How do I see which AI bots are visiting my site?
Your server or CDN logs record the user agent and IP address of every request. Filter them for the AI bot names OpenAI, Perplexity, Anthropic and Google publish, then check the IP address too, because a user agent is only text the visitor sends. Compare what you find with your robots.txt to spot bots that are blocked or never arrive.
Free to read, no signup. Nova summarises bot visits from the log lines you share.
How the companies tell you to recognise their bots
Straight from their own documentation. Names and IP lists change, so check the source before acting.
Three named OpenAI bots
OpenAI lists OAI-SearchBot for ChatGPT search, GPTBot for training and ChatGPT-User for user-triggered visits. Each shows up under its own name.
Overview of OpenAI crawlersPublished IP lists to match against
Perplexity publishes IP ranges for PerplexityBot and Perplexity-User, and says to match both the user agent and the IP ranges, not just the user agent.
Perplexity crawlersAn IP list for Claude's bots
Anthropic names ClaudeBot, Claude-User and Claude-SearchBot and publishes a list of its crawler IP addresses so you can check where a request came from.
Does Anthropic crawl data from the web?Verify a Google crawler by its address
Google says to verify a crawler with a reverse DNS lookup, or by matching the IP to its published ranges, because anyone can claim to be Google in a user agent.
Verifying Googlebot and other crawlersFive steps to see which AI bots visit
Do it by hand with these steps, or hand the whole thing to Nova.
Get your access logs
Export recent access logs from your server, CDN or host. Thirty days is a good window. Check what your host keeps and for how long.
Nova: accepts the log lines you share and reads them for you.
Filter for AI bot names
Search the user agent field for OAI-SearchBot, GPTBot, ChatGPT-User, PerplexityBot, Perplexity-User, ClaudeBot, Claude-SearchBot, Claude-User and Googlebot.
Nova: counts visits by bot and by day.
Verify the visitor
Match the IP of a sample of requests against each company's published ranges, or use a reverse DNS lookup for Google. Treat mismatches as unverified.
Nova: marks which requests match the published ranges.
Compare with your rules
Line the results up against your robots.txt and firewall rules. Note bots you allow but never see, and bots you see but meant to block.
Nova: compares visits with your robots.txt rules.
Fix and watch again
Adjust rules where needed, then check the logs again after a few days to confirm the bots appear.
Nova: re-reads the logs after the change and reports what moved.
Short on time? Nova, your AI brand visibility expert, runs this Maneuver on your brand and tracks the result.
Take it to NovaBot visits, verified and compared with your rules
| Bot | Visits (30 days) | IP verified | Allowed in robots.txt | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OAI-SearchBot | [N] | Yes | Yes | Healthy |
| PerplexityBot | [N] | No match | Yes | Check firewall and IP list |
| ClaudeBot | 0 | Not applicable | No | Blocked by your choice |
Nova then re-checks the logs after you make a change, so you see whether the bots now arrive.
Take this Maneuver into your own AI agent
Get bot-log-check.md, a ready-to-use skill file with the bot list, a log-filtering routine and a verification checklist. Drop it into Claude, Cursor or any agent that reads SKILL.md files.
Skill file for Claude, Cursor and other agents
- A bot name and purpose list
- A log filtering and counting routine
- An IP verification checklist
Questions, answered.
Relevant reads
All articlesLet Nova read your bot logs
Nova opens with this Maneuver loaded. You approve every change before it ships.