingbot and Copilot cannot cite you.
Grok-Bot
Grok (xAI)
MED
Newer agent — often missing from legacy robots.txt files. Add explicitly to cover xAI.
CCBot
Common Crawl (training)
LOW
Used for AI training data, not live citation. Blocking this does not prevent citations but may affect future model training.
anthropic-ai
Anthropic (training)
LOW
Anthropic's training crawler. Separate from ClaudeBot which drives live citations.
The silent AEO killer

Good content, great schema,
zero citations — here's why.

The most common AEO diagnostic finding is a brand that has correctly implemented schema markup, maintains an active content strategy, and has strong E-E-A-T signals — but still gets zero citations from ChatGPT or Perplexity. The culprit, in almost every case, is a robots.txt file that blocks the relevant AI crawler.

This happens because most robots.txt files were written for the Google-and-Bing era of 2015–2022. The bot names GPTBot, PerplexityBot, and ClaudeBot didn't exist then. Many sites use wildcard rules or blocking patterns that silently catch all new crawlers — including every AI bot launched in the last three years.

Fixing robots.txt is the fastest AEO win available. A single file change can immediately restore AI crawler access, and citation improvements from newly accessible content can appear on Perplexity within days. Use the llms.txt Validator to confirm your configuration after updating.

Common robots.txt mistakes
User-agent: * / Disallow: /
Blocks all crawlers including every AI bot
Missing GPTBot entirely
ChatGPT cannot cite you — it defaults to blocked
Blocking /api/ paths
Some AI crawlers use API endpoints for structured data
Using noindex meta instead of robots.txt
Meta noindex doesn't block crawling, only indexing
Correct configuration (example)
User-agent: GPTBot
Allow: /

User-agent: PerplexityBot
Allow: /

User-agent: ClaudeBot
Allow: /

User-agent: Grok-Bot
Allow: /

User-agent: *
Disallow: /admin/
Disallow: /api/private/
The full AEO crawler setup

robots.txt + llms.txt
work as a pair.

01
Configure robots.txt

Allow GPTBot, PerplexityBot, ClaudeBot and other AI agents. This opens the door for crawlers.

Generate robots.txt
02
Add llms.txt

Create the AI-readable index of your site that tells crawlers what you cover and how to cite you.

Generate llms.txt
03
Validate setup

Use the live validator to confirm both files are correctly configured and AI bots can access all key pages.

Validate now
FAQ

Common questions.

Which AI crawlers does robots.txt control?
Should I block or allow AI crawlers?
Does blocking GPTBot stop ChatGPT from using my content?
What's the difference between robots.txt and llms.txt?
Will this affect my Google rankings?
How quickly does a robots.txt change take effect?