Robots.txt for AI Crawlers
Configuration of the robots.txt file to explicitly allow or block specific AI crawlers — a critical first step in AI search optimization.
KEY FACTS
- —robots.txt is the first file AI crawlers check before accessing any other page
- —Blocking one AI crawler (e.g. GPTBot) makes your site invisible to that AI platform
- —Wildcard Disallow: / blocks ALL crawlers including AI bots unless explicitly overridden
- —Five major AI crawlers to allow: GPTBot, ClaudeBot, anthropic-ai, PerplexityBot, Google-Extended
- —Changes to robots.txt take effect with the next crawler visit — usually 24–48 hours
- —Test your robots.txt configuration free at zygur.com/tools/robots-checker
FREQUENTLY ASKED
Which AI crawlers should I allow in robots.txt?
Allow GPTBot (ChatGPT), ClaudeBot (Claude), anthropic-ai (Anthropic), PerplexityBot (Perplexity), and Google-Extended (Gemini). These five cover 95%+ of AI search traffic.
Does blocking AI crawlers affect Google?
No. Google's main crawler (Googlebot) is a separate bot. Blocking GPTBot only affects ChatGPT. However, Google-Extended affects Gemini AI — you may want to allow it too.
How quickly does robots.txt change take effect?
AI crawlers re-check robots.txt on each crawl cycle, typically every 24–48 hours. Once updated, they'll start accessing your site on their next scheduled crawl.
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