PerplexityBot

Last updated 11 hours ago.

What is PerplexityBot?

About

PerplexityBot is a web crawler used by Perplexity to index search results that allow their AI Assistant to answer user questions. The assistant's answers normally contain references to the website as inline sources.

Detail

Operator	Perplexity
Documentation	https://docs.perplexity.ai/docs/perplexitybot

Type

AI Search Crawler

Indexes web content for AI-powered search results

Expected Behavior

AI search crawlers do not adhere to a fixed visitation schedule for websites. The frequency of visits varies widely based on many factors, and can even happen on-demand in response to a user query.

Insights

Activity on Your Website

Half of your website's traffic probably comes from artificial agents, and there are more of them every day. Track their activity with the API or WordPress plugin.

Set Up Agent Analytics

Other Websites

of top websites are currently blocking PerplexityBot in some way

Learn How →

Access Control

Should I Block PerplexityBot?

Probably not. AI search crawlers power AI search engines, which are a useful way for users to discover your website. AI search engine assistants usually cite their sources and provide links to their results.

Using Robots.txt

User Agent Token	Description
`PerplexityBot`	Should match instances of PerplexityBot

You can block PerplexityBot or limit its access by setting user agent token rules in your website's robots.txt.

# robots.txt
# This should block PerplexityBot

User-agent: PerplexityBot
Disallow: /

Instead of doing this manually, you can generate a robots.txt using the API or WordPress plugin that stays up to date with the agent list automatically. The WordPress plugin can also enforce your robots.txt and block agents who try to ignore the rules.

Set Up Your Robots.txt