Perplexity-User: user agent, IP ranges and robots.txt

When someone asks Perplexity a question, Perplexity-User may visit a page to answer accurately and link to it. It isn't used for web crawling or to collect training data.

Operator
Perplexity
Type
User request · Fetches a page live because someone asked an assistant about it
robots.txt token
Perplexity-User
Follows robots.txt
Not always (user-triggered)
IP list
https://www.perplexity.ai/perplexity-user.json
Official docs
docs.perplexity.ai

Perplexity-User user agent

User agent

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

Published as an example; the version may change.

How to block or allow Perplexity-User in robots.txt

Perplexity: "Since a user requested the fetch, this fetcher generally ignores robots.txt rules."

Block Perplexity-User

User-agent: Perplexity-User
Disallow: /

Allow Perplexity-User

User-agent: Perplexity-User
Allow: /

Put the rules in /robots.txt at the root of each host. Check the result with our AI Crawler Checker, which also catches firewall and CDN blocks that robots.txt doesn't show.

Should you block Perplexity-User?

Allow it: these are people reading about your page in Perplexity, and the answer links back to you. Since it ignores robots.txt, blocking takes a firewall rule.

How to verify real Perplexity-User traffic

Check the request IP against Perplexity's published Perplexity-User list.

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To check every request in your server log at once, use the free AI Bot Log Analyzer. It runs in your browser and flags requests that use a bot's name from outside its official IP list.

Frequently asked questions

What is Perplexity-User?

When someone asks Perplexity a question, Perplexity-User may visit a page to answer accurately and link to it. It isn't used for web crawling or to collect training data.

How do I block Perplexity-User?

Add "User-agent: Perplexity-User" followed by "Disallow: /" to robots.txt, but it may not be respected: Perplexity: "Since a user requested the fetch, this fetcher generally ignores robots.txt rules." For a hard block, add a firewall or CDN rule that refuses requests whose user agent contains "Perplexity-User".

Is a request claiming to be Perplexity-User really from Perplexity?

Not necessarily: anyone can copy a user agent. Check the request IP against Perplexity's published Perplexity-User list.

Checked against Perplexity's documentation on 2026-11-06. Vendors change user agents and policies, so confirm in the official docs before relying on them.

Related crawlers

Is Perplexity-User allowed on your site?

The free AI Crawler Checker tests robots.txt and firewall rules for 14 AI crawlers in one run.

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