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PerplexityBot
Crawler simulator

PerplexityBot Simulator & Tester

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Simulate a PerplexityBot visit to any URL on your website. Crawl the page and inspect the HTML Perplexity gets, so it can cite your content.

SIMULATE

Simulate a PerplexityBot visit

Enter any URL on your website to crawl it as PerplexityBot and inspect the HTML it gets.

How it works

How to use the PerplexityBot simulator

  1. Step 1

    Enter a URL

    Paste the full URL of any page on your website, such as a product page, a blog post, or the home page.

  2. Step 2

    Select the PerplexityBot user agent

    The tester sends the request with the PerplexityBot user-agent string, so your server answers the way it answers a real PerplexityBot visit.

  3. Step 3

    Run the crawl

    The simulator requests the page as PerplexityBot and follows redirects, the same way the crawler does.

  4. Step 4

    Inspect the HTML

    Check the status code, redirects, response headers, raw HTML, word count, and Open Graph tags PerplexityBot gets. If your main content is missing from the HTML, PerplexityBot cannot read it.

Overview

What is PerplexityBot?

PerplexityBot is the web crawler used by Perplexity AI, an AI-powered search engine that provides direct answers with citations. Unlike traditional search engines that show links, Perplexity synthesizes information from multiple sources and cites them. Being accessible to PerplexityBot is essential for getting cited in Perplexity's answers, which are increasingly used by researchers, students, and professionals.

Why allow it

Why allow PerplexityBot?

Get cited in Perplexity AI search answers
Reach users of Perplexity's growing search platform
Appear in Perplexity Pro's advanced research features
Be included in Perplexity's source citations
Gain visibility in AI-native search experiences
Robots.txt

PerplexityBot robots.txt configuration

Control how PerplexityBot crawls your website using robots.txt directives. Add these rules to your robots.txt file at the root of your domain, then run the simulator again on the same URL to confirm the change.

Allow PerplexityBot

# Allow PerplexityBot
User-agent: PerplexityBot
Allow: /

User-agent: Perplexity-User
Allow: /

Block PerplexityBot

# Block PerplexityBot
User-agent: PerplexityBot
Disallow: /

User-agent: Perplexity-User
Disallow: /

User-Agent String: PerplexityBot/1.0 (https://www.perplexity.ai/bot)

PerplexityBot simulator FAQ

Enter any URL from your website in the tester above and run the crawl. The simulator requests the page with the PerplexityBot user-agent string and shows the status code, response headers, and raw HTML it gets. Inspect the HTML to confirm your main content, title, and meta tags are there before any JavaScript runs.

Perplexity crawls your content to answer user queries. When a user asks a question, Perplexity searches the web, synthesizes information from relevant sources, and provides an answer with citations. If your content is authoritative and accessible, it may be cited as a source.

PerplexityBot is used for indexing and crawling content for Perplexity's search index. Perplexity-User may be used for real-time fetching when users ask questions that require fresh information. Allow both for full compatibility.

To get cited: 1) Allow PerplexityBot in robots.txt, 2) Have authoritative, well-researched content, 3) Use clear HTML structure with proper headings, 4) Ensure fast page load times, 5) Include relevant keywords naturally. Quality content that answers specific questions tends to be cited more.

PerplexityBot typically fetches raw HTML without JavaScript execution. JavaScript-rendered content may not be visible to Perplexity. Use pre-rendering or server-side rendering to ensure your content is accessible.

Yes, Perplexity users are often high-intent researchers, professionals, and students seeking in-depth information. While Perplexity doesn't send as much traffic as Google, the traffic tends to be highly engaged. Being cited also builds brand authority in AI search.
Google
Gemini
ChatGPT
Claude
Grok
Meta
Perplexity

Make your site crawlable

JavaScript sites often have indexing issues. Encited pre-renders your SPA into crawler-friendly HTML so PerplexityBot and other bots can read your content.

All crawlers
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