What is PerplexityBot?
PerplexityBot · Perplexity · Search index crawler
PerplexityBot is Perplexity's search crawler. It discovers and indexes pages so Perplexity can surface and link them in its answers. Perplexity states it is not used to crawl content for training AI foundation models. Block it and your pages stop being sources Perplexity can cite.
What it does
PerplexityBot builds the index that answers are retrieved from. Builds the Perplexity index. Blocking it removes you from Perplexity citations.
It does not execute JavaScript. Whatever your server returns in the initial HTML response is the entire page as far as PerplexityBot is concerned — if your content is rendered client-side, this crawler reads an empty container.
PerplexityBot vs Perplexity-User
Perplexity runs two agents with different jobs. PerplexityBot crawls ahead of time to build the search index: it is the one that decides whether you can be cited at all. Perplexity-User fetches a page in real time because a person asked Perplexity about it, for example by pasting your URL.
They also treat robots.txt differently. Perplexity recommends allowing PerplexityBot in robots.txt to appear in results. For Perplexity-User, its documentation says that since a user requested the fetch, this fetcher generally ignores robots.txt rules. A Disallow line for Perplexity-User is a preference, not a block; stopping it takes a firewall rule.
Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; PerplexityBot/1.0; +https://perplexity.ai/perplexitybot)Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; Perplexity-User/1.0; +https://perplexity.ai/perplexity-user)IP ranges and verifying a real PerplexityBot request
Any client can send the PerplexityBot user agent. Perplexity publishes the address ranges its agents use, as JSON, and recommends checking both the user agent and the source IP. Allow-list on both, never on the user agent alone. Perplexity does not publish crawl-rate limits; if the volume is a problem, rate-limit at your CDN.
https://www.perplexity.com/perplexitybot.json
https://www.perplexity.com/perplexity-user.jsoncurl -s -A "Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; PerplexityBot/1.0; +https://perplexity.ai/perplexitybot)" https://example.com/ | head -c 2000Should you block PerplexityBot?
Only if you want out of Perplexity's AI answers. PerplexityBot builds the index an AI answer engine retrieves and cites from, so blocking it means your pages stop being available as a source there.
You lose Perplexity citations entirely. Perplexity surfaces sources prominently next to its answers, so being in that index is unusually visible compared with other answer engines — and being absent is unusually invisible.
To allow it
User-agent: PerplexityBot
Allow: /To block it
User-agent: PerplexityBot
Disallow: /Put the rule in your robots.txt at the site root. A group that names PerplexityBot explicitly takes precedence over your User-agent: * group, so naming it is how you make your intent survive later edits to the wildcard rules.
Verifying a real PerplexityBot request
Perplexity publishes IP ranges for its crawler. Verification matters more here than most: Perplexity's crawling practices have been publicly disputed, so if you care about the distinction between declared and undeclared fetching, checking source IPs is the only way to know which you are seeing.
The mistake people make
Blocking it in response to reporting about undeclared crawling. Blocking the declared crawler removes you from citations while doing nothing about undeclared traffic, which by definition does not announce itself in your robots.txt.
Perplexity's other crawlers
- Perplexity-UserFetches a page when a Perplexity user opens or asks about a specific link.
Frequently asked questions
- What is PerplexityBot?
- PerplexityBot is Perplexity's search crawler. It discovers and indexes pages so Perplexity can surface and link them in its answers. Perplexity states it is not used to crawl content for training AI foundation models. Block it and your pages stop being sources Perplexity can cite.
- Should I block PerplexityBot?
- Only if you want out of Perplexity's AI answers. PerplexityBot builds the index an AI answer engine retrieves and cites from, so blocking it means your pages stop being available as a source there.
- How do I block PerplexityBot in robots.txt?
- Add a group to the robots.txt at your site root: "User-agent: PerplexityBot" followed by "Disallow: /". Use "Allow: /" instead to allow it explicitly.
- Does PerplexityBot respect robots.txt?
- Perplexity recommends allowing PerplexityBot in robots.txt if you want to appear in its results, and a Disallow group is how you opt out of its index. Perplexity-User is different: Perplexity says it generally ignores robots.txt because a user requested the fetch.
- Is PerplexityBot used to train AI models?
- No, according to Perplexity. Its documentation says PerplexityBot is not used to crawl content for AI foundation models; it surfaces and links websites in Perplexity search results.
Further reading
- The Complete Guide to robots.txt for AI Crawlers: Which Bots to Allow
GPTBot vs OAI-SearchBot, ClaudeBot vs Claude-User, Googlebot vs Google-Extended: which AI crawlers to allow, which to block, and copy-ready robots.txt templates.
- How to Create and Optimize an llms.txt File for Your Website
The llms.txt format, where the file goes, how to keep it token-efficient, working examples for Next.js and static sites, and an honest account of who uses it.
- What is Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)? The Complete 2026 Guide
How ChatGPT Search, Perplexity and Claude find, read and cite pages, why that differs from Googlebot, and what the research says actually improves AI visibility.
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