# Free Robots.txt Tester and Validator

> Test, validate and audit any website's robots.txt file. Verify crawl access for Googlebot, Bingbot, GPTBot, ClaudeBot, Perplexity and detect XML sitemaps.

Canonical: https://shipcircle.dev/tools/robots-tester

Free, no signup. Use it in the browser at [Robots.txt Tester](https://shipcircle.dev/tools/robots-tester).

## How the Robots.txt Tester works

1. Enter a domain or URL. We fetch https://example.com/robots.txt directly from the host root.
2. We check HTTP status, parse user-agent blocks, and evaluate access for major search engines and AI crawlers (Googlebot, Bingbot, GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot).
3. We detect XML sitemaps, highlight syntax warnings, and provide an interactive path tester to check if specific URL paths are allowed or blocked.

## Frequently asked questions

### Where should robots.txt be located?

The robots.txt file must always reside at the root of your domain (e.g., https://example.com/robots.txt). Files placed in subfolders are ignored by search engines.

### What is the difference between Disallow and Noindex?

Robots.txt Disallow stops crawlers from downloading the page. However, the URL can still appear in search results if linked elsewhere. To keep a page out of search indexes completely, use a 'noindex' meta tag instead.

### Should I block AI bots like GPTBot or ClaudeBot?

Blocking training bots prevents companies from using your content for model training. If you want your content cited in AI answer engines (like ChatGPT Search), make sure search crawlers like Googlebot and OAI-SearchBot are permitted.

### Is the robots.txt tester free?

Yes. The tester is free to use with no account required.

## Related

- [GEO / AI Citation Checker](https://shipcircle.dev/tools/geo-checker)
- [On-Page SEO Checker](https://shipcircle.dev/tools/seo-checker)
- [All tools](https://shipcircle.dev/tools)