AI crawler directory · Perplexity
Perplexity-User
Fetches pages when a Perplexity user asks a question; documented as generally ignoring robots.txt.
The verdict
A robots.txt rule for Perplexity-User is mostly symbolic — the vendor documents that it may not honor robots.txt, and it does not affect search inclusion.
robots.txt
Perplexity documents that Perplexity-User may not honor robots.txt — it fetches pages when a user explicitly asks, which vendors treat differently from crawling. A rule for it is documentation of intent, not enforcement.
Identifying it in your logs
User-agent headers can be spoofed. Perplexity publishes the bot's real IP ranges at https://www.perplexity.com/perplexity-user.json — verify the requesting IP against that list.
Questions this page answers
What is Perplexity-User?
Perplexity-User is Perplexity's crawler token. Fetches pages when a Perplexity user asks a question; documented as generally ignoring robots.txt. Source: the vendor's own crawler documentation (https://docs.perplexity.ai/guides/bots), last re-verified 2026-08-27.
Does blocking Perplexity-User in robots.txt hurt my store's AI visibility?
A robots.txt rule for Perplexity-User is mostly symbolic — the vendor documents that it may not honor robots.txt, and it does not affect search inclusion.
How do I verify a request really came from Perplexity-User?
Perplexity publishes the bot's IP ranges as JSON at https://www.perplexity.com/perplexity-user.json — verify the requesting IP against that list rather than trusting the user-agent header, which anyone can spoof.
Does Perplexity-User respect robots.txt?
Perplexity documents that Perplexity-User may not honor robots.txt directives — it fetches pages on behalf of a user's explicit request, which vendors treat differently from crawling.
Primary source: https://docs.perplexity.ai/guides/bots — every Shelfgrade rule links the vendor doc it derives from, re-verified weekly.
Other Perplexity crawlers: PerplexityBot