# AI crawler checker: can ChatGPT, Perplexity and Claude read your HVAC website?

> Free tool: type your website and see if OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot, Claude-SearchBot, Googlebot, Bingbot and 7 more crawlers may read it. No signup.

URL: https://innobotz.com/tools/ai-crawler-checker/
Updated: 2026-10-29. Author and editor: Levi Kotka, founder, InnoBotZ.
AI disclosure: first draft written with AI assistance; every fact checked by Levi Kotka. https://innobotz.com/ai-transparency/

## Short answer

Type your website address. The checker fetches your robots.txt, your llms.txt and your homepage, then reports for 12 crawlers (including OAI-SearchBot for ChatGPT search, PerplexityBot, Claude-SearchBot, Googlebot and Bingbot) whether your rules allow them. It also flags a noindex tag, missing structured data, and a firewall that blocks AI bots. Free, no signup, nothing stored.

## Run the check

  

    

      
YOUR WEBSITE
      
      Check my site
    
    

  

  
## What does the checker test?

  

    - robots.txt rules for 12 crawlers: OAI-SearchBot, ChatGPT-User, GPTBot, PerplexityBot, Perplexity-User, Claude-SearchBot, Claude-User, ClaudeBot, Googlebot, Google-Extended, Bingbot and Applebot.
    - A firewall test. We request your homepage once as a normal browser and once with the OAI-SearchBot user agent. If the second gets blocked, your host or CDN is turning AI crawlers away even when robots.txt allows them.
    - noindex. A noindex tag keeps the page out of search results, and out of AI search answers built on them.
    - Structured data. Whether your homepage has JSON-LD schema, and which types.
    - llms.txt. Whether you publish the small file that points AI tools to your key pages.
    - Readable text. How many words are in the raw HTML. A near-empty page often means the text only appears after JavaScript runs, which some AI crawlers do not run.
  

  
## What do the results mean?

  

    
| Crawler | Who runs it | What blocking it costs you |
    

      | OAI-SearchBot | OpenAI | Your pages can be left out of ChatGPT search answers. |
      | PerplexityBot | Perplexity | Perplexity cannot surface and link your site. |
      | Claude-SearchBot | Anthropic | Claude's search cannot index your pages. |
      | Googlebot | Google | Google Search, AI Overviews and AI Mode. |
      | Bingbot | Microsoft | Bing results and the search behind Copilot. |
      | GPTBot, ClaudeBot, Google-Extended | OpenAI, Anthropic, Google | Used for model training. Blocking them is a choice, and OpenAI states its search crawler is controlled separately. |
    
  
  
The first five are the ones that decide whether you can be quoted. Training crawlers are a business choice, not an error.

  
## How do I fix a blocked crawler?

  

    - Open yourdomain.com/robots.txt. Look for a User-agent line naming the blocked crawler, or a User-agent: * group with Disallow: /.
    - Add an explicit group that allows the crawler, for example User-agent: OAI-SearchBot then Allow: /.
    - If robots.txt is fine but the firewall test fails, check your host or CDN bot settings (Cloudflare and some hosts block AI crawlers by default).
    - Run the check again.
  
  
Letting crawlers in is step one. Getting named is the rest: pages, reviews and listings. See [AI search visibility for HVAC](/ai-search-visibility/).

  
## What this checker does not test

  

    - Whether any AI assistant actually names you. That needs real questions, asked many times. The [free 7-gap report](/audit/) does that.
    - Pages other than your homepage, or path-level rules for deep pages.
    - Crawl rate limits, or IP-based blocks that only trigger at volume.

## Questions owners ask

**How do I know if ChatGPT can read my website?**
Check that your robots.txt allows OAI-SearchBot, the crawler OpenAI uses for ChatGPT search, and that your host or firewall does not block it. This checker tests both in a few seconds.

**Should I block GPTBot?**
That is a choice about model training, not search. OpenAI says OAI-SearchBot and GPTBot are controlled separately, so you can allow search and still block training.

**Does an llms.txt file help me rank?**
Not on its own. It is a small file that points AI tools to your key pages. It is cheap to add, but pages, reviews and listings do the real work.

**Is this checker free?**
Yes. No signup and no email. We do not store the address you check.

## Sources cited (5), checked 2026-10-29

1. [OpenAI, Overview of OpenAI crawlers](https://platform.openai.com/docs/bots), OAI-SearchBot and GPTBot are set independently
2. [Perplexity, Perplexity crawlers](https://docs.perplexity.ai/guides/bots), PerplexityBot
3. [Anthropic, Does Anthropic crawl data from the web](https://support.claude.com/en/articles/8896518-does-anthropic-crawl-data-from-the-web-and-how-can-site-owners-block-the-crawler), Claude-SearchBot, ClaudeBot, Claude-User
4. [Google Search Central, AI features and your website](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/ai-features), AI Overviews and AI Mode use normal Search eligibility
5. [llmstxt.org, The /llms.txt file](https://llmstxt.org/), the llms.txt proposal

## About InnoBotZ

Done-for-you local search visibility for US HVAC companies with 15 to 60 employees: Google results, Google Maps and the AI assistants from one set of inputs. One HVAC company per service area. Free gap report: https://innobotz.com/audit/