AI crawlers are web crawlers operated by AI companies to collect and index web content for use in AI search results and model training. Major AI crawlers include GPTBot and OAI-SearchBot (OpenAI/ChatGPT), ClaudeBot and Claude-SearchBot (Anthropic/Claude), PerplexityBot (Perplexity), and Google-Extended (Gemini).
Why AI Crawler matters for SEO
AI crawlers respect robots.txt directives. If you block them, your content won't appear in AI search results. Critically, training crawlers (GPTBot, ClaudeBot) are different from search crawlers (OAI-SearchBot, Claude-SearchBot). You can block training while keeping search visibility.
Pro tip on AI Crawler
Allow search-specific AI crawlers in robots.txt: OAI-SearchBot, ChatGPT-User, Claude-SearchBot, Claude-User, PerplexityBot. Optionally block training crawlers: GPTBot, ClaudeBot, Google-Extended. Ensure critical content is in HTML (46% of ChatGPT bot visits use reading mode).
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