
Server Log Analysis Reveals How Major AI Crawlers Actually Behave on Websites
A detailed examination of server access logs shows that AI vendors operate multiple distinct bots with separate purposes rather than a single crawler. GPTBot performs scheduled training data collection while OAI-SearchBot builds search indexes and ChatGPT-User fetches pages in direct response to user queries. The same pattern appears with PerplexityBot and Perplexity-User at Perplexity as well as ClaudeBot and user agents at Anthropic. Blocking all AI-related user agents in robots.txt therefore prevents both training crawls and live user-driven visits. Analysis of 515 million AI bot events found only 408 requests for llms.txt, confirming the file sees negligible adoption. Verification of IP addresses against vendor-published ranges remains the reliable method for distinguishing genuine bots from spoofed traffic. Effective practices focus on clean HTML structure, fast response times, and selective robots.txt rules that allow user-agent traffic while restricting training crawlers.
HabrAug 19, 2026Translated from Russian
