AI Crawler Tester

Last updated: Jul 12, 2026

Check which AI crawlers can access any URL based on robots.txt rules. See your access status for ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini, Bing Copilot, and every major AI platform. Free, instant, no signup.

ChatGPTChatGPT LiveOpenAI SearchPerplexityClaudeClaude WebGoogle GeminiBing / Copilot + more

Why AI Crawler Access Matters

Your robots.txt file controls which bots can access your website. For traditional search, the main concern is Googlebot and Bingbot. For AI search, you need to think about a dozen additional crawlers.

If you accidentally block GPTBot, your content cannot appear in ChatGPT answers. If PerplexityBot is blocked, Perplexity cannot cite you. Many sites unknowingly block AI crawlers through broad wildcard rules, and miss out on AI search visibility entirely.

This tool shows you exactly which AI platforms can and cannot access your content, so you can make informed decisions about your AI search visibility strategy.

AI Crawlers This Tool Checks

This tool tests access for all major AI crawlers:

Platform	Bot Name	Type	What It Affects
ChatGPT	`GPTBot`	Training	ChatGPT knowledge training
ChatGPT Live	`ChatGPT-User`	Retrieval	Real-time ChatGPT answers
OpenAI Search	`OAI-SearchBot`	Retrieval	ChatGPT search feature
Perplexity	`PerplexityBot`	Retrieval	Perplexity search answers
Claude	`ClaudeBot`	Training	Claude AI training
Claude Web	`anthropic-ai`	Retrieval	Claude live web access
Google Gemini	`Google-Extended`	Training	Gemini AI training (not search)
Bing / Copilot	`Bingbot`	Both	Bing search + Copilot
Cohere	`cohere-ai`	Training	Cohere AI models
Common Crawl	`CCBot`	Training	Open dataset used by many AI models
Meta AI	`Meta-ExternalAgent`	Training	Meta AI (Llama) training
Amazon Alexa	`Amazonbot`	Training	Amazon Alexa AI

Training Crawlers vs Retrieval Crawlers

Not all AI crawlers do the same thing. Understanding the difference helps you make smarter robots.txt decisions:

Training Crawlers

Collect content to train AI models and build knowledge bases. Blocking these prevents your content from being used in AI training, but also reduces how well the AI knows about you.

Examples: GPTBot, CCBot, Google-Extended, ClaudeBot

Retrieval Crawlers

Fetch content in real time when a user asks a question, for immediate citation in AI-generated answers. Blocking these has a direct, immediate impact on AI search visibility.

Examples: ChatGPT-User, PerplexityBot, OAI-SearchBot

For most businesses: allow all AI crawlers. For sites with paywalled or proprietary content, consider blocking training crawlers (GPTBot, CCBot) while keeping retrieval bots allowed, so your content still appears in live AI answers.

Read our guide to robots.txt and AI search for a full breakdown of the strategy.

Related Tools

Robots.txt Tester & Validator, View and validate your full robots.txt file
Robots.txt Generator, Create a properly formatted robots.txt with AI bot controls
AI Search Visibility Checker, Broader technical AI search readiness screen
llms.txt Checker, Check if a site has a valid llms.txt file
llms.txt Generator, Create your AI content index file
Schema Markup Validator, Check your structured data

Next steps

AI Crawler Tester related tools and articles

Continue with the closest follow-up checks and guides based on this tool's topic, crawl intent, and optimization workflow.

AI Search Visibility Checker

Robots.txt Tester & Validator

llms.txt Checker

Robots.txt for AI Search: Crawler Controls Without the Hype

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO): Complete 2026 Guide

llms.txt: The Complete, Evidence-Aware Guide

AI Crawler Tester: FAQ

What exactly does the AI Crawler Tester check?

It fetches the robots.txt file from the submitted host, parses user-agent groups, and evaluates the submitted page path for the crawler tokens listed in the result table. It reports Allowed or Blocked for each token based only on those robots.txt rules.

Does Allowed mean an AI product will crawl or cite the page?

No. Allowed means the tested robots.txt rules do not prohibit that crawler token on that path. It does not confirm that the company currently uses the token, has discovered the page, has indexed its content, or will mention or cite it in an answer.

Why can different paths on the same site get different results?

Robots.txt rules can allow or disallow specific path prefixes. The tool evaluates the path you entered, so a crawler may be allowed on the homepage but blocked under a directory such as /private/. Test the actual page path that matters.

What does the tool report when robots.txt is missing?

If robots.txt returns 404 or has no readable content, the tool reports all tested crawlers as allowed by default. That reflects the absence of a robots exclusion rule, not proof that every crawler can pass a firewall, authentication layer, CDN rule, or server-level block.

How are training, search, and user-triggered crawler tokens different?

Crawler operators publish different tokens for different purposes, including model improvement, search discovery, and user-requested retrieval. A rule for one token does not automatically apply to another token from the same company unless a broader matching robots group also covers it. Set policy per published token and purpose.

What data is sent when I test crawler access?

The entered public URL is used to derive the host, page path, and robots.txt URL. The tool sends the robots.txt URL through the Web Aloha proxy first and may try a direct browser fetch as a fallback. It asks for no account credentials or personal details.

How do I allow or block specific AI crawlers?

Add User-agent rules to your robots.txt file. To allow a bot: "User-agent: GPTBot\nDisallow:" (empty disallow = allow all). To block a bot: "User-agent: GPTBot\nDisallow: /" (disallow all). Publish the file at the site root, then retest the exact page path and crawler token.

What are the limitations of this robots.txt test?

It tests the listed crawler tokens against one robots.txt file and one path. It cannot confirm crawler identity, server-level enforcement, JavaScript access, indexing, training use, or citation behavior. Robots.txt is a voluntary protocol, so this result applies to crawlers that honor it.

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