xAI · Other AI bots
xAI-Web-Crawler
xAI’s web-crawler token. Allow it if you want xAI systems to discover pages beyond a single user click.
- 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-Web-Crawler in extra product or version text.
xAI-Web-Crawler
What xAI-Web-Crawler does
xAI-Web-Crawler is a broader xAI fetch identity than the user-triggered SearchBot. It still needs a 200 HTML response to learn anything.
How to get discovered
Allow xAI-Web-Crawler, keep a sitemap, and do not fold it into a training Disallow unless you intend to hide from Grok entirely.
Why xAI-Web-Crawler might skip you
Unknown-crawler WAF defaults, or robots files that never mention 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-Web-Crawler eligible to fetch this site
User-agent: xAI-Web-Crawler
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-Web-Crawler FAQ
What is xAI-Web-Crawler?
xAI-Web-Crawler is a broader xAI fetch identity than the user-triggered SearchBot. It still needs a 200 HTML response to learn anything.
Should I allow xAI-Web-Crawler in robots.txt?
Yes if you want xAI to be able to fetch and cite this site. Blocking xAI-Web-Crawler is how pages stay invisible to that product even when Googlebot still crawls them.
How do I know a request is really xAI-Web-Crawler?
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-Web-Crawler 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.
