# What is Bravebot? AI crawler guide Canonical URL: https://trakkr.ai/bots/bravebot Published: 2026-06-11 Last updated: 2026-06-11 Learn what Bravebot is, who operates it, its verified user-agent, robots.txt posture, and how blocking it can affect AI search, citations, training, or agent visibility. Brave Search crawler used to discover and index pages, including AI-search-adjacent retrieval. ## What is Bravebot? Bravebot is the web crawler operated by Brave for its Brave Search engine. It systematically discovers and indexes publicly available web pages so they can appear in Brave Search results. The crawler also supports AI-search-adjacent retrieval, meaning it helps power Brave's AI-driven answer features that rely on the search index. Bravebot identifies itself with the user-agent token Bravebot and respects the Robots Exclusion Protocol, obeying directives in robots.txt files. It is a focused, search-oriented bot that does not handle other Brave services like the browser or ads. ## What it's for For a site owner, Bravebot's visits mean your content may become discoverable in Brave Search and could be used in Brave's AI answer features. Allowing Bravebot can increase your site's visibility to users of Brave's privacy-focused search engine. If you block it, your pages will not appear in Brave Search results, and they will not be available for any AI-generated answers that Brave builds on top of its search index. ## How to handle Bravebot To manage Bravebot's access, add a rule in your robots.txt file targeting the user-agent token Bravebot. You can disallow specific paths or the entire site. The crawler honors standard robots.txt directives, so no additional steps are needed. If you want full visibility in Brave Search, allow Bravebot to crawl your content. If you prefer to opt out, blocking it will prevent indexing and inclusion in Brave's AI answer features. ## robots.txt rule User-agent: Bravebot Disallow: / ## Blocking cost Blocking Bravebot will prevent your site from appearing in Brave Search results and may exclude it from any AI answer features that rely on Brave's search index. ## Examples - A news website allows Bravebot to crawl all articles, leading to their stories appearing in Brave Search results and potentially in Brave's AI-generated answers. - An e-commerce site blocks Bravebot via robots.txt, and its product pages no longer show up in Brave Search, reducing traffic from Brave users. - A blog disallows Bravebot from a private directory, and those pages are excluded from Brave's index while the rest of the site remains searchable. ## Related bots - Googlebot: Also tracked as a search crawler. - YandexAdditional: Also tracked as a search crawler. - PetalBot: Also tracked as a search crawler. - Bingbot: Also tracked as a search crawler. - Applebot: Also tracked as a search crawler. - Claude-SearchBot: Also tracked as a search crawler. - MistralAI-Index: Also tracked as a search crawler. - YandexAdditionalBot: Also tracked as a search crawler. - Meta-WebIndexer: Also tracked as a search crawler. - Robots.txt: Robots.txt is the control file used to allow or block Bravebot. - AI Crawlers: Bravebot is a concrete crawler example for this concept. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What does Bravebot do? Bravebot crawls the web to discover and index pages for Brave Search. It also supports AI-search-adjacent retrieval, meaning it helps power Brave's AI answer features that draw from the search index. ### Does Bravebot obey robots.txt? Yes, Bravebot honors the Robots Exclusion Protocol. It will follow any Disallow directives you set for the user-agent token Bravebot in your robots.txt file. ### Will blocking Bravebot affect my site's visibility in Brave Search? Yes, if you block Bravebot, your site will not be indexed and will not appear in Brave Search results. It will also be unavailable for any AI answer features that rely on Brave's search index. ### How can I allow Bravebot to crawl my site? Simply do not disallow Bravebot in your robots.txt file. If no rule blocks it, Bravebot will crawl and index your publicly available pages. ### Is Bravebot used for anything other than search? Bravebot is specifically a search crawler for Brave Search. It is not used for Brave's browser, ads, or other services. Its role includes supporting AI-search-adjacent retrieval within Brave's search ecosystem. ## Data And Sources - [Brave documentation](https://search.brave.com/help/brave-search-crawler) - Primary source for Bravebot crawler details.