Content optimization, briefs, and AI writing scored against what ranks for your keyword.
Full evaluationGlossary · Updated Sep 2, 2026
AI crawler
A bot operated by an AI company that fetches web pages for training data, search indexing, or live answer retrieval.
Definition
AI crawlers such as those from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and Perplexity identify themselves with user agents and generally respect robots.txt directives, though behaviours differ between training crawlers and real-time fetchers. Site owners can allow, block, or rate-limit them, balancing visibility in AI answers against content control.
Why it matters when choosing a tool
Your robots.txt policy toward AI crawlers determines whether AI tools can cite your site and whether your content may be used for training.
Where you will meet it
AI SEO & Content Optimization, AI Coding & Development
Related terms
llms.txt · Generative engine optimization (GEO) · Training data
Tools where this matters
Reviewed products in the related categories
SEO and AI visibility platform powered by proprietary web crawler data
Full evaluation
Search marketing platform for keyword research, competitor analytics, and AI search visibility.
Full evaluation
A thoughtful AI collaborator for writing, analysis, coding, and long-form work.
Full evaluation
An AI-native code editor for repository-aware agents, edits, review, and automation.
Full evaluation
Anthropic's agentic coding tool that works in the terminal, IDE, desktop app, and browser to plan and execute multi-step changes.
Full evaluation