AI crawlers / PerplexityBot
PerplexityBot: what it is and how to block or charge it
PerplexityBot is run by Perplexity. Perplexity's crawler for indexing pages it can cite in answers.
| Operator | Perplexity |
|---|---|
| Purpose | Indexes pages for AI search answers |
| User-agent contains | PerplexityBot |
| Official IP list | www.perplexity.ai/perplexitybot.json (13 ranges). Verify an address |
| Same operator | Perplexity-User |
Block PerplexityBot in robots.txt
User-agent: PerplexityBot
Disallow: /robots.txt is a request, not a lock: well-behaved crawlers follow it. To block by user agent at the server, match PerplexityBot in the User-Agent header.
Or charge PerplexityBot per page
Instead of blocking it, answer PerplexityBot 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 PerplexityBot reading your site?
See the full list of AI crawlers. Facts here follow each operator's own documentation; tell us if one changes.