AI Crawler Directory · Perplexity
PerplexityBot:
what it is and how to verify it.
OperatorPerplexity
PurposeAI search indexing
Respects robots.txtYes
Executes JavaScriptNo
Hits verifiableYes — published IPs
TypeHTTP crawler / fetcher
PerplexityBot is the crawler that surfaces websites in Perplexity’s answer engine. It builds the index Perplexity draws citations from, and Perplexity explicitly documents that it is not used to crawl content for training AI foundation models — indexing and training are separated, as at OpenAI and Anthropic.
Perplexity is the most citation-forward of the major AI engines: every answer leads with linked sources, which makes it a disproportionate referral driver relative to its size. If PerplexityBot cannot crawl you, you cannot appear in those citations — so for AI visibility, this bot is the Perplexity channel’s front door.
It respects robots.txt and publishes its crawl IPs at a stable JSON endpoint, updated regularly, which Perplexity recommends as the configuration source of truth for firewalls and allow-lists.
PerplexityBot User-Agent string
Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; PerplexityBot/1.0; +https://perplexity.ai/perplexitybot)How to verify PerplexityBot hits are real
The User-Agent header is plain text — any client can claim to be PerplexityBot, and scrapers routinely do. Perplexity publishes PerplexityBot’s IPs as JSON and recommends them as the source of truth for WAF rules.
https://www.perplexity.com/perplexitybot.jsonFetch the list and check the hit’s source IP against it — for a quick manual look:
curl -s https://www.perplexity.com/perplexitybot.jsonAllow or block PerplexityBot in robots.txt
This is a search-index bot: it feeds the citations AI answers link to. If you want AI visibility — and the referral traffic behind it — the standard posture is to allow it.
Allow
User-agent: PerplexityBot
Allow: /Block
User-agent: PerplexityBot
Disallow: /PerplexityBot — frequently asked questions
What is PerplexityBot?
PerplexityBot is Perplexity AI’s search crawler. It indexes websites so they can be surfaced and cited in Perplexity answers. Per Perplexity’s documentation, it is not used to collect training data for foundation models.
Does PerplexityBot respect robots.txt?
Yes — Perplexity documents that PerplexityBot honors robots.txt rules. Its user-triggered sibling, Perplexity-User, generally does not, because those fetches are direct user actions.
How do I verify PerplexityBot hits?
Match the source IP against perplexity.com/perplexitybot.json. Perplexity explicitly recommends the JSON endpoints as the source of truth because the UA string is trivially spoofable.
Why does Perplexity visibility matter for revenue?
Perplexity cites sources prominently in every answer, so citations convert to clicks at a higher rate than most AI surfaces. Sites doing AI attribution typically see perplexity.ai referrals with strong purchase intent — measured per-engine, not lumped into Direct.
Should I block PerplexityBot?
Only if you do not want to appear in Perplexity answers at all. For most businesses the citation traffic is worth far more than the crawl cost; blocking it removes you from an engine whose users click through to sources by design.
See which AI crawlers hit your site — and what the traffic earns
Attrifast tracks AI referrals as revenue lines: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Gemini visits tied to real Stripe money. $9.99/mo flat.
- One script tag and a Stripe key — live in minutes
- Cookieless, so no consent banner for analytics
- Every AI referral matched to the payment it produced
7-day free trial · $0 due today · then $9.99/mo · cancel anytime
