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Outbyte PC Repair FREERepair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Outbyte Driver Updater FREEFix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →“AI crawler” and “search crawler” are not mutually exclusive categories: the important difference is what a particular bot does. Providers may use separate agents for search discovery, model-development data collection, and fetching a page for an individual user. Website owners should set rules for each purpose rather than applying one blanket policy to every AI-related bot.
What is the difference between AI crawlers and search engine crawlers?
A crawler’s purpose matters more than whether its operator labels it an AI crawler or a search crawler. An automatic search crawler discovers pages to help surface them in results. A model-development crawler collects material that may be used in training. A user-triggered agent fetches a page in response to a person’s request. These functions can have different bot names and different controls—even when they belong to the same company.
For example, OpenAI documents OAI-SearchBot for ChatGPT search discovery, GPTBot for content that may be used in model training, and ChatGPT-User for certain user actions. Anthropic describes corresponding search, training-related, and user-requested agents. Perplexity documents a search crawler and a separate user-requested fetch agent. Google takes a different approach: Google-Extended is a robots.txt product token, not a separate HTTP crawler identity.
That distinction is useful when deciding whether to allow a provider to find and link to your pages while limiting other uses. It does not guarantee citations, traffic, or exclusion of material already collected.
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How do major providers identify and control their crawlers?
Names and behavior below reflect the providers’ official documentation. They are provider-specific, can change, and should be checked before you deploy rules.
| Provider and agent/token | Documented purpose | What the control means |
|---|---|---|
| OpenAI: OAI-SearchBot | Surfaces websites in ChatGPT search features. | Blocking it means a site will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers, though it may still appear as a navigational link. OpenAI says its search and training settings are independent. OpenAI crawler overview |
| OpenAI: GPTBot | Crawls content that may be used in training OpenAI’s generative AI foundation models. | Its setting can be managed independently of OAI-SearchBot. A block is a crawler preference, not a way to retrieve material already collected. OpenAI crawler overview |
| OpenAI: ChatGPT-User | Handles certain user actions. | OpenAI says robots.txt rules may not apply to these user-triggered requests. OpenAI crawler overview |
| Anthropic: ClaudeBot | Collects public-web material that could potentially contribute to training. | Anthropic says its bots honor robots.txt, including Crawl-delay. Rules need to be set on each relevant subdomain. Anthropic crawler guidance |
| Anthropic: Claude-SearchBot | Helps improve search result quality. | Robots.txt is the documented crawl preference mechanism. Anthropic crawler guidance |
| Anthropic: Claude-User | Retrieves a site in response to an individual user question. | Anthropic describes this as a user-requested fetch; consult its current guidance for the applicable control and behavior. Anthropic crawler guidance |
| Google: Google-Extended | Controls specified Gemini model-training and grounding uses of content crawled from a site. | It is a standalone robots.txt product token used with Google’s existing user agents, not a separate HTTP crawler identity. It does not affect inclusion in Google Search or act as a Search ranking signal. Google common crawlers |
| Google: Googlebot | Crawls pages for Google Search, including Search AI features. | Googlebot directives manage crawling for Search AI features. Page-level controls such as nosnippet, data-nosnippet, max-snippet, and noindex affect what may be shown. Google AI features and your website |
| Perplexity: PerplexityBot | Automatically crawls to surface and link websites in Perplexity search results; Perplexity says it is not used for foundation-model training. | Perplexity recommends allowing this crawler and its published IP ranges for search-result inclusion. Changes may take up to 24 hours to reflect. Perplexity crawler guidance |
| Perplexity: Perplexity-User | May fetch a page in response to a user question and include a link in the response. | Perplexity says user-requested fetches generally ignore robots.txt. Perplexity crawler guidance |
What is the difference between GPTBot and OAI-SearchBot?
They have different documented purposes: GPTBot is for crawling content that may be used in model training; OAI-SearchBot helps surface websites in ChatGPT search. OpenAI explicitly says their settings are independent, so you can allow search crawling while disallowing GPTBot. That choice expresses a preference about crawling; it does not guarantee that a page will be cited or that previously collected content will be removed. OpenAI’s crawler overview
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How do I block AI crawlers but allow search engine crawlers?
First decide which outcome you want. “Allow search engines” could mean appearing in Google Search, appearing in a provider’s AI search results, or both. Those are controlled by different identities and tokens. Avoid a broad rule for all bots when your goal is to block only model-development collection.
- Choose a policy by purpose. Decide separately whether to allow automatic search discovery, model-development collection, and user-triggered retrieval. A provider’s categories and controls do not necessarily map to another provider’s.
- Use the provider’s exact token. Read current official instructions and create specific robots.txt groups for the named agents. For example, an owner who wants to allow OpenAI search discovery but disallow its training crawler would configure OAI-SearchBot and GPTBot separately, following OpenAI’s current syntax. Do not assume a setting for one applies to the other.
- Check the whole file for conflicts. Review existing broad groups and inherited or repeated rules so a site-wide disallow does not block crawlers you intend to allow. Google-Extended is a product token used with Google’s existing user agents; it is not a separate HTTP bot to identify in request logs.
- Use the right control for the goal. Keep sensitive pages behind authentication. Use page-level indexing or preview controls when you want to limit indexing or snippets, rather than merely reduce crawler traffic.
- Review network controls too. Check CDN and WAF rules separately: a page permitted by robots.txt may still be denied at the network layer. If your WAF allows a crawler, Perplexity recommends combining user-agent and IP checks rather than relying on the user-agent alone.
- Validate after changing policy. Inspect access logs, compare request source addresses with the provider’s published IP information, and recheck provider documentation because ranges and behavior can change. Allow for provider-specific recrawl and propagation time; do not assume every change takes effect immediately.
Does robots.txt stop AI training or keep pages private?
No. robots.txt expresses a crawl preference; it is not authentication and cannot force every client to comply. Google says robots.txt is mainly for managing crawler access and request load, not keeping a page out of Google. A blocked URL can still be indexed based on external links even if its contents are not crawled. Google recommends noindex or password protection for the corresponding indexing or privacy goals. Google’s introduction to robots.txt
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For confidential information, require authentication and authorize access at the server. For deindexing or snippet limits, use the appropriate indexing or preview control. A robots.txt disallow may also prevent a crawler from seeing page-level instructions, so it is not a substitute for choosing the right control for the outcome you want.
A block can signal that a crawler should not collect material going forward, subject to the provider’s behavior and policy. It does not establish that content already crawled has been deleted from a dataset or model. Nor does allowing a search crawler promise that your page will appear in an answer or receive visits.
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How can I verify that a crawler is genuine?
A user-agent string is a claim made by the requester and can be imitated. Treat it as one clue, not proof. OpenAI and Perplexity publish IP information for their crawlers; consult each provider’s current documentation and compare observed request addresses with those ranges. If you use WAF rules, combine relevant user-agent and IP conditions where the provider recommends it, and monitor logs for unexpected blocks or requests.
Keep the checks current: a legitimate provider may change its published ranges, bot behavior, or policy. Also confirm that the request reached the origin as expected. Robots.txt permission does not override a CDN or WAF deny rule, and a crawler reaching the server does not mean the page can be used for every purpose.
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What to expect after a crawler-policy change
Changes are not necessarily immediate. OpenAI says its search systems may take about 24 hours to adjust after a robots.txt update. Perplexity says configuration changes may take up to 24 hours to reflect. These are provider-specific estimates, not a universal propagation guarantee. Anthropic’s documentation notes that blocking source IPs can interfere with a crawler’s ability to read robots.txt and may not provide a persistent opt-out; it also says rules should cover each relevant subdomain. Check current provider instructions, then use logs and available webmaster tools to verify what is happening on your site.
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