PerplexityBot: share of top websites blocking it

On 26 October 2026, 10.0% of the readable top 10k websites fully blocked PerplexityBot in robots.txt (bounds 8.0% to 28.2% over all 8,220 websites, 1,659 of them unreadable); 3.7% blocked it partly and 11.3% named it.

Last verified 2026-10-26 21:13 UTC (daily run of 2026-10-26). Proof for that day.

Operator
Perplexity
What it is
Search result generation.
Description
Crawls sites to surface as results in Perplexity.
robots.txt token
User-agent: PerplexityBot
Listed since
2026-10-26 (in this ledger's registry)

Fully blocks

10.0%

656 sites; bounds 8.0% to 28.2%

Partly blocks

3.7%

242 sites

Name it explicitly

11.3%

743 sites; unreadable: 3,439

Over time

Share of panel sites blocking PerplexityBot4 lines, 2016-09-05 to 2026-10-26; values between 2.52 and 10.00 %; latest 10.00 %.1.924.096.268.4310.60Sep 2016Mar 2019Sep 2021Apr 2024Oct 2026blocks, reconstructed (Common Crawl): 2016-09-05 UTC: 3.14 %blocks, reconstructed (Common Crawl): 2017-09-25 UTC: 3.51 %blocks, reconstructed (Common Crawl): 2018-09-24 UTC: 3.61 %blocks, reconstructed (Common Crawl): 2019-09-23 UTC: 2.80 %blocks, reconstructed (Common Crawl): 2020-09-28 UTC: 2.52 %blocks, reconstructed (Common Crawl): 2021-09-27 UTC: 2.61 %blocks, reconstructed (Common Crawl): 2022-10-03 UTC: 2.55 %blocks, reconstructed (Common Crawl): 2024-09-16 UTC: 5.19 %blocks, reconstructed (Common Crawl): 2026-09-21 UTC: 8.15 %partly blocks, reconstructed (Common Crawl): 2016-09-05 UTC: 5.04 %partly blocks, reconstructed (Common Crawl): 2017-09-25 UTC: 4.91 %partly blocks, reconstructed (Common Crawl): 2018-09-24 UTC: 4.82 %partly blocks, reconstructed (Common Crawl): 2019-09-23 UTC: 4.76 %partly blocks, reconstructed (Common Crawl): 2020-09-28 UTC: 4.82 %partly blocks, reconstructed (Common Crawl): 2021-09-27 UTC: 4.98 %partly blocks, reconstructed (Common Crawl): 2022-10-03 UTC: 4.91 %partly blocks, reconstructed (Common Crawl): 2024-09-16 UTC: 4.98 %partly blocks, reconstructed (Common Crawl): 2026-09-21 UTC: 5.32 %blocks, daily observation: 2026-10-26 UTC: 10.00 %partly blocks, daily observation: 2026-10-26 UTC: 3.69 %

"Partly blocks" counts every robots.txt whose rules for PerplexityBot disallow some paths, including generic rules for all crawlers (for example /search); it is not a measure of targeted AI policy. Shares are of the readable websites (W − U: 8,220 websites, 1,659 unreadable); the bounds assume none / all of the unreadable sites block. Solid: daily first-party observations (top 10k of the Tranco list W3ZV9, one fixed cohort). Dashed: reconstructed from Common Crawl (top 10k, sites readable in every crawl), a separate series.

Reconstructed values per crawl
CrawlDateBlocksSites read
CC-MAIN-2016-362016-09-053.1%3,216
CC-MAIN-2017-392017-09-253.5%3,216
CC-MAIN-2018-392018-09-243.6%3,216
CC-MAIN-2019-392019-09-232.8%3,216
CC-MAIN-2020-402020-09-282.5%3,216
CC-MAIN-2021-392021-09-272.6%3,216
CC-MAIN-2022-402022-10-032.5%3,216
CC-MAIN-2024-382024-09-165.2%3,216
CC-MAIN-2026-392026-09-218.1%3,216

Recent blockers

Sites that started fully blocking PerplexityBot since 2026-07-28, highest-ranked first.

DateSiteWhat changed
kasserver.comnow blocks PerplexityBot (was allow)
astro.comnow blocks PerplexityBot (was allow)

Recent unblockers

DateSiteWhat changed
zimbra.comnow allows PerplexityBot (was block)
fragrantica.comnow allows PerplexityBot (was block)
olhardigital.com.brnow partly blocks PerplexityBot (was block)

Sites blocking PerplexityBot now

facebook.com · fbcdn.net · instagram.com · twitter.com (*) · googlevideo.com (*) · amazon.com · whatsapp.net · x.com (*) · pinterest.com (*) · tiktok.com · whatsapp.com · yahoo.com · baidu.com (*) · amazonvideo.com · msn.com · reddit.com (*) · chatgpt.com · skybridge.click (*) · registrar-servers.com (*) · t-online.de · nytimes.com · ebay.com · theguardian.com · cnn.com · meraki.com (*) · bbc.com · forbes.com · bbc.co.uk · t.co (*) · imdb.com (*) · launchpad.net · reuters.com (*) · nature.com · demdex.net (*) · weibo.com (*) · amazon.co.uk · naver.com (*) · washingtonpost.com · bloomberg.com · wsj.com (*) · amazon.de · cookiedatabase.org (*) · gcdn.co (*) · kwai.net (*) · quora.com · amazon.co.jp · statista.com · edgecdn.ru (*) · uol.com.br · ft.com · wired.com · threads.com · netcraze.io (*) · usatoday.com · dailymail.com · telegraph.co.uk · amazon.fr · amazon.ca · sharethrough.com · elpais.com

(*) blocked through the * group, not by name. Full list in current.csv.

Cite this

InfraRabbit AI Crawl Ledger, "Share of top websites blocking PerplexityBot", https://infrarabbit.com/crawlers/bot/PerplexityBot, retrieved 2026-10-26. CC BY 4.0.