# PerplexityBot

> Surfaces and links websites in Perplexity search results. Perplexity says it is not used to crawl content for AI foundation models.

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

| Operator | Used for | Type | Obeys robots.txt |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Perplexity | Perplexity search | AI search index | Yes |

## Should you allow it?

Allow it. Perplexity cites sources prominently, so this is direct referral traffic.

**If you block it:** Your site is no longer surfaced and linked in Perplexity search results.

Perplexity says robots.txt changes can take up to 24 hours to take effect.

## robots.txt rules

Allow PerplexityBot:

```
User-agent: PerplexityBot
Allow: /
```

Block PerplexityBot:

```
User-agent: PerplexityBot
Disallow: /
```

Disallow PerplexityBot from one folder only:

```
User-agent: PerplexityBot
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: Perplexity

| Bot | Type | Purpose | Obeys robots.txt | If you block it |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [PerplexityBot](https://getrankroot.com/ai-bots/perplexitybot.md) | AI search index | Perplexity search | Yes | Your site is no longer surfaced and linked in Perplexity search results. |
| [Perplexity-User](https://getrankroot.com/ai-bots/perplexity-user.md) | User-triggered fetcher | Perplexity (user requests) | Not reliably | Little effect via robots.txt: Perplexity says this fetcher generally ignores it. |

## User agent string

```
Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; PerplexityBot/1.0; +https://perplexity.ai/perplexitybot)
```

## How to verify it's really PerplexityBot

Find its requests in your server logs:

```
grep -i "PerplexityBot" access.log
```

Perplexity recommends combining user agent matching with its published IP ranges, and refreshing the ranges regularly because they change.

Published IP list: https://www.perplexity.com/perplexitybot.json

## Common mistakes

- Allowing it in robots.txt while a WAF or bot-protection rule blocks it. Perplexity says to allow its user agent from its published IP ranges in your WAF too.
- Writing a User-agent: PerplexityBot 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 PerplexityBot 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 "PerplexityBot" in a request; verify the source IP as shown above before allowlisting or blocking.

## FAQ

### What is PerplexityBot?

Surfaces and links websites in Perplexity search results. Perplexity says it is not used to crawl content for AI foundation models.

### Does PerplexityBot respect robots.txt?

Yes, according to Perplexity.

### What happens if I block PerplexityBot?

Your site is no longer surfaced and linked in Perplexity search results.

### Should I block PerplexityBot?

Allow it. Perplexity cites sources prominently, so this is direct referral traffic.

### Is PerplexityBot used to train AI models?

No. Perplexity says PerplexityBot is designed to surface and link websites in search results and is not used to crawl content for AI foundation models.

### How long until a PerplexityBot robots.txt change works?

Perplexity says changes can take up to 24 hours to take effect.

### How do I allow PerplexityBot through Cloudflare or AWS WAF?

Perplexity recommends a rule that matches the PerplexityBot user agent AND a source IP in its published ranges, with the action set to Allow and a higher priority than your blocking rules. Refresh the IP ranges regularly because they change.

## Sources

- [Official documentation from Perplexity](https://docs.perplexity.ai/docs/resources/perplexity-crawlers)
- [Published IP addresses for PerplexityBot](https://www.perplexity.com/perplexitybot.json)

Check whether PerplexityBot 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