Caution Reported AI & LLM Bots

ChatGLM Spider

Operated by Zhipu AI

Quick Facts

User-Agent:
ChatGLM-Spider
Category:
AI & LLM Bots
Operator:
Zhipu AI
Safety:
Use Caution
Blocking Impact:
Low - No SEO ranking impact
SEO Impact Score:
2/10
Official docs:
None published by Zhipu AI

Reported, not operator documented

Zhipu AI has not published a crawler page that names ChatGLM-Spider. It is listed here because a credible public source does: ai.robots.txt. Reported Zhipu AI crawler. No vendor page.

What that means for you: the robots.txt rule on this page is the best available spelling, and a well-behaved crawler using this string will honour it, but there is no vendor statement of purpose, crawl rate or robots.txt compliance to rely on. Treat a matching request in your logs as a detection clue, not proof of who sent it, and combine the rule with a firewall rule if the traffic matters to you. If the operator publishes documentation, this profile moves to Official docs.

What is ChatGLM Spider?

ChatGLM Spider is an AI data-collection crawler operated by Zhipu AI. It gathers public web content to build or refine training datasets for large language models. Like other AI training crawlers, ChatGLM Spider does not influence your search-engine rankings, so you can block it via robots.txt without any SEO penalty if you wish to opt out of AI training.

ChatGLM Spider is an AI data-collection crawler operated by Zhipu AI. It gathers public web content to build or refine training datasets for large language models. Like other AI training crawlers, ChatGLM Spider does not influence your search-engine rankings, so you can block it via robots.txt without any SEO penalty if you wish to opt out of AI training.
ChatGLM Spider uses the user-agent token ChatGLM-Spider. You can control it via robots.txt, meta tags (noai), or the emerging llms.txt standard. Robots.txt is voluntary; for hard enforcement, combine it with server-level IP blocking.

What happens if you block ChatGLM Spider?

✅ No SEO Impact - Blocking ChatGLM Spider does not affect your rankings in Google, Bing, or any other search engine. ChatGLM Spider is an AI crawler, not a traditional search indexer. You can freely block it via User-agent / Disallow: / without any SEO penalty.
Generally safe to allow; provides legitimate crawling value.

ChatGLM Spider and etaospider

ChatGLM Spider is the Reported crawler for Zhipu AI. Searches for etaospider land here, but etaospider is not a token any operator documents, and this directory does not list it as a separate bot, because no credible public source names its operator. If it appears in your logs, block it by user agent at the server and verify the IP before assuming who runs it.

Want to see whether ChatGLM Spider actually visits you? Read how do I monitor AI bot traffic to my website?

How to block ChatGLM Spider with robots.txt

<code>User-agent: ChatGLM-Spider</code> - Matching is case-insensitive. Robots.txt is fetched from the root of each subdomain separately.

Block completely (robots.txt)
User-agent: ChatGLM-Spider Disallow: /
Allow all (robots.txt)
User-agent: ChatGLM-Spider Allow: /
Block private only (robots.txt)
User-agent: ChatGLM-Spider Disallow: /private/ Disallow: /api/ Disallow: /admin/ Allow: /
Nginx server block
# Nginx: Hard-block ChatGLM Spider if ($http_user_agent ~* "ChatGLM-Spider") { return 403 "Bot blocked"; }
Apache .htaccess
# Apache: Hard-block ChatGLM Spider SetEnvIfNoCase User-Agent "ChatGLM-Spider" bad_bot Order Allow,Deny Allow from all Deny from env=bad_bot
Meta robots tag
<meta name="robots" content="noindex, nofollow">
X-Robots-Tag header
X-Robots-Tag: noindex, nofollow

Is ChatGLM Spider safe to allow?

ChatGLM Spider is rated Caution in this directory. It is a Reported token: Zhipu AI has not published documentation for it, so its purpose, crawl rate and robots.txt behaviour are not confirmed by the operator, and anyone can send the same user-agent string. Allow or block it on its stated purpose, and back the robots.txt rule with a firewall rule if the traffic matters to you.
Zhipu AI publishes no IP ranges or reverse-DNS pattern for ChatGLM Spider, so the user-agent string cannot be verified. Rate-limit unusual volume instead of trusting the name.

What does ChatGLM Spider do?

Understanding ChatGLM Spider's purpose helps you decide whether to allow or block it.

  • Collects public web content to train large language models
  • Builds and refreshes AI training datasets
  • Harvests text, code, and structured data for model improvement
  • Does NOT affect search-engine rankings
  • Can be blocked to opt out of AI training without SEO loss

Frequently Asked Questions

What user-agent string does ChatGLM Spider use?
ChatGLM Spider is reported to identify itself with ChatGLM-Spider. That spelling comes from ai.robots.txt, not from Zhipu AI, which has not published crawler documentation naming it. Use it in robots.txt as the best available match, and treat a request carrying it as a clue rather than proof of who sent it.
Is ChatGLM Spider safe?
ChatGLM Spider is rated Caution in this directory. It is a Reported token: Zhipu AI has not published documentation for it, so its purpose, crawl rate and robots.txt behaviour are not confirmed by the operator, and anyone can send the same user-agent string. Allow or block it on its stated purpose, and back the robots.txt rule with a firewall rule if the traffic matters to you.
Will blocking ChatGLM Spider hurt my SEO?
✅ No SEO Impact - Blocking ChatGLM Spider does not affect your rankings in Google, Bing, or any other search engine. ChatGLM Spider is an AI crawler, not a traditional search indexer. You can freely block it via User-agent / Disallow: / without any SEO penalty.
How do I block ChatGLM Spider in robots.txt?
Add the following lines to your /robots.txt file:
User-agent: ChatGLM-Spider
Disallow: /

This instructs ChatGLM Spider not to crawl any path on your site. To block only specific sections, replace / with the path (e.g., Disallow: /blog/).
Does ChatGLM Spider respect robots.txt?
Not documented. Zhipu AI has published no statement that ChatGLM Spider reads robots.txt. A rule for ChatGLM-Spider will stop a client that chooses to honour it; for enforcement, add a firewall or CDN rule as well.
How do I verify if ChatGLM Spider is crawling my site?
Search your access logs for ChatGLM-Spider (for example grep -i "ChatGLM-Spider" /var/log/nginx/access.log). Because the operator publishes no IP ranges or reverse-DNS pattern, a match shows that something used the name, not that Zhipu AI sent it.