# AI bot types

> The three kinds of AI bots that visit websites, training crawlers, search indexers and live fetchers, and which ones affect AI citations and visibility.

Source: https://getintel.ai/docs/academy/reference/ai-bot-types/

Not every AI bot does the same job. Knowing which is which tells you what to allow.

| Type | What it does | Examples | Affects whether AI cites you? |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| **Search index** | Builds the index an AI engine searches when answering. | OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot, Claude-SearchBot, Googlebot, Bingbot | **Yes.** Block it and that engine can't find your pages. |
| **Live fetch** | Opens a page in real time because someone asked about it. | ChatGPT-User, Perplexity-User, Claude-User | **Yes.** Block it and the engine can't read your page mid-answer. |
| **Training** | Collects content to train future models. | GPTBot, ClaudeBot, Google-Extended, CCBot | **No.** Blocking it doesn't stop engines citing you. |

## What to allow

- **Allow search index and live fetch bots** for every engine you care about.
- **Training bots are your choice.** Block them if you don't want your content used for training; it won't affect citations.

## Google and Bing are special

Googlebot feeds [Google AI Overviews](/ai-overview-tracker/) and AI Mode, and Bingbot feeds Copilot and ChatGPT search. Blocking either affects those AI surfaces as well as normal search.

## Check your site

**Technical → Bot access** shows robots.txt and a live request result for each bot. If one is blocked, see [AI crawlers show nothing, or a bot is blocked](/docs/academy/troubleshooting/bot-blocked/).