What is Claude-SearchBot?
Claude-SearchBot is Anthropic's search crawler. Search crawlers build the index a search or answer product draws on.
| Operator | Anthropic |
|---|---|
| Purpose (operator wording) | search index |
| robots.txt token | Claude-SearchBot |
| User agent string | Not stated by the operator |
| Respects robots.txt | Yes |
| IP ranges | https://claude.com/crawling/bots.json |
| Last verified |
What else should I know about Claude-SearchBot?
What is the Claude-SearchBot user agent string?
Anthropic does not publish a full user agent string for Claude-SearchBot. The robots.txt token to use is Claude-SearchBot. To tell whether a visit is real, compare the visitor's IP address with the published list.
How do I block Claude-SearchBot in robots.txt?
Add this group to the robots.txt file at the root of your site. It asks Claude-SearchBot to stay out of every page.
User-agent: Claude-SearchBot
Disallow: /To allow it explicitly, for example while a broader rule blocks other bots:
User-agent: Claude-SearchBot
Allow: /How do I opt out of Anthropic training but stay in its search?
Each Anthropic user agent has its own token, so you can set them one by one. This file blocks ClaudeBot and allows Claude-User, Claude-SearchBot. Every line comes from the rows in this dataset. Whether allowing a bot keeps you in a product is Anthropic's call, so check each crawler's page.
User-agent: ClaudeBot
Disallow: /
User-agent: Claude-User
Allow: /
User-agent: Claude-SearchBot
Allow: /Does blocking Claude-SearchBot affect AI answers?
Anthropic: disabling Claude-SearchBot 'prevents our system from indexing your content for search optimization, which may reduce your site's visibility and accuracy in user search results.'
Each other Anthropic user agent has its own robots.txt token, so a rule for Claude-SearchBot does not cover them. See the related crawlers below.
Does Claude-SearchBot follow robots.txt?
Yes. Anthropic: bots honor industry-standard robots.txt directives (statement covers all three bots).
Robots.txt is a request, not a lock (RFC 9309).
What IP addresses does Claude-SearchBot use?
Anthropic publishes a list at https://claude.com/crawling/bots.json. We did not download or parse it. A request that claims to be Claude-SearchBot but comes from outside that list is not Claude-SearchBot.
Which other Anthropic crawlers are there?
What should I read next?
Next: give AI tools something to quote
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