Check robots.txt Access for AI Crawlers

What the checker tests

The checker downloads the robots.txt file published for the domain you enter, parses its User-agent groups, and evaluates whether selected crawlers may access the path you want to test. It reports the matched rule, whether the result comes from a crawler-specific group or the wildcard group, and which rule wins when several paths apply.

The result reflects the file that is publicly available at the time of the check. It does not inspect unpublished changes on your server, plugin settings, or a robots.txt draft stored elsewhere.

Enter the domain and path correctly

You can enter a domain with or without https://. The checker requests the robots.txt file from the root of that host. The test path should begin with a slash, for example /, /private/, or /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php.

Test the exact host that serves the content. Rules for www.example.com do not automatically describe shop.example.com, and an HTTP host may not publish the same file as its HTTPS version.

How the access result is calculated

• Crawler-specific groups: when a matching User-agent group exists, its applicable rules are evaluated for that crawler.
• Wildcard groups: User-agent: * rules apply when there is no more specific matching group.
• Most specific path: a longer matching path normally takes priority over a shorter one.
• Allow on an equal match: when equally specific Allow and Disallow rules match, Allow takes precedence.
• No blocking rule: if no applicable Disallow rule matches, the path is treated as allowed.

The report separates explicit permission, wildcard permission, wildcard blocking, crawler-specific blocking, and default access so you can see why the checker reached its conclusion.

Review warnings before changing the file

The checker also looks for issues that can make a robots.txt policy confusing or risky, including broad blocks, malformed directives, duplicate groups, unexpected crawl-delay directives, missing sitemap information, and rules that may affect ordinary search crawlers.

A warning does not always mean the file is invalid. It means the rule deserves review in the context of your site. For example, blocking /wp-admin/ may be normal, while blocking the entire site for Googlebot may be a serious visibility problem.

What the checker cannot guarantee

The checker evaluates robots.txt syntax and access logic. It cannot guarantee that every crawler will obey the file, confirm that a bot is authentic, prevent scraping, or protect private content. Use authentication, authorization, server controls, and bot protection when you need actual access restrictions.

After changing robots.txt, publish the new file, open it directly in a browser, and run the checker again against important crawlers and paths. This confirms the live file rather than the version you intended to upload.