AI crawlers / Claude-SearchBot
Claude-SearchBot: what it is and how to block or charge it
Claude-SearchBot is run by Anthropic. Anthropic's crawler for improving the quality of search results in Claude.
| Operator | Anthropic |
|---|---|
| Purpose | Indexes pages for AI search answers |
| User-agent contains | Claude-SearchBot |
| Official IP list | None published, so it can only be recognized by name. Which crawlers publish one |
| Same operator | ClaudeBot, Claude-User, anthropic-ai |
Block Claude-SearchBot in robots.txt
User-agent: Claude-SearchBot
Disallow: /robots.txt is a request, not a lock: well-behaved crawlers follow it. To block by user agent at the server, match Claude-SearchBot in the User-Agent header.
Or charge Claude-SearchBot per page
Instead of blocking it, answer Claude-SearchBot with HTTP 402 Payment Required and a price. Crawlers and agents that support x402 pay a fraction of a cent in USDC straight to your wallet and get the page; people and search engines browse free. Set it up free on pay-per-crawl in about five minutes.
Is Claude-SearchBot reading your site?
See the full list of AI crawlers. Facts here follow each operator's own documentation; tell us if one changes.