PerplexityBot
Perplexity AI •
Since 2022
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Official Docs
What is PerplexityBot?
PerplexityBot is the web crawler used by Perplexity AI, an AI-powered search and answer engine that provides direct answers to user queries with cited sources. The bot crawls web content to maintain an up-to-date index that powers Perplexity's conversational search experience. Unlike traditional search engines that return lists of links, Perplexity uses the content gathered by this bot to generate comprehensive answers with proper attribution. The crawler respects robots.txt directives and follows responsible crawling practices. For publishers, PerplexityBot represents an opportunity to have their content featured in AI-generated answers with proper citation, potentially driving traffic through source attribution.
User Agent String
Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; PerplexityBot/1.0; +https://perplexity.ai/bot)
How to Control PerplexityBot
Block Completely
To prevent PerplexityBot from accessing your entire website, add this to your robots.txt file:
# Block PerplexityBot
User-agent: PerplexityBot
Disallow: /
Block Specific Directories
To restrict access to certain parts of your site while allowing others:
User-agent: PerplexityBot
Disallow: /admin/
Disallow: /private/
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Allow: /public/
Set Crawl Delay
To slow down the crawl rate (note: not all bots respect this directive):
User-agent: PerplexityBot
Crawl-delay: 10
How to Verify PerplexityBot
Verification Method:
Check for Perplexity AI IP ranges and user agent
Check for Perplexity AI IP ranges and user agent
Learn more in the official documentation.
⚠️ AI Training Notice
This bot may collect and use your website content for AI model training. Consider whether you want your content used for this purpose before allowing access.
This bot may collect and use your website content for AI model training. Consider whether you want your content used for this purpose before allowing access.
Detection Patterns
Multiple ways to detect PerplexityBot in your application:
Basic Pattern
/PerplexityBot/iStrict Pattern
/^Mozilla/5\.0 AppleWebKit/537\.36 \(KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; PerplexityBot/1\.0; \+https\://perplexity\.ai/bot\)$/Flexible Pattern
/PerplexityBot[\s\/]?[\d\.]*?/iVendor Match
/.*Perplexity AI.*PerplexityBot/iImplementation Examples
// PHP Detection for PerplexityBot
function detect_perplexitybot() {
$user_agent = $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] ?? '';
$pattern = '/PerplexityBot/i';
if (preg_match($pattern, $user_agent)) {
// Log the detection
error_log('PerplexityBot detected from IP: ' . $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']);
// Set cache headers
header('Cache-Control: public, max-age=3600');
header('X-Robots-Tag: noarchive');
// Optional: Serve cached version
if (file_exists('cache/' . md5($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']) . '.html')) {
readfile('cache/' . md5($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']) . '.html');
exit;
}
return true;
}
return false;
}
# Python/Flask Detection for PerplexityBot
import re
from flask import request, make_responsedef detect_perplexitybot():
user_agent = request.headers.get('User-Agent', '')
pattern = r'PerplexityBot'
if re.search(pattern, user_agent, re.IGNORECASE):
# Create response with caching
response = make_response()
response.headers['Cache-Control'] = 'public, max-age=3600'
response.headers['X-Robots-Tag'] = 'noarchive'
return True
return False# Django Middleware
class PerplexityBotMiddleware:
def __init__(self, get_response):
self.get_response = get_response
def __call__(self, request):
if self.detect_bot(request):
# Handle bot traffic
pass
return self.get_response(request)
// JavaScript/Node.js Detection for PerplexityBot
const express = require('express');
const app = express();// Middleware to detect PerplexityBot
function detectPerplexityBot(req, res, next) {
const userAgent = req.headers['user-agent'] || '';
const pattern = /PerplexityBot/i;
if (pattern.test(userAgent)) {
// Log bot detection
console.log('PerplexityBot detected from IP:', req.ip);
// Set cache headers
res.set({
'Cache-Control': 'public, max-age=3600',
'X-Robots-Tag': 'noarchive'
});
// Mark request as bot
req.isBot = true;
req.botName = 'PerplexityBot';
}
next();
}app.use(detectPerplexityBot);
# Apache .htaccess rules for PerplexityBot# Block completely
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} PerplexityBot [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]# Or redirect to a static version
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} PerplexityBot [NC]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/static/
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /static/$1 [L]# Or set environment variable for PHP
SetEnvIfNoCase User-Agent "PerplexityBot" is_bot=1# Add cache headers for this bot
<If "%{HTTP_USER_AGENT} =~ /PerplexityBot/i">
Header set Cache-Control "public, max-age=3600"
Header set X-Robots-Tag "noarchive"
</If>
# Nginx configuration for PerplexityBot# Map user agent to variable
map $http_user_agent $is_perplexitybot {
default 0;
~*PerplexityBot 1;
}server {
# Block the bot completely
if ($is_perplexitybot) {
return 403;
}
# Or serve cached content
location / {
if ($is_perplexitybot) {
root /var/www/cached;
try_files $uri $uri.html $uri/index.html @backend;
}
try_files $uri @backend;
}
# Add headers for bot requests
location @backend {
if ($is_perplexitybot) {
add_header Cache-Control "public, max-age=3600";
add_header X-Robots-Tag "noarchive";
}
proxy_pass http://backend;
}
}
Should You Block This Bot?
Recommendations based on your website type:
| Site Type | Recommendation | Reasoning |
|---|---|---|
| E-commerce | Allow | Essential for product visibility in search results |
| Blog/News | Consider Blocking | Your content may be used for AI training without compensation |
| SaaS Application | Block | No benefit for application interfaces; preserve resources |
| Documentation | Allow | Improves documentation discoverability for developers |
| Corporate Site | Allow | Allow for public pages, block sensitive areas like intranets |
Advanced robots.txt Configurations
E-commerce Site Configuration
User-agent: PerplexityBot
Crawl-delay: 5
Disallow: /cart/
Disallow: /checkout/
Disallow: /my-account/
Disallow: /api/
Disallow: /*?sort=
Disallow: /*?filter=
Disallow: /*&page=
Allow: /products/
Allow: /categories/
Sitemap: https://example.com/sitemap.xml
Publishing/Blog Configuration
User-agent: PerplexityBot
# Blocking AI training bot
Disallow: /
SaaS/Application Configuration
User-agent: PerplexityBot
Disallow: /app/
Disallow: /api/
Disallow: /dashboard/
Disallow: /settings/
Allow: /
Allow: /pricing/
Allow: /features/
Allow: /docs/
Quick Reference
User Agent Match
PerplexityBotRobots.txt Name
PerplexityBotCategory
ai, searchRespects robots.txt
Yes
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