Can AI Crawlers See Your Site?
5 instant checks: HTTP access, SSL, robots.txt AI bot rules, WAF blocking, and JS rendering dependency. No sign-up required.
Free. No email. Results in seconds.
If bots can't crawl, AI can't cite
AI can't cite what it can't see
If GPTBot and ClaudeBot get blocked at the door, your products and content will never appear in ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Google AI Overviews. Crawlability is the absolute prerequisite for AI visibility.
Invisible = zero AI traffic
40% of product discovery is shifting to AI assistants. A single WAF misconfiguration can make your entire catalog invisible to the fastest-growing traffic source on the web.
5-minute fix, months of impact
Most crawlability issues are server configuration problems — not content issues. One robots.txt edit or WAF rule change can unlock AI visibility overnight.
Common Blockers & Quick Fixes
403 Forbidden for bot user agents
WAF firewall rules block non-browser user agents
Whitelist GPTBot, ClaudeBot, and PerplexityBot in your WAF rules
Bots get 200 but pages are not indexed
robots.txt Disallow rules targeting AI crawlers
Add explicit Allow rules for GPTBot, ClaudeBot, and PerplexityBot
Page appears blank to crawlers
Content loaded via client-side JavaScript only
Implement SSR/SSG or add prerendering for bot user agents
302 redirect to login page
Authentication required for all visitors including bots
Allow unauthenticated access to public product and content pages
403 or redirect based on IP location
Geo-IP restrictions blocking crawler IP ranges
Whitelist known AI crawler IP ranges or remove geo restrictions for bot UAs
Connection refused or SSL error
Expired or misconfigured SSL certificate
Renew your SSL certificate and verify the full certificate chain
429 Too Many Requests
Aggressive rate limiting on server or CDN
Increase rate limits for known AI bot user agents
Connection timeout or 403 for specific IPs
Server-level IP blocklist includes AI crawler IPs
Remove AI crawler IP ranges from your server blocklists
Next Steps
DIY (free)
- ✓Review robots.txt for AI bot rules (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot)
- ✓Check WAF / CDN settings for user-agent-based blocking
- ✓Verify SSL certificate validity and full chain integrity
- ✓Test key pages with JavaScript disabled to confirm content is visible
- ✓Confirm no geo-IP restrictions are applied to public content pages
- ✓Monitor server access logs for AI crawler request patterns and status codes
Done-for-you
- ✓Full AI Search Readiness Score (100-point audit)
- ✓22+ signals across 4 dimensions
- ✓20-40 prioritized Jira-ready fix tasks
- ✓Platform-specific playbooks
- ✓Re-scan after fixes
Want the full picture?
This free tool checks a few signals. The full audit evaluates 22+ signals across 4 dimensions and delivers an actionable fix plan.
- ✓Precise score out of 100 across 4 dimensions
- ✓20-40 prioritized Jira-ready fix tasks
- ✓Platform-specific playbooks (Shopify, WooCommerce, Prestashop)
- ✓Product-level analysis for up to 50 products
- ✓Re-scan after fixes to verify improvements
About This Tool
The AI Crawlability Checker is a free micro-tool that verifies whether AI search engine crawlers — including GPTBot (OpenAI), ClaudeBot (Anthropic), PerplexityBot, and others — can access your website. It runs 5 pure HTTP checks in seconds, with no Playwright or headless browser needed. If any check fails, AI search engines may not be able to discover, index, or cite your content when users ask questions related to your business.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is this tool?+
The AI Crawlability Checker runs 5 instant tests to determine if AI search engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews can access your website. It checks HTTP accessibility, SSL, robots.txt AI bot rules, WAF blocking via user-agent simulation, and JavaScript rendering dependency.
How is this different from the full AI Search Readiness Audit?+
This tool checks 5 crawlability signals — the basic prerequisites for AI visibility. The full audit evaluates 22+ signals across 4 dimensions (Machine Readability, Extractability, Trust & Entity, and Offering Readiness) and provides a detailed score out of 100 with prioritized fix recommendations.
Do I need to create an account?+
No. This tool requires no sign-up, no email, and no account. Just enter your URL and get instant results.
What AI bots does it check for?+
We check for GPTBot (OpenAI/ChatGPT), ClaudeBot (Anthropic), PerplexityBot, CCBot (Common Crawl, used by many AI training pipelines), Googlebot-Extended (Google AI), and ChatGPT-User.
What does a 'warn' status mean?+
A warning means your site is not fully blocked but has restrictions that limit AI crawler access. For example, your robots.txt might block specific bots like GPTBot while still allowing others. Warnings won't prevent all AI visibility, but they reduce your reach across the AI search ecosystem.
Can this tool detect Cloudflare or WAF blocking?+
Yes. The tool simulates requests using real AI bot user-agent strings (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, etc.). If your WAF or CDN returns a 403 Forbidden, a CAPTCHA challenge, or a block page for those user agents, the check will flag it as a failure with details about which bots are affected.
How often should I re-check?+
Re-check after any server configuration change, CDN or WAF rule update, robots.txt edit, or SSL certificate renewal. As a baseline, a monthly check is recommended — especially if multiple teams manage your infrastructure, since a single DevOps change can silently block AI crawlers.
Is JS rendering really a problem for AI crawlers?+
Yes. If your content loads only via client-side JavaScript, most AI crawlers will see an empty or skeleton page. GPTBot, ClaudeBot, and PerplexityBot do not execute JavaScript — they rely on server-rendered HTML. Implementing SSR, SSG, or prerendering is essential for AI visibility.