xAI · Other AI bots
xAI-Bot
A generic xAI bot token. If it cannot fetch you, some Grok product fetches fail even when SearchBot is allowed.
- Operator
- xAI
- Traffic type
- Other AI bots
- Verification
- Not independently verifiable
- robots.txt
- Compliance not documented
Usually means: Link-preview, ads, and product fetchers. Allow them if you want unfurls and landing-page fetches to work; they are not the citation path.
User-agent
robots.txt and most WAF rules match the token, not the full Mozilla string. Operators often wrap xAI-Bot in extra product or version text.
xAI-Bot
What xAI-Bot does
xAI-Bot appears as a family-level user-agent for xAI fetches. Do not assume xAI-SearchBot is the only token you need.
How to get discovered
Add an explicit Allow for xAI-Bot, xAI-SearchBot, and Grok-DeepSearch. Then probe the homepage with those UAs.
Why xAI-Bot might skip you
Partial allowlists, or Cloudflare AI-bot categories that include xAI.
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 xAI-Bot eligible to fetch this site
User-agent: xAI-Bot
Allow: /xAI has not published a machine-readable range file for this token. Do not treat the user-agent alone as proof of identity.
JavaScript: reads raw HTML only.
Other xAI 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.
xAI-Bot FAQ
What is xAI-Bot?
xAI-Bot appears as a family-level user-agent for xAI fetches. Do not assume xAI-SearchBot is the only token you need.
Should I allow xAI-Bot in robots.txt?
Yes if you want xAI to be able to fetch and cite this site. Blocking xAI-Bot is how pages stay invisible to that product even when Googlebot still crawls them.
How do I know a request is really xAI-Bot?
xAI 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 xAI-Bot 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.
