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AI Search

AI crawler.

Definition

The canonical answer.

An AI crawler fetches web pages for a specific purpose, such as search indexing, model training, or retrieval requested by a user. OAI-SearchBot and PerplexityBot support search; GPTBot and ClaudeBot concern training. Google-Extended is a robots.txt policy token, not a separate crawler user agent.

Worked example

In practice.

A site can allow OAI-SearchBot while making a separate decision about GPTBot. Check robots.txt, server responses and verified operator identity together. Blocking direct retrieval can limit source access, but a brand may still appear through other sources or existing index data.

Where this work happens: AI Search Optimization

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