What are AI Crawlers?
TL;DR
AI crawlers are automated bots operated by AI companies (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Perplexity) that scan websites to collect content for training and powering AI models.
Last updated: 2026-03-09
Definition#
AI crawlers are web bots that visit your site to collect content for AI platforms. They work like traditional search engine crawlers (Googlebot, Bingbot) but serve a different purpose: feeding content to AI models for training, retrieval, and citation.
The major AI crawlers include GPTBot (OpenAI), ClaudeBot (Anthropic), PerplexityBot (Perplexity AI), Google-Extended (Google Gemini), and Applebot-Extended (Apple Intelligence). Each one is identified by its user-agent string, and you control their access through your robots.txt file.
Blocking AI crawlers means your content will not appear in those platforms' answers. Allowing them means your content can be retrieved, cited, and recommended to users of those AI tools.
Why It Matters for AI Readiness#
If AI crawlers cannot access your site, AI models cannot cite you. It is that simple. The Bot Access factor in your AgentReady™ score measures whether major AI crawlers can reach your content.
Many sites accidentally block AI crawlers with overly broad robots.txt rules or by requiring JavaScript rendering that bots cannot handle. See our guide on fixing robots.txt for AI crawlers to make sure your site is accessible.
Related Concepts#
AI crawlers are managed through robots.txt. They collect data for LLMs and RAG systems. Their access is measured by the Bot Access scoring factor.
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