What is a Robots.txt File?

A robots.txt file is a critical SEO tool that instructs search engine crawlers which pages or sections of your website they can or cannot access. Located at the root of your domain (e.g., https://example.com/robots.txt), it's one of the first files crawlers check before indexing your site.

What This Tool Does: Build your robots.txt file visually without memorizing complex syntax. Select user-agents, configure allow/disallow rules, add sitemaps, and download your ready-to-use file instantly.

Why Do You Need a Robots.txt File?

Control Crawling

Prevent bots from accessing sensitive areas like admin panels, login pages, or internal APIs

Save Crawl Budget

Direct crawlers to your important pages instead of wasting resources on low-value URLs

Block AI Scrapers

Stop AI bots like GPTBot and CCBot from using your content for training data

Improve SEO

Help search engines focus on the pages you want ranked in search results

How to Use This Generator

Quick Start with Presets

Click one of the preset buttons at the top to load a common configuration instantly:

Standard

Blocks admin, private, tmp, and API directories — ideal for most websites

Allow All

Permits all crawlers to access everything on your site

Block All

Prevents all crawlers from accessing any page — use during development

Block AI Bots

Allows search engines but blocks AI crawlers (GPTBot, ChatGPT-User, CCBot, etc.)

E-commerce

Blocks cart, checkout, account, and filter pages to optimize crawl budget

Blank

Empty template to build your custom configuration from scratch

Building Custom Rules

Choose a User-Agent

Select from the dropdown (e.g., Googlebot, Bingbot) or enter a custom bot name to target specific crawlers

Add Rules

Set paths as Allow or Disallow. Use the path suggestions for common directories like /admin/, /wp-content/, or /api/

Set Crawl-Delay

Optionally specify how many seconds a bot should wait between requests to reduce server load

Add Sitemaps

Enter your sitemap URLs (e.g., https://example.com/sitemap.xml) to help crawlers discover your content efficiently

Copy or Download

Use the Copy button to paste directly into your file, or download the ready-to-upload robots.txt file

Import an Existing File

Click Import Existing, paste your current robots.txt content, and click Apply. The tool will parse it into editable rule groups so you can make changes visually without manual syntax editing.

Pro Tip: Import your existing file to quickly update or optimize your current configuration without starting from scratch.

Features

Visual Rule Builder

Build robots.txt rules through an intuitive, no-code interface. Each rule group includes a user-agent selector, allow/disallow paths, and an optional crawl-delay setting. Add or remove groups and rules with a single click — no syntax knowledge required.

Traditional Method

Manual Editing

Memorize syntax rules
Risk of formatting errors
Time-consuming testing
Difficult to visualize structure

With This Tool

Visual Interface

Point-and-click configuration
Automatic syntax validation
Real-time preview
Clear rule organization

Comprehensive Bot Library

Choose from 19 pre-configured user-agents covering major search engines, social platforms, and AI crawlers:

Major Search Engines

Googlebot — Google's primary web crawler
Bingbot — Microsoft Bing's crawler
Yandex — Russia's leading search engine
Baiduspider — China's dominant search crawler
DuckDuckBot — Privacy-focused search engine
Slurp — Yahoo's web crawler

Social Media Crawlers

facebookexternalhit — Facebook link preview crawler
Twitterbot — Twitter card and preview bot
LinkedInBot — LinkedIn content crawler

AI Training Bots

GPTBot — OpenAI's web crawler for ChatGPT training
ChatGPT-User — ChatGPT browsing feature bot
Google-Extended — Google's AI training crawler
CCBot — Common Crawl data collection bot
anthropic-ai — Anthropic's Claude AI crawler
Claude-Web — Claude web browsing bot
Bytespider — ByteDance's AI training crawler

Specialized Crawlers

Googlebot-Image — Google's image indexing bot
Googlebot-News — Google News crawler
Custom bot name — Enter any user-agent string

Smart Path Suggestions

When typing a path, the tool suggests common directories and patterns to speed up configuration. Supports wildcard patterns for advanced control.

Common Directories

/admin/, /wp-admin/, /api/, /cart/, /checkout/, /private/, /tmp/

Wildcard Patterns

/*.pdf$ (block PDFs), /search?* (block search queries), /*?sort=* (block sorting parameters)

Live Preview with Syntax Highlighting

See your robots.txt output update in real-time as you make changes. Directives, values, and sitemap URLs are color-coded for easy reading and validation. Instantly spot errors or formatting issues before downloading.

Real-Time Validation: The preview panel highlights syntax errors and provides immediate feedback, ensuring your robots.txt file is properly formatted before deployment.

Import and Edit

Paste an existing robots.txt file to parse it into visual rule groups. Edit the rules in the user-friendly interface, add new directives, or reorganize existing ones. Export the updated version when you're done — perfect for maintaining and optimizing existing configurations.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where do I put the robots.txt file?

Upload it to the root directory of your website so it's accessible at https://yourdomain.com/robots.txt. Search engines check this specific URL before crawling your site.

Important: The file must be named exactly robots.txt (lowercase) and placed in the root directory — not in a subdirectory or with a different name.

Does robots.txt block pages from appearing in search results?

Not exactly. Robots.txt prevents crawlers from accessing a page, but the URL can still appear in search results if other pages link to it. To fully block a page from search results, use a noindex meta tag or X-Robots-Tag HTTP header instead.

If you want to block a URL from Google Search results, use noindex. Don't use robots.txt for this purpose, as it may still appear in search results without a description.
— Google Search Central Documentation

What does "Disallow: /" mean?

It tells the specified bot not to crawl any page on your site. Use this carefully — it effectively hides your entire site from that crawler.

Example: Block All Crawling

User-agent: *
Disallow: /

Warning: This configuration blocks all search engines from crawling your entire website. Only use during development or for private sites.

What is Crawl-delay?

Crawl-delay tells a bot to wait a specified number of seconds between requests. This can reduce server load from aggressive crawlers.

Note: Googlebot does not support crawl-delay. To control Google's crawl rate, use Google Search Console instead.

Example: Set 10-Second Delay

User-agent: Bingbot
Crawl-delay: 10

How do I block AI bots from scraping my content?

Use the Block AI Bots preset, which creates Disallow rules for GPTBot, ChatGPT-User, Google-Extended, CCBot, anthropic-ai, Claude-Web, and Bytespider while still allowing regular search engines to crawl your site.

Example: Block AI Crawlers

User-agent: GPTBot
Disallow: /

User-agent: ChatGPT-User
Disallow: /

User-agent: Google-Extended
Disallow: /

User-agent: CCBot
Disallow: /

User-agent: anthropic-ai
Disallow: /

User-agent: Claude-Web
Disallow: /

User-agent: Bytespider
Disallow: /

This configuration protects your content from being used for AI training while maintaining visibility in search engines.

Can I use wildcards in robots.txt paths?

Yes, most modern crawlers support * (matches any sequence) and $ (matches end of URL). These wildcards enable powerful pattern matching for complex rules.

Pattern	Meaning	Example
`*`	Matches any sequence of characters	`/search?*` blocks all search queries
`$`	Matches the end of the URL	`/*.pdf$` blocks all PDF files
`*$`	Combined pattern	`/?sort=$` blocks URLs with sort parameters

Pro Tip: Use wildcards to block entire categories of URLs efficiently, such as all filtered product pages or search result variations.

Is my data safe?

100% Private: This tool runs entirely in your browser using client-side JavaScript. No data is sent to any server — your robots.txt content stays on your device.

No server uploads or data transmission
No tracking or analytics on your content
No storage of your configuration
Complete privacy and security