# AI crawler checker for robots.txt rules

Canonical: https://llmcitely.com/tools/ai-crawler-checker
Publisher: LLM Citely
Reviewed: 2026-10-31

Paste robots.txt rules and a page URL to inspect the matching group and rule. This local checker does not fetch the file or test live crawler access.

Interactive tool: [open the browser version](https://llmcitely.com/tools/ai-crawler-checker#resource-interactive). This text edition describes the workflow; it does not execute the tool or contain a visitor's inputs or results.

## Check the path and the file together

Use the URL of the page you care about, including its path. Paste the current robots.txt content or the proposed rules you want to review. The tool shows the selected group, matching line and resulting rule decision.

This is a supplied-file analysis. A file you paste can differ from the file a provider receives; firewalls, redirects, headers, authentication and actual provider traffic are not tested.

## Understand the rule selection

Specific user-agent groups take precedence over the wildcard group. Matching repeated groups are combined. For a path, the longest matching rule wins; Allow wins when equally specific Allow and Disallow rules match.

Paths are case-sensitive. Wildcards, end markers, encoded characters and query strings can change the result. The [robots guide](https://llmcitely.com/guides/robots-txt-for-ai-crawlers) shows why a rule that appears broad may not apply to the path you intended.

## Separate search discovery from training

OAI-SearchBot and GPTBot serve different documented purposes. Google-Extended is a robots control token rather than a separate HTTP user-agent and does not control Google Search indexing. User-triggered fetchers also need their own provider-specific interpretation.

Read the linked provider documentation next to each result. A displayed “Rule permits” does not mean that provider has successfully fetched the page.

## Make one change you can verify

Save the current file and the intended rule change. Check a public page and a restricted path before deployment. After publishing, inspect the actual served robots.txt and use logs or an appropriate crawl test to establish network behavior.

Keep indexing declarations and canonical checks in the [technical GEO audit](https://llmcitely.com/tools/ai-readiness-checker); robots permission alone does not decide search indexing or citations.

## Sources and further reading

- [Robots Exclusion Protocol — RFC 9309](https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9309.html)
- [OpenAI crawler documentation](https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/bots)

Examples marked illustrative are not customer measurements.

## Continue with the next step

- [Understand crawler controls](https://llmcitely.com/guides/robots-txt-for-ai-crawlers)
- [Review page HTML](https://llmcitely.com/tools/ai-readiness-checker)
- [Record the evidence](https://llmcitely.com/templates/geo-audit-checklist)
- [Explore geo audit](https://llmcitely.com/guides/run-a-geo-audit)

## Your next step

[Understand crawler controls](https://llmcitely.com/guides/robots-txt-for-ai-crawlers)