Perplexity · AI answers
Perplexity-User
Perplexity’s live fetch for a user question and the citations shown next to the answer. This is how a page becomes a source in the moment.
- Operator
- Perplexity
- Traffic type
- AI answers
- Verification
- Not independently verifiable
- robots.txt
- User-triggered — often ignores robots.txt
Usually means: Live fetches when someone asks an assistant a question. If these bots cannot reach the page, you cannot be the citation in that answer.
User-agent
robots.txt and most WAF rules match the token, not the full Mozilla string. Operators often wrap Perplexity-User in extra product or version text.
Perplexity-User
What Perplexity-User does
Perplexity-User opens a URL to ground a current answer. It is not PerplexityBot, which refreshes the broader index. User-initiated fetches are frequently reported to ignore robots.txt.
How to get discovered
Allow Perplexity-User, return 200 with extractable text, and lead with a direct answer plus facts a model can lift. Orphan pages with no inbound links still get fetched when a user or the engine requests the URL.
Why Perplexity-User might skip you
Bot fights that serve a challenge page, login walls, or a soft-404. Perplexity will not cite a page it cannot read, even if Googlebot rendered the JavaScript version just fine.
robots.txt rule
Allow this token on public pages you want retrieved or cited. A CDN “Block AI bots” toggle can still 403 it after robots.txt says Allow.
# Keep Perplexity-User eligible to fetch this site
User-agent: Perplexity-User
Allow: /Perplexity has not published a machine-readable range file for this token. Do not treat the user-agent alone as proof of identity.
Sources
JavaScript: reads raw HTML only.
Other Perplexity bots
Training, search, and user-fetch tokens from the same operator are not interchangeable. Allow the discovery path even when you opt out of training.
Perplexity-User FAQ
What is Perplexity-User?
Perplexity-User opens a URL to ground a current answer. It is not PerplexityBot, which refreshes the broader index. User-initiated fetches are frequently reported to ignore robots.txt.
Should I allow Perplexity-User in robots.txt?
Yes if you want Perplexity to be able to fetch and cite this site. Blocking Perplexity-User is how pages stay invisible to that product even when Googlebot still crawls them.
How do I know a request is really Perplexity-User?
Perplexity has not published a range file for this token. Treat the user-agent as a claimed identity, and do not build a hard IP allowlist from blog posts or screenshots.
Letting Perplexity-User in is the start. Getting cited is the job.
Rankealo checks whether AI crawlers can reach you, then publishes pages built to be retrieved and quoted in ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Gemini.
