AI Crawlers
Automated bots deployed by AI companies to read, index, and retrieve website content for use in training data, search indexes, and real-time AI-generated answers.
What are AI Crawlers?
AI crawlers are automated bots deployed by AI companies to read, index, and retrieve website content. Unlike traditional search engine crawlers that focus on indexing pages for ranked search results, AI crawlers serve multiple purposes: collecting training data for LLMs, building real-time search indexes for AI platforms, and fetching content on-demand when users ask questions.
Major AI crawlers include GPTBot and OAI-SearchBot (OpenAI), ClaudeBot (Anthropic), PerplexityBot (Perplexity), Google-Extended (Google), and AppleBot-Extended (Apple).
How AI Crawlers Differ from Traditional Crawlers
Traditional search crawlers like Googlebot focus on indexing pages to determine ranking signals (backlinks, content quality, technical SEO). AI crawlers serve a broader purpose:
- Training data collection — Crawlers like GPTBot gather content to train and fine-tune LLM models
- Search index building — OAI-SearchBot and PerplexityBot build independent indexes for AI search features
- Real-time retrieval — User-triggered agents (ChatGPT-User, Perplexity-User) fetch content in real-time when users ask questions that require current information
Why AI Crawlers Matter for Visibility
AI crawlers are now a significant portion of website traffic. According to Cloudflare’s 2025 analysis, AI and search crawler traffic grew by 18% year-over-year, with GPTBot showing 305% growth in requests. It is common to see AI bots represent 20% of website traffic while actual AI referrals account for only 1% — indicating that the user experience happens inside chat interfaces while agents quietly read sites in the background.
Key AI User Agents to Know
| Bot | Company | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| GPTBot | OpenAI | Training data for GPT models |
| OAI-SearchBot | OpenAI | Indexing for ChatGPT Search |
| ChatGPT-User | OpenAI | Real-time browsing for current info |
| ClaudeBot | Anthropic | Training Claude AI models |
| PerplexityBot | Perplexity | Building independent search index |
| Google-Extended | Training data for Gemini and Vertex AI | |
| AppleBot-Extended | Apple | Training Apple Intelligence and Siri |
How to Manage AI Crawlers
- Review your robots.txt — Make intentional decisions about which AI crawlers to allow, based on which AI platforms you want visibility in
- Monitor bot traffic — Check server logs to understand which AI agents visit and how often
- Structure content for machines — Use clean HTML, JSON-LD schema, and clear heading hierarchies so crawlers can parse content efficiently
- Implement llms.txt — Provide a curated index that points AI crawlers to your most important content
- Prepare for agentic interactions — As AI agents become more autonomous, ensure your site serves structured, machine-readable product data, pricing, and policies