What is Claude-SearchBot?
Claude-SearchBot is Anthropic's AI search index crawler. Crawls the web to improve Claude's search results — blocking it can keep you out of what Claude finds when it searches.
What does Claude-SearchBot do with your content?
Crawls the web to improve Claude's search results — blocking it can keep you out of what Claude finds when it searches. Like most AI crawlers, Claude-SearchBot reads your pages as plain HTML — it does not run JavaScript — so content that only appears after scripts execute is invisible to it.
Should you block Claude-SearchBot?
Blocking Claude-SearchBot can keep your pages out of the results Claude finds when it searches the web to answer a question — the closest thing Claude has to being found in search. It does not affect training (that is ClaudeBot) or pages a person asks Claude to open (Claude-User). If you want Claude to recommend you, leave it allowed.
How do you allow or block Claude-SearchBot in robots.txt?
Add one of these snippets to the robots.txt file at the root of your site. The first explicitly allows Claude-SearchBot everywhere; the second blocks it completely.
# Allow Claude-SearchBot
User-agent: Claude-SearchBot
Allow: /
# Block Claude-SearchBot
User-agent: Claude-SearchBot
Disallow: /How do you recognise Claude-SearchBot in your server logs?
Anthropic publishes the Claude-SearchBot token but not a full user-agent string, so search your access logs for "Claude-SearchBot".
Anyone can copy a user-agent string, so check the request's IP address against the list Anthropic publishes for Claude-SearchBot.
Anthropic's documentation for Claude-SearchBot · Anthropic's published IP ranges
Is robots.txt enough?
Not always. CDNs and firewalls (Cloudflare in particular) can block crawlers at the network level regardless of what robots.txt says — Cloudflare blocks AI crawlers by default for many accounts. If you want Claude-SearchBot to reach your site, check your CDN's bot settings too. SeeGeo's free audit checks both.
How do I check whether Claude-SearchBot can read my site right now?
Two checks, both needed: read your robots.txt for a group naming Claude-SearchBot (or the * group it falls back to), then request your homepage with Claude-SearchBot's user agent and confirm you get a 200 with your real HTML rather than a 403 or a challenge page. SeeGeo's free crawler check runs both in a few seconds.
How does Claude-SearchBot compare to similar crawlers?
Claude-SearchBot is one of 17 crawlers the SeeGeo audit checks individually. The closest comparisons:
| Crawler | Operator | Role | Runs JavaScript? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Claude-SearchBot | Anthropic | AI search index crawler | No |
| ClaudeBot | Anthropic | AI training crawler | No |
| Claude-User | Anthropic | on-demand AI fetcher | No |
| OAI-SearchBot | OpenAI | AI search index crawler | No |
| PerplexityBot | Perplexity | AI search index crawler | No |
Why does crawler access matter? The numbers
Crawler access is where AI visibility starts or ends: a blocked crawler can't read you, and an AI that can't read you can't recommend you.
- Visitors arriving from AI assistants convert at roughly 4.4x the rate of traditional organic search on average (Semrush, cross-industry, 2026).
- AI-assistant referrals are still only about 1% of total web traffic — small, but the fastest-growing acquisition channel measured (multiple 2026 studies).
- Adobe Digital Insights (Q1 2026) measured AI-assistant visitors converting 42% better than non-AI traffic — a full reversal from the year before.
- Cloudflare blocks AI crawlers by default for many accounts, so sites are often invisible to AI without anyone having decided to be.
- Content edits alone — statistics, citations, quotable structure — can raise AI visibility on the order of 30–40% (Princeton GEO study, KDD 2024).
Frequently asked questions
What is Claude-SearchBot?
Claude-SearchBot is Anthropic's AI search index crawler. Crawls the web to improve Claude's search results — blocking it can keep you out of what Claude finds when it searches.
Should I block Claude-SearchBot?
Blocking Claude-SearchBot can keep your pages out of the results Claude finds when it searches the web to answer a question — the closest thing Claude has to being found in search. It does not affect training (that is ClaudeBot) or pages a person asks Claude to open (Claude-User).
Does Claude-SearchBot run JavaScript?
No. Claude-SearchBot, like most AI crawlers, reads raw HTML without executing JavaScript. If your content only renders client-side, it is effectively invisible to it.
Can Claude-SearchBot read my website?
Only if two things are true: your robots.txt does not disallow Claude-SearchBot, and your server or CDN actually serves the page when Claude-SearchBot asks. Firewalls can block it regardless of robots.txt, so the reliable way to know is to fetch your homepage as Claude-SearchBot — the free check on see-geo.com/ai-crawler-check does exactly that.
What is Claude-SearchBot's user agent?
Anthropic publishes the Claude-SearchBot token but not a full user-agent string, so search your access logs for "Claude-SearchBot". Anyone can copy a user-agent string, so check the request's IP address against the list Anthropic publishes for Claude-SearchBot.