What is Perplexity-User? Perplexity's AI crawler

50 of the 389 major websites we measure block Perplexity-User in robots.txt (13%), making it number 16 of the 30 AI crawlers we track for how often it is blocked. 49 of those sites name it directly in their robots.txt; the rest are covered by a wildcard rule.

Key facts

What blocking Perplexity-User does

Perplexity says that because a user requested the fetch, this fetcher generally ignores robots.txt rules.

How to allow or block Perplexity-User

Add one of these groups to the robots.txt file at the root of your domain. It is a stated preference that well-behaved crawlers read, not an enforcement mechanism.

User-agent: Perplexity-User
Disallow: /

User-agent: Perplexity-User
Allow: /

Perplexity-User user agent string

The string Perplexity documents. Version numbers can change, so match on the name.

Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Perplexity-User/1.0; +https://perplexity.ai/perplexity-user)

How to verify a request is really Perplexity-User

Anyone can put a crawler's name in a user agent string, so the name alone proves nothing. Perplexity publishes the addresses Perplexity-User uses: www.perplexity.ai/perplexity-user.json. Check a request's source address against that list.

How to whitelist Perplexity-User in a firewall or CDN

robots.txt only states a preference. A firewall, CDN or bot protection service can still refuse the request, and the crawler then gets an error even though robots.txt allows it.

1. Check that no group in your robots.txt blocks it, using the rule above.
2. Add an allow rule in your firewall or CDN that matches the name and the published IP addresses. Keep the rule narrow, because anyone can copy a name.
3. Check your server logs for a 200 response from Perplexity-User afterwards.

On Cloudflare, also check AI Crawler and Agent access policies, which can block search, agent and training traffic across a site.

Why Perplexity-User gets a 403 or 405 error

A 403 means the server refused the request, which usually points to a firewall or bot rule. A 405 means the server refused the request's method, so check any rule that only permits certain methods. A crawler that obeys robots.txt won't request a page it is told to avoid, so an error in your logs points to your server's configuration. To stop it deliberately at the server, this nginx rule returns a 403:

if ($http_user_agent ~* "Perplexity-User") {
    return 403;
}

Which sites recently changed their rules for Perplexity-User?

See the full change log.

Who blocks Perplexity-User, by sector

Sites blocking Perplexity-User

academia.edu, amazon.com, arstechnica.com, asahi.com, barrons.com, bbc.co.uk, buzzfeednews.com, cnbc.com, cnn.com, cntraveler.com, disneyplus.com, dw.com, economist.com, elpais.com, flickr.com, france24.com, ft.com, globeandmail.com, hackernoon.com, huffpost.com, hulu.com, imdb.com, instacart.com, investopedia.com, lifehacker.com, marketwatch.com, mashable.com, nbcnews.com, netflix.com, newsweek.com, newyorker.com, nytimes.com, pcmag.com, pinterest.com, reddit.com, reuters.com, sciencedirect.com, telegraph.co.uk, theatlantic.com, theregister.com, thetimes.co.uk, theverge.com, travelandleisure.com, usatoday.com, verywellhealth.com, vox.com, wired.com, wsj.com, zdnet.com, zeit.de.

Sites that allow Perplexity-User by name

amplitude.com, bestbuy.com, canva.com, digitaltrends.com, expedia.com, fastcompany.com, frase.io, inc.com, klaviyo.com, monday.com, omio.com, seranking.com, spyfu.com, vrbo.com.

Other Perplexity crawlers

PerplexityBot (search indexing).

See all 30 AI crawlers, the rule change log or the full study. Being reachable is only the first step: how AI search engines choose what to cite covers the rest.

IndexHalo. "Perplexity-User block rate across major websites." Measured 3 November 2026. https://www.indexhalo.com/ai-crawlers/perplexity-user/

<a href="https://www.indexhalo.com/ai-crawlers/perplexity-user/">Perplexity-User block rate across major websites, IndexHalo</a>