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
PetalBot Traffic (Last 90 Days)
What is PetalBot?
PetalBot is the web crawler for Huawei's Petal Search engine, Huawei Assistant, and Huawei AI Search. It crawls both desktop and mobile versions of websites to build a search index. Operators verify the bot via reverse DNS lookups on the aspiegel.com or petalsearch.com domains rather than published IP ranges.
What PetalBot means for your site
PetalBot proactively indexes your site for an AI-powered search engine, operated by Huawei. 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 PetalBot 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 PetalBot
See PetalBot on your own site
BotSights tracks every PetalBot visit in real time, including which pages it crawls, how often, and from where.
How to identify PetalBot
PetalBot uses the user-agent "petalbot" and respects robots.txt. It crawls systematically, similar to traditional search engine bots.
petalbotPetalBotHow to block PetalBot
Three robots.txt options below. Pick the one that matches your goal. Each snippet lists every known PetalBot user-agent pattern so the rules apply regardless of which one the bot announces.
Edit robots.txt with care
A single misplaced line can de-index your entire site. Common mistake: pasting User-agent: * followed by Disallow: / blocks every bot, not just PetalBot, including Googlebot. Always paste the snippet between existing rules (not over them), keep the User-agent line scoped to PetalBot's patterns, and verify with Google's robots.txt tester before deploying. If you are not sure, ask a developer first.
Option 1: Block all access
Tells PetalBot not to crawl any URL on your site. Use this when you want the bot completely off your content.
User-agent: petalbot
User-agent: PetalBot
Disallow: /Option 2: Block specific paths only
Keep public content crawlable but exclude sensitive or non-public sections. Add one Disallow: line per path. Replace the example paths with your own.
User-agent: petalbot
User-agent: PetalBot
Disallow: /admin/
Disallow: /private/
Disallow: /checkout/Option 3: Slow down with a crawl delay
Crawl-delay is a voluntary directive that asks the bot to wait the given number of seconds between requests. Useful when PetalBot is hammering your origin and slowing the site down for real visitors, but you do not want to block it outright. The value is in seconds, so 10 means at most one request every ten seconds. Not all bots honour this directive (Googlebot ignores it; Bingbot, Yandex, and many AI crawlers do respect it).
User-agent: petalbot
User-agent: PetalBot
Crawl-delay: 10Frequently Asked Questions
What is the User-Agent for PetalBot?
PetalBot identifies itself with the User-Agent string "petalbot" (alternate forms: PetalBot). Use this in robots.txt rules or server-side filters to control its access.
Should I block PetalBot?
Blocking PetalBot removes your content from Huawei's AI search index. If you want visibility in AI-powered search results, allow it. The trade-off is similar to deciding whether to allow Bingbot or Googlebot.
Will blocking PetalBot affect my regular search rankings?
No. PetalBot indexes for AI-powered search, separate from traditional search engine rankings. Blocking it does not affect Googlebot, Bingbot, or your organic SEO position.
How do I verify a request is really from PetalBot?
User-Agent strings can be spoofed. Verify by checking the request's source IP. Check the operator's documentation for published IP ranges or reverse-DNS verification. BotSights does this automatically per visit.
Does PetalBot respect llms.txt?
llms.txt is an emerging proposal for AI-specific crawl guidance. PetalBot currently respects robots.txt, which is the reliable control mechanism. llms.txt support is operator-dependent and still evolving.
Is PetalBot different from Googlebot?
Yes. Googlebot indexes for traditional Google Search. PetalBot indexes for AI-powered search, which presents results as conversational answers with citations rather than blue link lists.
Will PetalBot affect my site speed?
Like any crawler, PetalBot consumes server resources. If crawl rate is excessive, set a Crawl-delay directive in robots.txt for this user-agent. Most AI search crawlers respect Crawl-delay.
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
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