AI Crawling
AI Crawling refers to the process by which automated bots operated by AI companies—such as GPTBot, ClaudeBot, and PerplexityBot—visit and collect content from websites. The collected data is used for a variety of purposes, including large language model (LLM) training, AI search result generation, and real-time question answering.
AI Crawling refers to the process by which automated bots operated by AI companies—such as GPTBot, ClaudeBot, and PerplexityBot—visit and collect content from websites. The collected data is used for a variety of purposes, including large language model (LLM) training, AI search result generation, and real-time question answering.
Why It Matters
As of 2025–2026, AI crawler traffic is growing rapidly as a share of total bot traffic, with training-purpose crawling accounting for approximately 80% of all AI bot activity. For content creators, AI Crawling is significant in two ways. First, you need to be able to control whether your content is used as training data for AI models without authorization. Second, if you want your content to be cited and surfaced in AI search engines (Perplexity, ChatGPT Search, Gemini, etc.), you must allow the relevant search crawlers to access your site. In other words, managing AI Crawling is a strategic challenge of balancing content protection with securing AI visibility (LLM Visibility).
Major AI Crawlers
As of 2026, the major AI crawlers, their operators, and primary purposes are as follows:
| User-Agent | Operator | Primary Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| GPTBot | OpenAI | Model training data collection |
| OAI-SearchBot | OpenAI | ChatGPT search result generation |
| ChatGPT-User | OpenAI | Real-time page retrieval during user conversations |
| ClaudeBot | Anthropic | Model training data collection |
| Claude-SearchBot | Anthropic | Claude search result indexing |
| Claude-User | Anthropic | Real-time page retrieval for user queries |
| Google-Extended | Gemini model training control token | |
| PerplexityBot | Perplexity | Web crawling for AI search |
| CCBot | Common Crawl | Open web archive (used for training many AI models) |
| Bytespider | ByteDance | TikTok search and AI features |
| meta-externalagent | Meta | Meta AI feature support |
| Applebot-Extended | Apple | Apple Intelligence training |
| Amazonbot | Amazon | Alexa and Amazon AI services |
Googlebot accounts for 38.7% of all AI-related bot requests, followed by GPTBot at 12.8%, meta-externalagent at 11.6%, and ClaudeBot at 11.4%—these four crawlers collectively represent approximately 74% of all AI bot traffic.
How to Allow or Block AI Crawlers
AI crawler access is controlled through the robots.txt file. Most major AI crawlers (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, etc.) officially state that they comply with robots.txt directives.
Example: Blocking all AI training crawlers:
User-agent: GPTBot
Disallow: /
User-agent: ClaudeBot
Disallow: /
User-agent: CCBot
Disallow: /
User-agent: Google-Extended
Disallow: /
User-agent: Bytespider
Disallow: /
Example: Blocking training while allowing AI search visibility:
# Block training crawlers
User-agent: GPTBot
Disallow: /
User-agent: ClaudeBot
Disallow: /
User-agent: CCBot
Disallow: /
# Allow search/real-time retrieval crawlers
User-agent: ChatGPT-User
Allow: /
User-agent: Claude-SearchBot
Allow: /
User-agent: PerplexityBot
Allow: /
Note that Google-Extended is a control token rather than a traditional crawler, so it does not appear directly in server logs. It is used to restrict Gemini training without blocking Googlebot itself.
Strategic Considerations
Trade-off between training blocking and AI search visibility: Blocking all AI crawlers wholesale protects your content but prevents it from being cited in AI search results. Selectively allowing access by distinguishing between training bots and search bots is the most recommended strategy as of 2026.
Regular audits are essential: AI companies frequently introduce new crawler User-Agents. When Anthropic consolidated its previous anthropic-ai and Claude-Web agents into ClaudeBot, sites that did not update their rules were inadvertently left accessible. You should review your robots.txt at least once per quarter.
Cloudflare Pay-per-Crawl: In July 2025, Cloudflare launched a Pay-per-Crawl feature that allows site owners to receive micropayments of $0.01–$0.05 per AI bot crawl request. This has attracted attention as a new option for content monetization.
Server log monitoring: Even after configuring robots.txt, it is important to verify through server logs that crawlers are actually complying with your directives. Some smaller AI crawlers have been reported to ignore robots.txt, in which case firewall-level blocking may be necessary.
Sources:
- Robots.txt Strategy 2026: Managing AI & Traditional Crawlers
- ClaudeBot, Claude-User & Claude-SearchBot: Anthropic's Three-Bot Framework
- AI Bots and Robots.txt | Paul Calvano
- How to Block AI Crawlers (Complete 2026 Guide)
- The Complete Guide to AI Crawler Management in 2026
- Monthly AI Crawler Report: January 2026 Traffic Trends
- AI / LLM User-Agents: Blocking Guide
- Anthropic's Claude Bots Make Robots.txt Decisions More Granular
- Control content use for AI training with Cloudflare
- Complete List of AI Crawlers in 2025
Related inblog Posts
How inblog Helps
inblog's robots.txt allows search engine crawlers by default. Per-bot AI crawler settings (allow/block) can be managed through the dashboard's robots.txt editor.