Checks / AI crawler access
robots.txt keeps PerplexityBot out of your home page and most of the site
PerplexityBot may read only the paths robots.txt allows for it. Your home page and the rest of the site stay closed to it, so it cannot cite them.
robots_partial_perplexitybot · AI crawler access · Error
What triggers it
robots.txt does not let PerplexityBot fetch your home page, but leaves some other paths open for it; the finding names the first three.
What to change
Remove the Disallow: / rule for PerplexityBot in robots.txt, or add Allow rules for the other paths you want read.
Example
Lines that allow PerplexityBot in robots.txt:
User-agent: PerplexityBot
Allow: /How to confirm the fix
- Open https://example.com/robots.txt: the group that names PerplexityBot (or the * group, if none does) leaves most of the site open, the home page included
- Run a new crawl: the AI crawler table no longer reports PerplexityBot as mostly blocked
About PerplexityBot
PerplexityBot is Perplexity's crawler for surfacing and linking websites in its search results. Perplexity says it is not used to crawl content for AI foundation models. It follows robots.txt, changes can take up to 24 hours to apply, and Perplexity publishes 8 IP ranges for it.
The user-triggered fetcher; Perplexity says it generally ignores robots.txt.
Perplexity's file at perplexity.com/perplexitybot.json held 8 prefixes on 21 October 2026, creation time 2025-02-07. Its WAF section suggests a rule that combines the user-agent with the IP condition, so a request claiming the name from another address does not get through.
Job: Search. Follows robots.txt: Yes, it follows robots.txt.
PerplexityBot: operator, user-agent string and address list
How common it is
We have not measured how common this is on a sample of sites. Counts appear here when a study covers it.
About this check
| Check ID | robots_partial_perplexitybot |
|---|---|
| Report section | AI crawler access |
| Severity | Error |
| How it is decided | Measured: read directly from the page or the server's response. |
| Added | Before 19 Oct 2026 (versions 1 and 2), or a site-wide check with no version date yet |
| Status | Measured in every report |
| Report gives the code | Yes, one block for the site |
Settings by platform
For robots.txt, where the setting lives differs by platform. Our guides cover 13 of them: AI crawler settings by platform.
Related checks
- robots.txt keeps OAI-SearchBot out of your home page and most of the site
- robots.txt keeps Perplexity-User out of your home page and most of the site
- robots.txt blocks Perplexity-User
- robots.txt blocks PerplexityBot
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