AI search · Perplexity
PerplexityBot
Builds Perplexity's search index. Perplexity states it is not used for training foundation models. Allowing it is what makes a site eligible to be cited in Perplexity answers.
- Operator
- Perplexity
- Purpose
- AI search indexers
- Feeds
- Perplexity
- robots.txt token
PerplexityBot- Honours robots.txt
- Honours robots.txt
- Documentation
- docs.perplexity.ai
What it looks like in server logs
A representative user-agent string. Version numbers change; the PerplexityBot token does not. Paste your own log line into the user-agent checker to confirm a match.
Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; PerplexityBot/1.0; +https://perplexity.ai/perplexitybot)How to block PerplexityBot
Add this to the robots.txt at the root of your domain. Robots.txt is advisory: it works only on crawlers that choose to read it. This one is honours robots.txt according to its operator.
User-agent: PerplexityBot
Disallow: /
To block every ai search indexer at once, or to block training while keeping AI search citations, use the robots.txt generator.
How to allow PerplexityBot while blocking others
A more specific User-agent group wins over a wildcard. Place this above any User-agent: * block that disallows paths, and PerplexityBot keeps full access.
User-agent: PerplexityBot
Allow: /
How to verify a genuine hit
The user-agent string is self-asserted: anyone can send it from a laptop, and scrapers routinely impersonate well-known crawlers to slip past filters aimed at unknown ones.
Perplexity publishes its IP ranges as JSON; a hit from outside them is spoofed.