What is PerplexityBot?
PerplexityBot is a search crawler run by Perplexity. Here is what Perplexity says it is for, and how to allow or block it.
What it is for
What Perplexity says: Search. Finds and links to pages in Perplexity's answers. Perplexity says it is not used to train AI models.
Search crawlers build an index that an AI assistant or search product uses to find and link to pages when it answers questions. Blocking one can mean that product cannot show or link to your pages.
Is PerplexityBot blocked on your site?
Free. Checks your robots.txt for PerplexityBot and 13 other AI crawlers.
How to block PerplexityBot
Add this group to the robots.txt file at the root of your site:
User-agent: PerplexityBot
Disallow: /How to allow PerplexityBot
If nothing in your robots.txt names PerplexityBot and your User-agent: * group does not say Disallow: /, it is already allowed. If an older rule blocks it, remove that group, or say so explicitly:
User-agent: PerplexityBot
Allow: /robots.txt is a request, not a lock, and a "block AI bots" setting at your host or CDN can turn PerplexityBot away whatever robots.txt says. More on writing the rules
Other Perplexity agents
- Perplexity-User: a user fetcher
Operators publish these names and change them. This page reflects what Perplexity has said publicly; check Perplexity's own documentation before you rely on it. See the full AI crawler list.