What is xAI-SearchBot?
xAI-SearchBot is a web crawler operated by xAI, the company behind Grok, to collect information from across the web for use in their search and chatbot products. This bot crawls websites to gather data that powers real-time search capabilities and provides information for Grok's reasoning and response generation. You can set up Agent Analytics to see when xAI-SearchBot visits your website.
Overview
| Operated By | xAI |
| Source | Official Website |
| Expected To Follow Robots.txt | Yes |
| Insights Last Updated | September 13, 2026 |
Do you operate this agent? Contact us to suggest an update.
Category
Expected Behavior
xAI-SearchBot revisits your site on a flexible schedule, often requesting several pages in a burst. Activity usually increases when your content changes or its index refreshes, with quiet intervals between crawl passes.
xAI-SearchBot's User Agent
| User Agent | Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; xAI-SearchBot/1.0; +https://x.ai) |
How To Block xAI-SearchBot With Robots.txt
Add this rule to your robots.txt file to block xAI-SearchBot from accessing your website, or use Automatic Robots.txt to block all AI search crawlers at once. You can customize which pages are blocked by swapping out / for a different path.
User-agent: xAI-SearchBot # https://knownagents.com/agents/xai-searchbot
Disallow: /Insights for xAI-SearchBot
As of September 13, 2026, this data reflects agent visits measured across thousands of websites using Agent Analytics, combined with daily scans of the top 1000 websites and their robots.txt files.
Robots.txt Blocked Percentage
Country of Origin
Robots.txt Blocking Trend
6% of top websites block xAI-SearchBot in their robots.txts.
Overall AI Search Crawler Traffic
3.6% of all web traffic came from AI search crawlers.
Top Visited Website Categories
The types of websites most frequently visited by xAI-SearchBot.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I Block xAI-SearchBot?
Usually not. Blocking xAI-SearchBot keeps your pages out of its AI search results and can eliminate referral traffic from that channel. It does not improve traditional search rankings. For context, 6% of the top websites we track currently have robots.txt rules for xAI-SearchBot.
Does xAI-SearchBot Follow Robots.txt Rules?
Yes. xAI-SearchBot is expected to follow robots.txt rules, so a disallow rule is the appropriate first step. Automatic Robots.txt can add and maintain that rule, while Agent Analytics lets you verify whether xAI-SearchBot respects it.
Does xAI-SearchBot Access Private Content?
No special access. xAI-SearchBot can reach only content available to anonymous visitors. Make sure staging sites and other sensitive areas require authentication.
How Can I Tell if xAI-SearchBot Is Visiting My Website?
Agent Analytics tracks xAI-SearchBot visits in real time. You can also check your server logs for requests whose user-agent string contains "xAI-SearchBot". Look for bursts that follow links across several pages and recur over time. Because xAI-SearchBot does not publish a verification method, any client can claim its identity and a log match is only a clue.
Why Is xAI-SearchBot Visiting My Website?
xAI-SearchBot is updating an AI search index so your pages can appear in its results. It may have discovered your site through links, a sitemap, or mentions of your domain.