# PerplexityBot

**Operated by:** Perplexity | **Category:** Search index

Perplexity's indexing crawler — the one that decides whether your pages can be surfaced as a source in Perplexity answers.

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## At a glance

| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Operator | Perplexity |
| Category | Search index |
| User-Agent token | `PerplexityBot` |
| robots.txt token | `PerplexityBot` |
| Respects robots.txt | Documented as compliant (disputed — see note below) |
| Operator docs | docs.perplexity.ai |

**Note on robots.txt compliance:** Perplexity documents that PerplexityBot follows robots.txt, but in August 2025 Cloudflare reported that Perplexity traffic continued to reach pages after site owners had blocked both its declared user agents, apparently via undeclared browser-like agents, and removed Perplexity from its Verified Bots programme. Perplexity rejects the characterisation, arguing a user-driven agent is not a crawler. The disagreement is not settled.

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## What PerplexityBot does

PerplexityBot crawls and indexes pages so that Perplexity can find and link them when it answers. Perplexity presents itself as an answer engine that cites its sources on every response, so pages in this index are eligible to appear as a numbered citation. Perplexity explicitly recommends allowing this token if you want to appear in its results.

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## Should you block PerplexityBot?

Blocking PerplexityBot removes you from the index Perplexity searches, and therefore from its citation list. Perplexity is one of the more generous engines about linking out, so this is usually a straightforward loss of referral traffic with no offsetting benefit.

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## How to block PerplexityBot

Add the rule below to the `robots.txt` file at the root of your domain (`yourdomain.com/robots.txt`). Use the `PerplexityBot` token rather than the raw User-Agent string, and repeat the rule on every subdomain you want covered.

**Block PerplexityBot:**

```
User-agent: PerplexityBot
Disallow: /
```

**Allow PerplexityBot explicitly:**

```
User-agent: PerplexityBot
Allow: /
```

> **Note:** `robots.txt` is a request, not a lock — it works because well-behaved crawlers choose to read it. It also isn't retroactive: anything already fetched stays fetched. If you need a hard stop, block at your firewall or CDN as well.

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## How MetaPilot handles PerplexityBot

MetaPilot detects PerplexityBot in your edge logs, so you see its real hits on your real pages rather than a guess: how often it visits, which URLs it takes, and how that trend moves week to week. From the same screen you flip PerplexityBot between allow and deny with one click — MetaPilot rewrites only its own managed section of your `robots.txt` and serves it at the edge, so the change is live on the crawler's next visit with no deploy and no touching your own rules.

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## Related crawlers

- **Perplexity-User** (Perplexity) — Answer engine. Perplexity's live fetcher, which opens a page in the moment a user's question requires it.
- **Amazonbot** (Amazon) — Search index. Amazon's crawler, used to improve Alexa's answers and Amazon's own search and AI products.
- **Claude-SearchBot** (Anthropic) — Search index. Anthropic's indexing crawler, which builds the index Claude's web search draws on.
- **Meta-WebIndexer** (Meta) — Search index. The crawler that builds the search index Meta AI consults when it answers a question.

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## FAQ

**What is PerplexityBot?**
Perplexity's indexing crawler — the one that decides whether your pages can be surfaced as a source in Perplexity answers. PerplexityBot crawls and indexes pages so that Perplexity can find and link them when it answers. Pages in this index are eligible to appear as a numbered citation in Perplexity responses.

**Does PerplexityBot respect robots.txt?**
Yes — Perplexity documents that PerplexityBot honours `robots.txt`. However, this is disputed: in August 2025 Cloudflare reported that Perplexity traffic continued to reach pages after site owners blocked both its declared user agents. Perplexity rejects the characterisation. The disagreement is not settled.

**How do I block PerplexityBot?**
Add `User-agent: PerplexityBot` and `Disallow: /` to the `robots.txt` file at the root of your domain. Repeat on every subdomain you want covered.

**Will blocking PerplexityBot hurt my traffic?**
Blocking PerplexityBot removes you from Perplexity's index and citation list. Since Perplexity is one of the more generous engines about linking out, this is usually a straightforward loss of referral traffic with no offsetting benefit.