Robots.txt Generator & Tester

Control how search engines crawl your site.

What This Tool Does

The Robots.txt Generator and Tester helps you create robots.txt files with proper crawl directives and test whether specific URLs would be blocked or allowed by your rules. It supports common user agents including Googlebot, Bingbot, GPTBot, ClaudeBot, and custom agents.

Inputs

  • Generator mode: Select user agents, set Allow and Disallow paths, add Sitemap URLs, and generate a complete robots.txt file.
  • Tester mode: Paste an existing robots.txt file and test specific URLs against the rules to see if they would be crawled or blocked.

How It Works

In generator mode, you configure rules through a form interface and the tool outputs valid robots.txt syntax. In tester mode, the tool parses your robots.txt using the standard Robots Exclusion Protocol matching rules, evaluating each URL against the most specific matching rule for the selected user agent.

Understanding the Results

  • Generated output: A complete robots.txt file ready to copy and deploy to your server root.
  • Test results: Clear Allow or Disallow status for each tested URL, showing which rule matched.

⚡ Quick Presets

Select common patterns to auto-fill rules.

Global Rules (*)

Custom Rules

Testing Tool

Check if a URL is blocked by the rules above.

Step-by-Step Example

  1. In Generator mode, select the user agents you want to target (such as * for all bots).
  2. Add Disallow rules for paths you want to block, such as /admin/ or /private/.
  3. Add Allow rules for any exceptions within blocked directories.
  4. Add your Sitemap URL so crawlers can discover all your pages.
  5. Click Generate to produce the robots.txt output.
  6. Switch to Tester mode, paste the generated file, and test sample URLs to verify the rules work as expected.

Use Cases

  • Creating a robots.txt file for a new website before launch.
  • Testing whether staging or admin URLs are properly blocked from crawlers.
  • Adding AI bot directives to control content usage by AI training crawlers.
  • Verifying robots.txt rules after a site restructure or URL migration.
  • Debugging unexpected crawling or indexing issues.

Limitations and Notes

  • Robots.txt controls crawling, not indexing. Use noindex tags to prevent indexing.
  • Not all bots respect robots.txt. Malicious crawlers may ignore the file entirely.
  • Overly broad Disallow rules can accidentally block important content from search engines.
  • The tester uses client-side parsing and may have minor differences from how specific crawlers interpret edge cases.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a robots.txt file?

A robots.txt file is a plain text file placed at the root of a website that tells search engine crawlers which URLs they can and cannot access. It follows the Robots Exclusion Protocol standard.

Does robots.txt prevent pages from being indexed?

No. Robots.txt blocks crawling, not indexing. If other pages link to a blocked URL, search engines may still index it without crawling its content. To prevent indexing, use a noindex meta tag or X-Robots-Tag HTTP header instead.

Where should robots.txt be placed?

The robots.txt file must be at the root of the domain, accessible at https://example.com/robots.txt. Files placed in subdirectories are ignored by crawlers.

What is the Sitemap directive in robots.txt?

The Sitemap directive tells crawlers the location of your XML sitemap. It helps search engines discover all your important URLs. The format is Sitemap: https://example.com/sitemap.xml.

Should I block AI bots in robots.txt?

It depends on your goals. Blocking AI bots like GPTBot or ClaudeBot prevents your content from being used in AI training data. However, some AI bots also power search features, so blocking them may reduce AI-driven visibility.

What happens if there is no robots.txt file?

If no robots.txt file exists, crawlers assume they can access all URLs on the site. This is generally fine for most websites, but adding a robots.txt with a Sitemap directive is still recommended.

Sources and References

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