PerplexityBot
AI Search CrawlerOperated by Perplexity AI
Indexes your content for AI-powered search results.
Recommended action: Allow access to maintain AI search visibility.
Category
AI Search Crawler
Primary use case
AI search indexing
Trust level
Generally safe
Trust Levels
- Trusted
- Generally safe
- Review recommended
- Caution advised
Trust levels are an indication based on category, operator, and robots.txt compliance. Always review bot activity for your specific situation.
Learn how we assess trustrobots.txt
Respected
What is PerplexityBot?
PerplexityBot indexes web content to power Perplexity AI's search engine. Unlike Perplexity-User, this bot crawls proactively to build a search index rather than fetching on-demand for a specific user query.
What PerplexityBot means for your site
PerplexityBot proactively indexes your site for an AI-powered search engine, operated by Perplexity AI. Unlike AI assistants that fetch on-demand, this bot discovers and catalogs your content so it can surface in AI search results. Being indexed means your content is eligible to appear when users search through AI platforms. Not being indexed means you are invisible in this channel.
What should you do?
- Allow PerplexityBot to crawl your site
- Ensure your most important pages are accessible and well-structured
- Monitor which pages are being indexed through crawl activity
- Review robots.txt to ensure you are not accidentally blocking PerplexityBot
How to identify PerplexityBot
PerplexityBot uses the user-agent "perplexitybot" and respects robots.txt. It crawls systematically, similar to traditional search engine bots.
perplexitybotPerplexityBotFrequently Asked Questions
Should I block PerplexityBot?
Blocking PerplexityBot removes your content from Perplexity AI's AI search index. If you want visibility in AI-powered search, allow it.
Is PerplexityBot different from Googlebot?
Yes. Googlebot indexes for traditional Google Search. PerplexityBot indexes for AI-powered search, which presents results differently, often as conversational answers with citations.
Does PerplexityBot affect my site speed?
Like any crawler, PerplexityBot consumes some server resources. If crawl rate is excessive, you can set a crawl-delay in robots.txt.
Other AI Search Crawler bots
Track how AI search engines discover your content
Monitor which pages AI search crawlers index, how often they visit, and whether your content is visible in AI-powered search.
- AI search crawler activity by page
- Compare AI crawl coverage with traditional search
- Spot indexing gaps before they cost visibility
Free plan available. No credit card required. Setup in 2 minutes.