GEO clusterJul 14, 2026·4 min read
AI bot access: who to allow, who to block
GPTBot, PerplexityBot, Google-Extended, Claude, and more — a per-bot decision matrix.
Part of the Generative Engine Optimization cluster
New here? Start with the pillar guide: Generative Engine Optimization: the complete guide.
TL;DR
The default answer for almost every AI bot is allow. Blocking is a defensive move that mostly hurts your own visibility while competitors stay cited.
Key facts
- GPTBot powers ChatGPT retrieval.
- PerplexityBot cites sources with clicks.
- Google-Extended controls Gemini training separately from Googlebot.
- ClaudeBot and CCBot feed Anthropic and downstream models.
Per-bot decisions
- GPTBot — allow if you want ChatGPT to cite you. Default answer: yes.
- PerplexityBot — allow. Perplexity cites sources with clicks.
- Google-Extended — controls Gemini training. Separate from Googlebot.
- ClaudeBot — allow if you want Claude to reference you.
- CCBot — Common Crawl. Powers many downstream models.
Frequently asked questions
Will blocking bots stop scraping?
No — determined scrapers ignore robots.txt. Blocking mostly stops the well-behaved crawlers that would have cited you.
Put this into practice
Run a RocketRank™ audit and see exactly where you're invisible — and the one-click fix for each finding.
