PerplexityBot: what it is and how to allow or block it
PerplexityBot is Perplexity's crawler, designed to surface and link websites in Perplexity search results. Its robots.txt token is PerplexityBot. Perplexity says it is not used to gather content for AI foundation models, and recommends allowing it so your site appears in search results. Robots.txt changes can take up to 24 hours to apply.
| Operator | Perplexity, for Perplexity search |
|---|---|
| Purpose | AI search |
| robots.txt token | PerplexityBot |
| User agent | Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; PerplexityBot/1.0; +https://perplexity.ai/perplexitybot) |
| Follows robots.txt | Yes. Perplexity recommends allowing PerplexityBot in robots.txt, and says changes can take up to 24 hours to take effect. |
| Runs JavaScript | Not documented |
| IP ranges | Published list |
| Documentation | Perplexity |
What PerplexityBot does
PerplexityBot is designed to surface and link websites in search results on Perplexity. Perplexity says it is not used to gather content for AI foundation models.
Should you block PerplexityBot?
Allow PerplexityBot if you want your site to appear in Perplexity answers, and check that your WAF or CDN does not block it. Perplexity recommends allowing PerplexityBot so your site appears in its search results. Its page does not spell out further consequences of blocking, and notes that a WAF may block the bot unless you explicitly allow it.
User-agent: PerplexityBot
Allow: /User-agent: PerplexityBot
Disallow: /Rules that apply
- Rule 01: Allow OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot and Claude-SearchBot in robots.txt if you want AI citations
- Rule 03: Audit your CDN and WAF bot settings; they can block AI crawlers that robots.txt allows
- Rule 04: Ship primary content in the initial HTML; most AI crawlers don't execute JavaScript
Questions
What is the PerplexityBot user agent string?
Perplexity documents it as: Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; PerplexityBot/1.0; +https://perplexity.ai/perplexitybot). The version number may change.
Is PerplexityBot used for AI training?
Perplexity says PerplexityBot is not used to gather content for AI foundation models. It is designed to surface and link websites in search results.
Should I allow PerplexityBot?
Perplexity recommends allowing it in robots.txt so your site appears in its search results.
Why is PerplexityBot blocked even though robots.txt allows it?
Perplexity notes that a WAF may block its bots unless you explicitly allow them, and that Cloudflare's Bot Fight Mode cannot be bypassed by WAF custom rules. Check your firewall against its published IP list at perplexity.ai/perplexitybot.json.
Sources
- Perplexity Crawlers · Perplexity
- The rise of the AI crawler · Vercel, Dec 17, 2024
Checked against the operators' documentation every Monday. Last reviewed Nov 2, 2026.