# Claude-User

> Fetches a page when a Claude user asks a question that needs it. Anthropic says disabling it prevents Claude from retrieving your content in response to a user's query, which may reduce your visibility for user-directed web search.

Canonical page: https://getrankroot.com/ai-bots/claude-user · Facts checked against Anthropic docs on 2026-10-20

| Operator | Used for | Type | Obeys robots.txt |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Anthropic | Claude (user requests) | User-triggered fetcher | Yes |

## Should you allow it?

Allow it. Blocking it means Claude cannot read your page even when a user asks about it.

**If you block it:** Claude cannot retrieve your pages in response to users' questions.

Unlike ChatGPT-User and Perplexity-User, Anthropic says its bots honor robots.txt, so blocking Claude-User does keep Claude from reading your pages for users.

## robots.txt rules

Allow Claude-User:

```
User-agent: Claude-User
Allow: /
```

Block Claude-User:

```
User-agent: Claude-User
Disallow: /
```

Disallow Claude-User from one folder only:

```
User-agent: Claude-User
Disallow: /private/
Allow: /
```

A bot follows the most specific User-agent group that names it and ignores the generic `User-agent: *` group, so repeat any shared Disallow lines inside it.

## Same company, different bots: Anthropic

| Bot | Type | Purpose | Obeys robots.txt | If you block it |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Claude-SearchBot](https://getrankroot.com/ai-bots/claude-searchbot.md) | AI search index | Claude search | Yes | Your content is not indexed for Claude search, which may reduce your visibility in Claude's answers. |
| [Claude-User](https://getrankroot.com/ai-bots/claude-user.md) | User-triggered fetcher | Claude (user requests) | Yes | Claude cannot retrieve your pages in response to users' questions. |
| [ClaudeBot](https://getrankroot.com/ai-bots/claudebot.md) | AI training crawler | Anthropic model training | Yes | Signals Anthropic to exclude your future content from its training datasets. Claude search and user fetches are unaffected. |

## How to verify it's really Claude-User

Find its requests in your server logs:

```
grep -i "Claude-User" access.log
```

Anthropic publishes one IP list for its crawlers. If a request's source IP is on that list, Anthropic says it is coming from Anthropic.

Published IP list: https://claude.com/crawling/bots.json

## Common mistakes

- Assuming a robots.txt rule won't matter because it is user-triggered. Anthropic says its bots honor robots.txt, so a Disallow for Claude-User does stop these fetches.
- Writing a User-agent: Claude-User group and expecting your User-agent: * rules to still apply. A crawler follows only the most specific group that matches it and ignores the others, so repeat any shared Disallow lines inside the Claude-User group.
- Leaving a CDN or host "block AI bots" setting on and only checking robots.txt. Those settings block requests at the network edge. Cloudflare, for example, changed its defaults on September 15, 2026 for customers who did not opt out: bots it classifies as Training or Agent are blocked on pages that display ads, and multi-purpose crawlers that combine Search and Training are affected by the Training block.
- Trusting the user agent header alone. Anyone can send "Claude-User" in a request; verify the source IP as shown above before allowlisting or blocking.

## FAQ

### What is Claude-User?

Fetches a page when a Claude user asks a question that needs it. Anthropic says disabling it prevents Claude from retrieving your content in response to a user's query, which may reduce your visibility for user-directed web search.

### Does Claude-User respect robots.txt?

Yes, according to Anthropic.

### What happens if I block Claude-User?

Claude cannot retrieve your pages in response to users' questions.

### Should I block Claude-User?

Allow it. Blocking it means Claude cannot read your page even when a user asks about it.

### Does Claude-User respect robots.txt?

Yes. Anthropic says its bots honor industry-standard robots.txt directives, including Claude-User. That is different from OpenAI and Perplexity, which say their user-triggered fetchers may not follow robots.txt.

### Does blocking ClaudeBot also block Claude-User?

No. Anthropic lists ClaudeBot (training), Claude-User (user requests) and Claude-SearchBot (search) as separate bots with separate opt-outs. Give each its own User-agent group.

### How do I verify Claude-User traffic?

Anthropic publishes its crawler IP addresses at claude.com/crawling/bots.json. If the source IP is on that list, the request is from Anthropic.

## Sources

- [Official documentation from Anthropic](https://support.claude.com/en/articles/8896518-what-is-claudebot)
- [Published IP addresses for Claude-User](https://claude.com/crawling/bots.json)

Check whether Claude-User can reach a site: https://getrankroot.com/tools/ai-crawler-checker or `GET https://getrankroot.com/api/bots?url=example.com`. Full list: https://getrankroot.com/ai-bots.md