robots.txt for AI Crawlers: Complete Configuration Guide

Why robots.txt Matters for AI Discovery

Your robots.txt file is the first thing AI crawlers check before accessing your site. A misconfigured robots.txt can make your entire website invisible to AI systems—no matter how well-optimized your content is.

How AI Crawlers Use robots.txt

Unlike traditional search engine crawlers that primarily index for search results, AI crawlers serve multiple purposes:

• Training Data: Content for model training and updates
• RAG Systems: Real-time retrieval for answering user queries
• Citation Sources: Content to cite when generating responses
• Knowledge Graphs: Entity and relationship extraction

If you block AI crawlers, you're essentially opting out of AI-powered search and citation entirely.

The Major AI Crawlers You Need to Know

Here are the key AI crawlers and their purposes:

Key Insight: If you want AI citation, you should allow GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, and GoogleOther at minimum.

Recommended robots.txt Configuration

Here's the recommended robots.txt configuration for maximum AI discoverability:

# =============================================
# robots.txt - AI-Optimized Configuration
# =============================================

# Standard search engine crawlers
User-agent: Googlebot
Allow: /

User-agent: Bingbot
Allow: /

# =============================================
# AI CRAWLERS - ALLOW FOR CITATION ECONOMY
# =============================================

# OpenAI (ChatGPT)
User-agent: GPTBot
Allow: /

User-agent: ChatGPT-User
Allow: /

User-agent: OAI-SearchBot
Allow: /

# Anthropic (Claude)
User-agent: ClaudeBot
Allow: /

User-agent: anthropic-ai
Allow: /

# Perplexity (Answer Engine)
User-agent: PerplexityBot
Allow: /

# Google AI (Gemini)
User-agent: GoogleOther
Allow: /

User-agent: Google-Extended
Allow: /

# Apple (Siri, Apple Intelligence)
User-agent: Applebot-Extended
Allow: /

# Amazon (Alexa)
User-agent: Amazonbot
Allow: /

# Common Crawl (open dataset)
User-agent: CCBot
Allow: /

# =============================================
# DEFAULT RULE
# =============================================
User-agent: *
Allow: /

# =============================================
# PROTECTED PATHS (adjust for your site)
# =============================================
Disallow: /admin/
Disallow: /api/internal/
Disallow: /private/

# =============================================
# SITEMAPS
# =============================================
Sitemap: https://yoursite.com/sitemap.xml
Sitemap: https://yoursite.com/ai-sitemap.xml

Replace yoursite.com with your actual domain. This configuration allows all major AI crawlers while protecting sensitive paths.

Common robots.txt Mistakes That Block AI

These are the most common mistakes that accidentally block AI crawlers:

Mistake 1: Blanket Disallow Rules

# BAD: Blocks ALL crawlers including AI
User-agent: *
Disallow: /

This blocks everything. If you have this, remove it immediately or add specific Allow rules for AI crawlers.

Mistake 2: No AI-Specific Rules

# INCOMPLETE: Only allows Googlebot
User-agent: Googlebot
Allow: /

User-agent: *
Disallow: /

This allows Google but blocks GPTBot, ClaudeBot, etc. Always add explicit rules for AI crawlers.

Mistake 3: Blocking Based on Outdated Advice

Some SEO guides from 2023 recommended blocking AI crawlers to "protect content." This advice is outdated—blocking AI crawlers now means missing the Citation Economy.

Mistake 4: Forgetting Multiple OpenAI Crawlers

# INCOMPLETE: Only allows GPTBot
User-agent: GPTBot
Allow: /

OpenAI has three crawlers: GPTBot, ChatGPT-User, and OAI-SearchBot. Allow all three.

Mistake 5: Case Sensitivity Issues

# WRONG: Case doesn't match
User-agent: gptbot
Allow: /

Crawler names are case-sensitive. Use exact names: GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot.

Testing and Verifying Your Configuration

After updating robots.txt, verify it's working correctly:

1. Google's robots.txt Tester

Use Google Search Console's robots.txt tester to check syntax and rules.

2. Manual Testing

Visit your robots.txt directly: https://yoursite.com/robots.txt

Verify all AI crawler rules are present and correctly formatted.

3. Pressonify AI Visibility Checker

Our AI Visibility Checker analyzes your robots.txt and reports which AI crawlers are allowed or blocked.

4. Check AI Crawler Logs

Monitor your server logs for these User-Agent strings:

• GPTBot/1.0 (+https://openai.com/gptbot)
• ClaudeBot/1.0 (Anthropic)
• PerplexityBot/1.0

If you're not seeing these crawlers, check your robots.txt for blocking rules.

5. Use the Agentic Audit Tool

Our Agentic Audit tool checks robots.txt as part of comprehensive AI readiness scoring.

When to Selectively Block AI Crawlers

While we recommend allowing AI crawlers, there are valid reasons to block specific ones:

Valid Reasons to Block

• Paywalled Content: Premium content behind subscriptions
• Proprietary Data: Trade secrets or confidential information
• Legal Requirements: GDPR or copyright concerns
• Training Opt-Out: Block training but allow citation (complex)

Selective Blocking Example

# Allow citation-focused crawlers
User-agent: PerplexityBot
Allow: /

User-agent: ChatGPT-User
Allow: /

# Block training-only crawlers for specific paths
User-agent: GPTBot
Allow: /blog/
Allow: /news/
Disallow: /premium/
Disallow: /members-only/

The Trade-Off

Remember: blocking AI crawlers means opting out of AI-powered discovery. For most businesses seeking visibility, the benefits of allowing crawlers outweigh the risks.

Integration with llms.txt and ADP

robots.txt is just one piece of AI discoverability. For complete optimization, combine with:

robots.txt + llms.txt

While robots.txt tells crawlers what to access, llms.txt tells them how to understand your site:

• robots.txt: Access permissions (Allow/Disallow)
• llms.txt: Site context, key pages, topic authority

The ADP Triumvirate

The AI Discovery Protocol v2.1 includes three complementary files:

1. robots.txt: What AI can crawl
2. llms.txt: How AI should understand your site
3. /.well-known/ai.json: Discovery manifest with all endpoints

Example ai.json Reference

{
  "version": "2.1",
  "endpoints": {
    "robots": "/robots.txt",
    "llms": "/llms.txt",
    "llms_full": "/llms-full.txt",
    "sitemap": "/sitemap.xml",
    "feed": "/feed.json"
  },
  "ai_crawlers": {
    "allowed": ["GPTBot", "ClaudeBot", "PerplexityBot"],
    "blocked": []
  }
}