PerplexityBot: how Perplexity finds and cites pages
PerplexityBot crawls pages so Perplexity can link them in its answers. Its user agent, IP list, robots.txt rules and how to spot fakes.
Updated
PerplexityBot is Perplexity’s crawler for its answer engine. Perplexity says it is designed to surface and link websites in search results on Perplexity and is not used to crawl content for AI foundation models. To be cited in Perplexity’s answers, allow it in robots.txt and let its published IP ranges through your firewall.
| Owner | Perplexity |
|---|---|
| Purpose | Search |
| robots.txt token | PerplexityBot |
| Follows robots.txt | Yes (managed by robots.txt) |
| Published IP ranges | www.perplexity.com/perplexitybot.json |
| If you block it | Your site may not appear or be linked in Perplexity’s search results. |
Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; PerplexityBot/1.0; +https://perplexity.ai/perplexitybot)What does PerplexityBot do?
It crawls and indexes pages so Perplexity can find them, quote them and show them as numbered sources in its answers. Perplexity recommends allowing PerplexityBot in robots.txt and permitting requests from its IP ranges to ensure your site appears in search results.
What happens if I block PerplexityBot?
Your pages are much less likely to appear as sources in Perplexity’s answers. Because Perplexity shows its sources prominently, being cited there can send visits; blocking gives that up. It does not protect you from training use by others, since PerplexityBot isn’t a training crawler in the first place.
How do I allow or block it?
User-agent: PerplexityBot
Allow: /User-agent: PerplexityBot
Disallow: /Behind a web application firewall (Cloudflare, AWS WAF and similar), Perplexity suggests an allow rule that matches both the user agent and its published IP addresses, so you let in the real bot and not impostors.
How do I tell the real PerplexityBot from a fake?
Check the IP address against perplexity.com/perplexitybot.json, which Perplexity says it updates regularly. A PerplexityBot user agent from any other address is not Perplexity’s crawler.
Should you allow PerplexityBot?
If you want traffic and visibility from AI answers, yes. It is one of the few AI crawlers that exists only to cite and link sites. Make sure your CDN’s bot protection doesn’t block it; the AI crawler checker tests your robots.txt. See also Perplexity-User.
Sources
Common questions
Does PerplexityBot collect training data?
Perplexity says PerplexityBot is not used to crawl content for AI foundation models. Its stated purpose is to surface and link websites in Perplexity's search results.
How long do robots.txt changes take to apply?
Perplexity says it may take up to 24 hours for its systems to reflect changes.
Does blocking PerplexityBot stop all Perplexity visits?
No. Perplexity-User, which fetches pages when a user asks, generally ignores robots.txt according to Perplexity's documentation. To stop those visits you need a firewall rule.