What is an AI crawler checker?

An AI crawler checker is a tool that analyzes your website's robots.txt file and other access signals to determine which AI bots (like GPTBot, ChatGPT-User, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot) are allowed or blocked from crawling your site. It reads the actual directives in your robots.txt and calculates an AI Visibility Score that summarizes your site's accessibility to the AI ecosystem.

Why should I care if AI bots can crawl my website?

AI chatbots and search engines like ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity use crawled content to generate answers. If your site blocks these bots, your content will not appear in AI-generated responses, which means you are invisible to a growing channel of user discovery. Allowing AI crawlers can drive brand awareness, traffic, and citations from AI systems.

Does allowing AI crawlers hurt my Google SEO rankings?

No. Allowing AI bots like GPTBot or ClaudeBot has no effect on your Google search rankings. Google uses Googlebot for search indexing, which is a completely separate crawler. Google-Extended is Google's AI training bot, and allowing or blocking it does not influence your position in Google search results. Your SEO and AI visibility are independent channels.

What is the AI Visibility Score?

The AI Visibility Score is a metric calculated by this tool that summarizes how accessible your website is to the major AI crawlers. It considers robots.txt directives, meta robots tags, X-Robots-Tag headers, and the presence of an llms.txt file. A higher score means more AI bots can access your content, while a lower score indicates that some or all AI crawlers are blocked.

What is llms.txt and why does it matter?

llms.txt is a proposed standard file (placed at yourdomain.com/llms.txt) that provides a structured summary of your website's content specifically for large language models. It helps AI systems understand what your site offers without needing to crawl every page. Having an llms.txt file can improve how accurately AI models represent and cite your website in their responses.

How do I allow GPTBot on my website?

Add the following lines to your robots.txt file: 'User-agent: GPTBot' followed by 'Allow: /'. This explicitly permits OpenAI's GPTBot to crawl all pages on your site. You can also restrict access to specific paths by using 'Disallow: /private/' instead. After updating robots.txt, use this checker to verify the change took effect.

How do I block AI crawlers from my website?

To block specific AI bots, add disallow directives to your robots.txt. For example: 'User-agent: GPTBot' followed by 'Disallow: /' blocks GPTBot from all pages. You can block individual bots or use a blanket rule for all AI crawlers. Remember that blocking AI bots means your content will not appear in AI-generated answers or training data.

How accurate is this AI crawler checker?

This checker fetches your actual robots.txt file from your server in real time and parses every directive accurately. It also checks meta robots tags and X-Robots-Tag HTTP headers, which other tools often miss. The results reflect exactly what AI crawlers see when they visit your site, making this one of the most accurate AI crawler checking tools available online.

Is this AI crawler checker free to use?

Yes, this AI crawler checker is completely free with no signup required. You can check as many domains as you want, as many times as you want. There are no hidden fees, no premium tiers, and no data collection. Your domain checks are not stored or shared with anyone.

Does checking my domain affect my website in any way?

No. This checker only reads your publicly available robots.txt file and checks for standard HTTP headers and the llms.txt file. It does not submit any data to your server, does not modify any files, and has zero impact on your website's performance, rankings, or security. It is a read-only analysis.

AI Crawler Checker: See Which AI Bots Can Access Your Website

Check if AI crawlers like GPTBot, ClaudeBot, and Google-Extended can access your website. Free AI crawler checker. No signup needed.

AI Crawler Access Analyzer

Check which AI bots can crawl your site and optimize for AI visibility

AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity are sending crawler bots across the internet to read and learn from your website content. But if your robots.txt file blocks those bots, your site becomes invisible to AI-powered answers, recommendations, and search results. This AI crawler checker scans your website's robots.txt file in real time and tells you exactly which AI bots can access your content and which ones are blocked. It also checks for llms.txt, meta robots tags, and X-Robots-Tag headers, then calculates an AI Visibility Score so you can see at a glance how visible your site is to the AI ecosystem. No signup, no installation, and no data stored.

How to Check AI Crawler Access for Your Website

Checking which AI bots can crawl your website takes less than ten seconds. You do not need to open your robots.txt file manually or search through lines of directives. This tool fetches and parses your robots.txt automatically, checks for meta robots tags and X-Robots-Tag HTTP headers, and verifies whether your domain has an llms.txt file for AI optimization. Everything happens server-side so you get accurate results that reflect what the bots actually see when they visit.

Enter your domain name

Type your website domain into the input field above. You can enter it with or without the https:// prefix. For example, 'toolsox.com' or 'https://toolsox.com' both work. The checker handles the URL normalization automatically, so you do not need to worry about formatting.

Click Check and wait for the scan

Hit the Check button and the tool will fetch your robots.txt file from the server, parse every user-agent and disallow directive, check your site's meta robots tags and X-Robots-Tag headers, and look for an llms.txt file at the root of your domain. The entire scan typically completes in under five seconds for most websites.

Review your AI Visibility Score and bot status

After the scan finishes, you will see a detailed breakdown showing each AI bot (GPTBot, ChatGPT-User, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, Google-Extended, and more) with its status: Allowed or Blocked. You also get an overall AI Visibility Score that summarizes how accessible your content is to AI crawlers, plus specific recommendations for improving your score if needed.

Take action on the recommendations

If any AI bots are blocked that you want to allow, the tool shows you exactly which robots.txt directives are causing the block. You can then update your robots.txt file to allow those specific bots. If you are missing an llms.txt file, the tool can help you generate one to improve your AI crawlability and visibility.

How AI Crawlers Work and Why They Matter for Your Website

AI crawlers are automated bots that browse the internet to collect content for training and powering AI models. Unlike traditional search engine crawlers like Googlebot that index pages for search results, AI crawlers gather content to feed into large language models (LLMs) that generate answers in chatbots, summarize information, and make recommendations. The major AI crawlers operating today include OpenAI's GPTBot and ChatGPT-User, Anthropic's ClaudeBot, Perplexity's PerplexityBot, and Google's Google-Extended. Each of these bots reads your robots.txt file before crawling, and if you have directives that disallow them, they skip your content entirely. This has massive implications for your website's visibility. When someone asks ChatGPT a question related to your industry, the model draws from the content it was trained on. If your site was blocked during the crawl, your expertise, products, and brand never make it into the AI's knowledge base. The same applies to Claude, Perplexity, and Google's AI-powered search overviews. Your robots.txt file is essentially the gatekeeper that decides whether your content participates in the AI ecosystem or gets left out. The AI Visibility Score calculated by this tool quantifies exactly how much of the AI landscape your site is visible to, making it easy to compare against competitors and track improvements over time. Beyond robots.txt, the tool also checks for the llms.txt standard, which is an emerging convention where websites provide a structured summary of their content specifically for AI crawlers. Having an llms.txt file signals to AI systems that your content is intentionally available and well-organized for machine consumption, which can improve how accurately AI models represent your website in their responses.

AI Crawlers Compared: Which Bots Matter Most for Your Website

Not all AI crawlers have the same reach or impact. Understanding which ones to prioritize helps you make informed decisions about your robots.txt configuration. Here is a breakdown of the major AI crawlers this tool checks and what each one means for your website's visibility.

GPTBot (OpenAI)

OpenAI's primary crawler that collects content for training GPT models. If GPTBot is allowed, your website content can be included in future GPT model training data, which means your expertise could surface when users ask ChatGPT questions related to your niche. Blocking GPTBot prevents your content from being used in training but does not affect whether existing trained knowledge references your site.

ChatGPT-User (OpenAI)

This bot is used by ChatGPT when it performs live web searches to answer user questions. Unlike GPTBot which trains on historical data, ChatGPT-User fetches real-time content. Allowing this bot means ChatGPT can read and cite your website when answering questions, giving you direct visibility in AI chat responses. Blocking ChatGPT-User means your site will never appear as a source in ChatGPT's web-browsing mode.

ClaudeBot (Anthropic)

Anthropic's crawler that collects content for training Claude models. Similar to GPTBot, allowing ClaudeBot means your content could be part of Claude's training corpus. Claude is used by millions of users and is integrated into enterprise tools, so visibility here extends your reach significantly beyond traditional search.

PerplexityBot (Perplexity)

Perplexity's AI search engine crawler. Perplexity provides direct answers with citations, and their bot fetches content to include in those answers. Allowing PerplexityBot means your site can be cited as a source in Perplexity's AI-generated responses, which are increasingly popular for research and information-seeking queries.

Google-Extended (Google)

Google's separate crawler for AI training data. While Googlebot handles search indexing, Google-Extended specifically gathers content for Google's AI models like Gemini. Allowing Google-Extended means your content can influence Google's AI-generated overviews and answers, complementing your traditional SEO visibility.

FacebookBot / Meta AI

Meta's crawler used for training their AI models including Llama. With billions of users across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, Meta's AI models have enormous reach. Allowing FacebookBot means your content could be part of the knowledge base powering AI features across Meta's platforms.

Who Needs an AI Crawler Checker and Why

The AI crawler checker serves a wide range of professionals who need to understand and control how AI bots interact with their websites. From SEO specialists to content creators to enterprise webmasters, knowing your AI crawlability status is becoming as important as knowing your Google search rankings.

SEO Professionals and Digital Marketers

SEO is no longer just about Google rankings. AI-powered answers from ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google's AI overviews are reshaping how users discover information. If your site is invisible to AI crawlers, you are missing an entire channel of potential traffic and brand exposure. This tool helps SEO professionals audit their clients' AI visibility alongside traditional SEO metrics.

Content Creators and Bloggers

Blog posts, tutorials, and guides that answer common questions are prime content for AI models. If your robots.txt blocks AI crawlers, your carefully written content will never surface in AI-generated responses. Use this checker to make sure your content is accessible and then consider adding an llms.txt file to help AI models understand your site structure.

E-commerce Website Owners

Product descriptions, reviews, and comparison content on e-commerce sites are highly valuable for AI models that answer shopping-related questions. If your product pages are blocked from AI crawlers, your products will not appear when users ask AI assistants for recommendations. This checker helps you verify that your product catalog is AI-visible.

Enterprise Webmasters and DevOps Teams

Large organizations often have complex robots.txt files that may inadvertently block AI crawlers. This tool provides a quick audit to ensure that intended AI access policies are correctly implemented. For organizations that want to block AI crawlers for data protection reasons, the checker confirms that those blocks are working as expected.

SaaS Companies and Startups

SaaS documentation, help centers, and blog content are critical for AI discoverability. When potential customers ask AI assistants about solutions in your category, you want your content to be in the knowledge base. This checker helps SaaS teams verify that their documentation and marketing content are accessible to the AI bots that matter.

Best Practices for AI Crawler Optimization (GEO)

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is the practice of making your website accessible and well-structured for AI crawlers and large language models. Just as SEO optimizes for search engines, GEO optimizes for AI systems. These best practices will help you maximize your AI visibility while maintaining control over your content.

Explicitly allow AI bots in robots.txt

Do not rely on a permissive default robots.txt. Add explicit Allow directives for GPTBot, ChatGPT-User, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, and Google-Extended. This ensures that even if you add restrictive rules later for other bots, the AI crawlers remain allowed. Example: 'User-agent: GPTBot' followed by 'Allow: /' clearly signals that OpenAI's bot is welcome.

Create and maintain an llms.txt file

The llms.txt standard provides a machine-readable summary of your website's content at the /llms.txt path. It helps AI models quickly understand what your site offers without needing to crawl every page. Include a brief description of your site, key sections, and links to important content. This tool checks for llms.txt presence and can help you generate one.

Check meta robots and X-Robots-Tag headers

Even if your robots.txt allows AI crawlers, individual pages might block them through meta robots tags (like 'noindex') or X-Robots-Tag HTTP headers. This checker scans for these signals so you can identify pages that are inadvertently hidden from AI. Make sure your most important content pages do not carry these restrictions.

Monitor your AI Visibility Score over time

Your AI crawlability can change when you update your robots.txt, add new pages, or change server configurations. Run this checker periodically to track your AI Visibility Score and catch any regressions. A sudden drop in your score could indicate that a configuration change accidentally blocked AI bots.

Decide intentionally: allow or block

Some website owners want maximum AI visibility, while others prefer to keep their content out of AI training data for competitive or privacy reasons. Both choices are valid, but the key is intentionality. Use this checker to verify that your actual configuration matches your intended policy, whether that means full access or complete blocking.

AI Crawler Status Reference: What Each Bot Does

This reference table summarizes the AI crawlers checked by this tool, what each one is used for, and the default behavior if no robots.txt directive exists for it.

AI Crawler Bot Reference Table

AI Bot	Company	Purpose	Default Access	Impact if Blocked
GPTBot	OpenAI	Training GPT models	Allowed (if no rule)	Content excluded from future model training
ChatGPT-User	OpenAI	Live web search in ChatGPT	Allowed (if no rule)	Site never cited in ChatGPT responses
ClaudeBot	Anthropic	Training Claude models	Allowed (if no rule)	Content excluded from Claude's knowledge
PerplexityBot	Perplexity	AI search engine answers	Allowed (if no rule)	Site not cited in Perplexity answers
Google-Extended	Google	AI training for Gemini	Allowed (if no rule)	Content excluded from Google AI training
FacebookBot	Meta	Training Llama models	Allowed (if no rule)	Content excluded from Meta AI training
Applebot-Extended	Apple	AI training for Apple Intelligence	Allowed (if no rule)	Content excluded from Apple AI features
Bytespider	ByteDance	AI training for Doubao	Allowed (if no rule)	Content excluded from ByteDance AI