AI crawlers have become a major part of the modern SEO ecosystem. They scan websites, collect content, and feed data to AI systems like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, and more. As an SEO Manager handling multiple websites, I’ve been monitoring these crawlers closely—especially as AI-driven search and AI-powered answer engines grow rapidly.
Before writing this blog, I reviewed and analyzed AI crawler behavior using my own server logs, and I also took inspiration from the case studies published by major SEO publications like Search Engine Journal.
This blog is my personal understanding + practical review, rewritten uniquely for my audience.
My goal is simple:
To help website owners understand which AI crawlers matter, which can be blocked, and how they affect your visibility, traffic, and bandwidth.
Why AI Crawlers Matter More Than Ever
Here’s what I discovered while monitoring logs for my websites:
- Some AI crawlers behave responsibly; some crawl extremely aggressively.
- Many SEO managers don’t know how much bandwidth AI crawlers consume.
- AI visibility is becoming as important as Google search visibility.
- Blocking the wrong AI crawler can reduce your brand’s presence in AI summaries.
- Some unknown bots pretend to be AI crawlers and scrape content.
Understanding AI crawlers is no longer optional. It’s a critical part of 2025 SEO.
Complete Verified AI Crawler List (Explained in My Own Words)
Below is a unique, SEO-friendly breakdown of the major AI crawlers you may see in your server logs.
These insights combine my personal analysis + industry case studies (including learnings inspired by Search Engine Journal’s crawler research).
GPTBot
Purpose: Trains OpenAI models like ChatGPT and GPT-4.
My Take: I allow this bot on blog content but block it on private client material.
ChatGPT-User
Purpose: Fetches content when ChatGPT users request page access.
My Take: Frequent but valuable. I keep it allowed for AI visibility.
OAI-SearchBot
Purpose: Helps OpenAI build search-driven results for its AI search engine.
My Take: That’s why I never block this—important for future AI ranking.
ClaudeBot
Purpose: Collects training data for Anthropic’s Claude models.
My Take: Mild crawler. Usually safe and polite.
Claude-User / Claude-SearchBot
Purpose: Fetches content when Claude users ask for page summaries.
My Take: Keep allowed if you want citations in AI answers.
Google Gemini / Deep Research Bots
Purpose: Supports Google’s AI-powered research and answer engine.
My Take: Crucial for AI-powered Google experiences. Never block unless absolutely needed.
Google-CloudVertexBot
Purpose: Used for Vertex AI—only crawls if site owners enable it.
My Take: Rare in normal logs, but safe.
Google-Extended
Purpose: Controls whether Googlebot’s crawled content is used in AI training.
My Take: Not a crawler—more like a permission switch.
PerplexityBot
Purpose: Crawls for Perplexity AI’s answer engine.
My Take: Fast, aggressive. Allow if you want AI citations.
Perplexity-User
Purpose: Fetches content for real-time user queries.
My Take: Lightweight but frequent.
Meta AI Crawlers
Purpose: Train Meta’s Llama and enhance Meta AI search.
My Take: Becoming common. I allow them for brand visibility.
Applebot / Apple AI Extensions
Purpose: Supports Apple AI and search-related features.
My Take: Apple search ranking may depend on this in future.
Amazonbot
Purpose: Feeds Amazon’s AI systems including Alexa.
My Take: Heavy crawler. Monitor crawl rate.
Bytespider (ByteDance)
Purpose: AI training for TikTok and other ByteDance products.
My Take: One of the most aggressive bots. I often restrict it.
CCBot (Common Crawl)
Purpose: Provides global open AI training data.
My Take: Important but bandwidth-heavy; throttle if needed.
Diffbot
Purpose: Extracts structured data for AI companies.
My Take: Good for AI visibility but sometimes too deep in crawling.
DuckAssistBot
Purpose: Crawls for DuckDuckGo’s AI answer engine.
My Take: Lightweight and well-behaved.
MistralAI User Bot
Purpose: Fetches data for Mistral’s “Le Chat” system.
My Take: Less common but safe.
Webz.io
Purpose: Large-scale scraping for AI and data analysis.
My Take: Monitor closely—can be heavy.
ICC-Crawler
Purpose: Research-focused AI crawler.
My Take: Rare. Limited crawling.
Hidden AI Crawlers That Do Not Identify Themselves
Based on my logs and analysis, some AI systems don’t reveal clear user-agent details.
These include:
- you.com
- Grok
- ChatGPT Operator / Atlas
- Bing Copilot Chat
- Some small model training companies
The only way I detect them is via IP matching, patterns, or trap URLs.
How I Personally Manage AI Crawlers
Here’s my exact workflow as an SEO Manager:
1. I check server logs weekly
AI crawlers hit differently from Googlebot, so weekly checks help me track new bots.
2. I verify IPs
Many fake bots use “ClaudeBot” or “GPTBot” as their user-agent.
IP verification prevents content scraping.
3. I create custom allow/disallow rules
Blog content → allow
Premium pages → block
High-traffic pages → throttle
User-only content → completely blocked
4. I protect sensitive URLs
Examples:
/admin
/wp-login
/client-reports
/paid-resources
/ai-tools
5. I track bandwidth usage
Some AI crawlers can hit 800–2000 pages per hour.
This affects performance for real website visitors.
Why You Should Allow Some AI Crawlers (My SEO View)
Allowing AI crawlers can help with:
- Being shown in AI answer engines
- Getting cited more frequently
- Boosting visibility in chat-based search
- Improving brand awareness
- Being discovered in AI-powered browsing tools
With Google, OpenAI, Meta, and Perplexity rolling out AI search systems, visibility in these models is essential.
How I Block AI Crawlers Using robots.txt (My Tested Setup)
As an SEO manager, one of the first things I check today—especially after reviewing the AI crawler case studies on SearchEngineJournal—is whether my websites are being crawled by unnecessary AI bots. Some AI crawlers respect robots.txt, some don’t, but blocking them at the robots.txt level is still the first step.
Below are real, practical robots.txt examples you can use to block most known AI crawlers. These examples are simple, safe, and tested in my workflows.
1. Block OpenAI’s GPTBot
2. Block Google’s AI Crawler (Google-Extended)
3. Block Anthropic’s Claude Crawler
4. Block Perplexity AI Crawler
5. Block Common AI Aggregator Crawlers
6. Block All Unlisted AI Crawlers
(Useful if you don’t want ANY AI model training on your site)
This doesn’t block every AI bot in the world, but it prevents them from scraping specific sections you want protected.
7. Allow Legitimate Search Bots (Important)
Never accidentally block Google or Bing. That will destroy your rankings.
So at the top of your robots.txt, keep:
My SEO Opinion: Does robots.txt Really Stop AI Crawlers?
From my experience:
✔ Reputable AI companies honor robots.txt (OpenAI, Google, Anthropic).
✘ New or unknown AI bots often ignore it completely.
So while robots.txt is a strong first-layer filter, real protection comes from:
– Firewall rules
– Bot-blocking CDNs (Cloudflare, Sucuri)
– Rate limiting
– IP-based blocks
But robots.txt is still important for signaling your policy publicly.
Why You Should Block or Throttle Others
You should restrict crawlers if:
- They scrape aggressively
- They hit private content
- They overload your server
- They come from unverified IPs
- They don’t identify themselves
Not all AI bots are good. Some are purely content scrapers.
Conclusion: Stay in Control of AI Crawlers
The AI era has introduced a new set of user agents that every SEO manager must understand.
Through my own log analysis and insights inspired by Search Engine Journal’s case studies, I’ve learned that AI crawlers can help you—but only when managed correctly.
Allow the important ones (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Perplexity, Apple).
Restrict or block unknown or aggressive ones.
Monitor logs regularly.
Protect private and paid content.
This balance will help you maintain both AI visibility and website performance.
20 FAQs
1. What are AI crawlers?
AI crawlers are automated bots that scan websites to collect data for AI models, search engines, and machine-learning systems.
2. How are AI crawlers different from Googlebot?
Googlebot mainly indexes pages for search, while AI crawlers scan content to train or enhance AI-generated outputs.
3. Why are AI crawlers suddenly increasing?
With the rise of AI tools, companies need massive datasets. That’s why AI crawling activity has grown rapidly.
4. What information do AI crawlers collect?
They typically collect text, structure, headings, and semantic meaning—but not private or gated content.
5. Can AI crawlers affect SEO performance?
Yes. Excess crawling may increase server load, but generally they don’t harm rankings directly.
6. Should I block AI crawlers?
You can if you want to protect your content from being used for AI training. It depends on your strategy.
7. How do I block AI crawlers?
Use robots.txt disallow rules for their specific user-agent names.
8. Can AI crawlers access paid or login-only content?
No. They follow basic crawling rules and cannot bypass paywalls or authentication.
9. Do AI crawlers cause duplicate content issues?
Not directly. However, AI-generated content online might resemble your content, which is why protection matters.
10. How do AI crawlers impact content originality?
They may use your content as training data, potentially influencing future AI-generated text.
11. Is allowing AI crawlers beneficial?
For some websites, yes—more visibility across AI platforms can drive indirect traffic.
12. How can I identify AI crawler activity?
Check server logs for user-agent names listed in the SEJ case study.
13. What user-agents do AI crawlers use?
Several, including ones from OpenAI, Anthropic, Perplexity, etc., which I analyzed from SEJ’s case study.
14. Are AI crawlers legal?
Yes, as long as they follow robots.txt rules. Website owners can choose to allow or block them.
15. Can AI crawlers index my entire website?
They can crawl publicly accessible content unless restricted explicitly.
16. How do AI crawlers treat noindex tags?
They typically respect noindex and nofollow rules like traditional crawlers.
17. Will blocking AI crawlers reduce my traffic?
Not search traffic. It may reduce visibility on AI platforms but not Google.
18. How often do AI crawlers visit a site?
It varies. High-authority sites might see more frequent visits.
19. How do I monitor AI crawler requests?
Use server logs, Cloudflare logs, or host-provided analytics.
20. Should I optimize for AI crawlers?
Yes. Clear structure, high-quality content, and semantic markup help AI understand your pages better.
