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Free Robots.txt Checker & Tester
Validate your robots.txt file in seconds. See exactly which pages Googlebot, Bingbot, and AI crawlers — GPTBot, ClaudeBot, Perplexity — can and can't access. No signup required.
What is it?
What is a robots.txt checker?
A robots.txt checker is a tool that reads and validates your site's robots.txt file to show exactly which pages and directories are blocked or allowed for each web crawler — from Googlebot and Bingbot to AI crawlers like GPTBot, ClaudeBot, and PerplexityBot. Our free robots.txt checker fetches your live file, parses it using the official Google open-source library (RFC 9309 compliant), and flags syntax errors, conflicting directives, and missing sitemap declarations before they quietly break your indexing.
How to use the tool?
Enter your domain in the checker above and click Check Robots.txt. The tool fetches your live file, parses each User-agent block using the Google open-source robots.txt library, and tells you which crawlers are allowed or blocked on which paths. It flags unknown directives, conflicting Allow/Disallow rules, invalid wildcards, and confirms whether your Sitemap: line points to a valid XML sitemap. In 2026, this matters beyond Google: Amazon, the New York Times, and Reddit now explicitly block GPTBot, ClaudeBot, Perplexity-User, and OAI-SearchBot. If you have no opinion on AI access, your robots.txt is making the decision for you by default.
What is it?
What is a robots.txt checker?
A robots.txt checker is a tool that reads and validates your site's robots.txt file to show exactly which pages and directories are blocked or allowed for each web crawler — from Googlebot and Bingbot to AI crawlers like GPTBot, ClaudeBot, and PerplexityBot. Our free robots.txt checker fetches your live file, parses it using the official Google open-source library (RFC 9309 compliant), and flags syntax errors, conflicting directives, and missing sitemap declarations before they quietly break your indexing.
How to use the tool?
Enter your domain in the checker above and click Check Robots.txt. The tool fetches your live file, parses each User-agent block using the Google open-source robots.txt library, and tells you which crawlers are allowed or blocked on which paths. It flags unknown directives, conflicting Allow/Disallow rules, invalid wildcards, and confirms whether your Sitemap: line points to a valid XML sitemap. In 2026, this matters beyond Google: Amazon, the New York Times, and Reddit now explicitly block GPTBot, ClaudeBot, Perplexity-User, and OAI-SearchBot. If you have no opinion on AI access, your robots.txt is making the decision for you by default.
Results
Use cases for the robots.txt checker
Six ways SEO and technical teams use our free robots.txt checker — from catching accidental indexing blocks to deciding who can train on your content.
Results
Use cases for the robots.txt checker
Six ways SEO and technical teams use our free robots.txt checker — from catching accidental indexing blocks to deciding who can train on your content.
Catch Unintentional Indexing Blocks
A single stray Disallow directive can wipe entire product categories, category pages, or blog posts from Google overnight. The checker flags rules blocking business-critical paths so you find them before indexing drops show up in GSC.
Catch Unintentional Indexing Blocks
A single stray Disallow directive can wipe entire product categories, category pages, or blog posts from Google overnight. The checker flags rules blocking business-critical paths so you find them before indexing drops show up in GSC.
Audit AI Crawler Access
Decide whether to let GPTBot, ClaudeBot, Perplexity-User, and OAI-SearchBot train on and cite your content. See exactly which AI bots your current robots.txt lets in or keeps out — a 2026 decision Amazon, NYT, and Reddit have already made.
Audit AI Crawler Access
Decide whether to let GPTBot, ClaudeBot, Perplexity-User, and OAI-SearchBot train on and cite your content. See exactly which AI bots your current robots.txt lets in or keeps out — a 2026 decision Amazon, NYT, and Reddit have already made.
Validate Before You Publish
Test changes to your robots.txt using the same Google open-source parser Googlebot uses. Catch invalid wildcards, conflicting Allow/Disallow rules, and unknown directives before pushing them live and breaking crawl access.
Validate Before You Publish
Test changes to your robots.txt using the same Google open-source parser Googlebot uses. Catch invalid wildcards, conflicting Allow/Disallow rules, and unknown directives before pushing them live and breaking crawl access.
Debug Crawl Budget Leaks
Find the faceted URLs, session parameters, and infinite-scroll pages crawlers are wasting time on. Block the low-value paths so Googlebot focuses on pages that actually drive revenue — critical for large sites on tight crawl budgets.
Debug Crawl Budget Leaks
Find the faceted URLs, session parameters, and infinite-scroll pages crawlers are wasting time on. Block the low-value paths so Googlebot focuses on pages that actually drive revenue — critical for large sites on tight crawl budgets.
Verify Sitemap Declaration
Confirm your Sitemap: directive points to the right absolute URL, isn't blocked by another rule, and is actually reachable. A missing or broken sitemap line is the most common robots.txt mistake we see in technical audits.
Verify Sitemap Declaration
Confirm your Sitemap: directive points to the right absolute URL, isn't blocked by another rule, and is actually reachable. A missing or broken sitemap line is the most common robots.txt mistake we see in technical audits.
Test Per-User-Agent Rules
Check whether your User-agent: Googlebot, Googlebot-Image, Bingbot, or custom bot blocks behave as expected. Paste a URL, pick a user agent, and see which rule fires — including fallback behavior when no specific rule matches.
Test Per-User-Agent Rules
Check whether your User-agent: Googlebot, Googlebot-Image, Bingbot, or custom bot blocks behave as expected. Paste a URL, pick a user agent, and see which rule fires — including fallback behavior when no specific rule matches.
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How it Works
How AIclicks works
How it Works
How AIclicks works
01
Brand Audit
We start by mapping your current AI visibility, analyzing how often you appear in LLM answers. This gives us a precise roadmap of what needs to be fixed, improved, or created.
01
Brand Audit
We start by mapping your current AI visibility, analyzing how often you appear in LLM answers. This gives us a precise roadmap of what needs to be fixed, improved, or created.
02
AI-Optimized Content
We produce content crafted specifically for AI models. We reinforce this with citation-worthy sources and high-authority mentions that help AI systems trust and reference your brand.
02
AI-Optimized Content
We produce content crafted specifically for AI models. We reinforce this with citation-worthy sources and high-authority mentions that help AI systems trust and reference your brand.
03
Optimization, Tracking & Insights
You get access to a custom AI visibility dashboard, weekly progress updates, and continuous optimization cycles. We monitor ranking shifts, citation changes, competitors, and new AI opportunities.
03
Optimization, Tracking & Insights
You get access to a custom AI visibility dashboard, weekly progress updates, and continuous optimization cycles. We monitor ranking shifts, citation changes, competitors, and new AI opportunities.
Our Insights
Explore our blog
Our Insights
Explore our blog
Our Trackers
Track every major LLM
AIclicks covers every major LLM out there
Our Trackers
Track every major LLM
AIclicks covers every major LLM out there
FAQ
How do I check if my robots.txt file is working correctly?
Paste your domain into the checker above and run it. The tool fetches your live robots.txt, validates every User-agent block using the official Google open-source parser (RFC 9309 compliant), and tells you exactly which paths are allowed or blocked for Googlebot, Bingbot, and AI crawlers like GPTBot. It flags syntax errors, invalid wildcards, and missing sitemap declarations before they affect indexing.
What's the difference between robots.txt and noindex?
Robots.txt controls crawling — whether a bot can access a URL. Noindex controls indexing — whether a crawled page appears in search results. They solve different problems: if you block a page in robots.txt, Google can't crawl it, which means it can't see a noindex tag either. Pages blocked by robots.txt can still get indexed if other sites link to them. For pages you want hidden from search, use noindex; for crawl-budget control, use robots.txt.
Should I block AI crawlers like GPTBot and ClaudeBot?
It depends on your content strategy. Amazon, the New York Times, and Reddit explicitly block GPTBot, ClaudeBot, Perplexity-User, and OAI-SearchBot to keep their content out of training data and AI answers. But blocking AI bots also reduces the chance your brand gets cited in AI-generated responses — a growing traffic channel. For most B2B and SaaS brands, allowing these bots helps with AI visibility; for publishers and premium-content sites, blocking them protects licensing revenue.
Can robots.txt prevent Google from indexing my pages?
Not reliably. Robots.txt tells Google not to crawl a page, but Google can still index a URL based on links pointing to it from other sites — it just won't know the page content. You'll see the page in search results with a "No information is available for this page" snippet. To actually prevent indexing, use a noindex meta tag or X-Robots-Tag HTTP header on the page itself (and make sure robots.txt allows Google to crawl it so it can see the noindex directive).
What are the most common robots.txt mistakes?
The top five we see in audits: (1) accidentally disallowing the entire site with Disallow: / left over from staging; (2) blocking JavaScript or CSS files, which breaks how Google renders pages; (3) an incorrect or missing Sitemap: directive; (4) using robots.txt as a security measure (it's not — disallowed URLs are still publicly visible in the file); and (5) conflicting Allow/Disallow rules where the more-specific rule doesn't win as expected. The checker above catches all of these automatically.
FAQ
How do I check if my robots.txt file is working correctly?
Paste your domain into the checker above and run it. The tool fetches your live robots.txt, validates every User-agent block using the official Google open-source parser (RFC 9309 compliant), and tells you exactly which paths are allowed or blocked for Googlebot, Bingbot, and AI crawlers like GPTBot. It flags syntax errors, invalid wildcards, and missing sitemap declarations before they affect indexing.
What's the difference between robots.txt and noindex?
Robots.txt controls crawling — whether a bot can access a URL. Noindex controls indexing — whether a crawled page appears in search results. They solve different problems: if you block a page in robots.txt, Google can't crawl it, which means it can't see a noindex tag either. Pages blocked by robots.txt can still get indexed if other sites link to them. For pages you want hidden from search, use noindex; for crawl-budget control, use robots.txt.
Should I block AI crawlers like GPTBot and ClaudeBot?
It depends on your content strategy. Amazon, the New York Times, and Reddit explicitly block GPTBot, ClaudeBot, Perplexity-User, and OAI-SearchBot to keep their content out of training data and AI answers. But blocking AI bots also reduces the chance your brand gets cited in AI-generated responses — a growing traffic channel. For most B2B and SaaS brands, allowing these bots helps with AI visibility; for publishers and premium-content sites, blocking them protects licensing revenue.
Can robots.txt prevent Google from indexing my pages?
Not reliably. Robots.txt tells Google not to crawl a page, but Google can still index a URL based on links pointing to it from other sites — it just won't know the page content. You'll see the page in search results with a "No information is available for this page" snippet. To actually prevent indexing, use a noindex meta tag or X-Robots-Tag HTTP header on the page itself (and make sure robots.txt allows Google to crawl it so it can see the noindex directive).
What are the most common robots.txt mistakes?
The top five we see in audits: (1) accidentally disallowing the entire site with Disallow: / left over from staging; (2) blocking JavaScript or CSS files, which breaks how Google renders pages; (3) an incorrect or missing Sitemap: directive; (4) using robots.txt as a security measure (it's not — disallowed URLs are still publicly visible in the file); and (5) conflicting Allow/Disallow rules where the more-specific rule doesn't win as expected. The checker above catches all of these automatically.
Be the #1 Response in AI
Reach millions of consumers who are using AI to discover new products and brands
Be the #1 Response in AI
Reach millions of consumers who are using AI to discover new products and brands
Be the #1 Response in AI
Reach millions of consumers who are using AI to discover new products and brands