Is Your Website Blocked to ChatGPT?
Test whether GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot and 4 more AI crawlers can actually read your site — robots.txt policy and live server response. Instant, free.
Our July 2026 study of the world's top 1,000 websites found 41% are unreadable to ChatGPT — many without knowing it.
If AI can't read your site, AI can't recommend you
Buyers increasingly ask ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity for recommendations instead of searching Google. Those platforms can only cite pages their crawlers can access.
Firewalls block silently
CDN bot protection (Cloudflare, Akamai, DataDome) often 403s AI crawlers by default. Your robots.txt says “allowed” — your server says “forbidden”. We've seen billion-euro brands invisible to AI this way.
Invisibility is inherited by AI
When crawlers are blocked, AI models fall back on outdated third-party descriptions of your business — or simply recommend competitors whose sites they can read.
The fix is usually fast
Explicit robots.txt allows plus a WAF whitelist for verified AI crawlers typically takes under an hour to implement — and reopens every major AI platform to your content.
The 7 AI crawlers we test
For each crawler we check your robots.txt rules and send a live request with its real user-agent to see how your server responds.
| Crawler | Company | What it powers |
|---|---|---|
| GPTBot | OpenAI | Builds ChatGPT's knowledge and search index |
| ChatGPT-User | OpenAI | Fetches your pages live when users ask about you |
| ClaudeBot | Anthropic | Powers Claude's knowledge and citations |
| PerplexityBot | Perplexity | Indexes sources for Perplexity's cited answers |
| Google-Extended | Controls Gemini's use of your content | |
| CCBot | Common Crawl | Feeds the datasets many AI models train on |
| Bingbot | Microsoft | Powers Bing, Copilot and ChatGPT's live search |
Frequently asked questions
What is an AI crawler?
An AI crawler is an automated bot that AI companies use to read web pages. OpenAI uses GPTBot and ChatGPT-User, Anthropic uses ClaudeBot, Perplexity uses PerplexityBot, and Google uses the Google-Extended policy token. What these crawlers can read determines what ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Gemini know — and whether they can cite or recommend your website in answers.
How do I know if my site is blocked to ChatGPT?
Two things can block ChatGPT from reading your site: a Disallow rule for GPTBot or ChatGPT-User in your robots.txt, or a firewall/CDN (like Cloudflare or Akamai) that returns a 403 error to bot traffic. This tool tests both — your robots.txt policy and your server's actual live response to each crawler's user-agent.
Why does blocking AI crawlers hurt my business?
AI assistants are becoming a major discovery channel — buyers ask ChatGPT and Perplexity for recommendations instead of scrolling Google. If AI crawlers can't read your pages, these platforms fall back on third-party sources or recommend competitors whose sites they can read. You become invisible in AI answers even if you rank well in traditional search.
Should I allow GPTBot in robots.txt?
If AI visibility matters to your business, yes — explicitly allow GPTBot, ChatGPT-User, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot and Google-Extended. Many firewalls and CDN bot-protection rules block AI crawlers by default, so also whitelist them at your WAF/CDN level. Blocking is only sensible when you deliberately don't want your content used by AI platforms.
My robots.txt allows AI bots but the live test shows blocked. Why?
robots.txt is a policy statement; your server can still refuse the request. Bot-protection firewalls (Cloudflare Bot Fight Mode, Akamai Bot Manager, DataDome) often return 403 errors to any non-browser traffic regardless of robots.txt. That's the most common — and most invisible — cause of AI blindness on enterprise sites.
Is this checker really free?
Yes — instant results, no credit card. If you want the full picture, our free GEO audit scores your site 0–100 across six categories including crawler access, AI citability, structured data and brand authority.
Crawler access is 1 of 6 factors in your GEO Score
Get the complete 0–100 audit — AI citability, brand authority, E-E-A-T, technical foundations, structured data and platform readiness. Free, delivered in 24 hours.
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