Aggressive Reported AI & LLM Bots

DeepSeek AI

Operated by DeepSeek

Quick Facts

User-Agent:
DeepSeekBot
Category:
AI & LLM Bots
Operator:
DeepSeek
Safety:
Aggressive
Blocking Impact:
Low - No SEO ranking impact
SEO Impact Score:
2/10
Official docs:
None published by DeepSeek
Evidence:
Verified by AI Crawler Check: in 169 top-10k robots.txt files

Reported, not operator documented

DeepSeek has not published a crawler page that names DeepSeekBot. It is listed here on our own evidence. Verified by AI Crawler Check: 169 of the 5,583 valid robots.txt files in the Tranco top 10,000 carry a rule for DeepSeekBot, so site owners treat it as a real crawler name (how we measure this). That proves the spelling is in use, not who sends it. Reported DeepSeek crawler token. DeepSeek publishes no crawler documentation.

What that means for you: the DeepSeekBot rule on this page is the best available spelling, but DeepSeek has made no statement of purpose, crawl rate or robots.txt compliance. Treat a DeepSeekBot request in your logs as a clue, not proof of who sent it, and add a firewall rule if that traffic matters to you. If the operator publishes documentation, this profile moves to Official docs.

What is DeepSeek AI?

DeepSeek AI is a dual-purpose AI crawler operated by DeepSeek. It both indexes content for AI search answers and may retrieve pages on demand for user queries. Allowing it can improve your visibility inside DeepSeek's AI answers.

DeepSeek AI is a dual-purpose AI crawler operated by DeepSeek. It both indexes content for AI search answers and may retrieve pages on demand for user queries. Allowing it can improve your visibility inside DeepSeek's AI answers.
DeepSeek AI uses the user-agent token DeepSeekBot. 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 DeepSeek AI?

✅ No SEO Impact - Blocking DeepSeek AI does not affect your rankings in Google, Bing, or any other search engine. DeepSeek AI 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.

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

How to block DeepSeek AI with robots.txt

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

Block completely (robots.txt)
User-agent: DeepSeekBot Disallow: /
Allow all (robots.txt)
User-agent: DeepSeekBot Allow: /
Block private only (robots.txt)
User-agent: DeepSeekBot Disallow: /private/ Disallow: /api/ Disallow: /admin/ Allow: /
Nginx server block
# Nginx: Hard-block DeepSeek AI if ($http_user_agent ~* "DeepSeekBot") { return 403 "Bot blocked"; }
Apache .htaccess
# Apache: Hard-block DeepSeek AI SetEnvIfNoCase User-Agent "DeepSeekBot" 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 DeepSeek AI safe to allow?

DeepSeek AI is rated Aggressive in this directory, based on public reports of heavy or non-compliant crawling. It is a Reported token: DeepSeek 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.
DeepSeek publishes no IP ranges or reverse-DNS pattern for DeepSeek AI, so the user-agent string cannot be verified. Rate-limit unusual volume instead of trusting the name.

What does DeepSeek AI do?

Understanding DeepSeek AI's purpose helps you decide whether to allow or block it.

  • Indexes content for AI search answers
  • Retrieves pages on demand for user queries
  • Can surface your content as AI citations
  • Allowing it improves AI-answer visibility
  • robots.txt behaviour not documented by the operator

DeepSeek AI in context

DeepSeek AI is a training crawler operated by DeepSeek. In plain terms, it collects pages both for training and for search or answers. Our database files it under AI and LLM crawlers and ranks it Tier 2, important crawlers from established AI and search operators. 74 of the 104 AI and LLM crawlers in our database share this tier.

Its safety rating is aggressive and its blocking impact is low. So DeepSeek AI is heavy on servers and cheap to lose: the clearest case for blocking it. How we rate safety and impact.

How site owners treat DeepSeek AI

In our own scan of the Tranco top 10,000 (5,583 valid robots.txt files), 169 files (3%) name DeepSeekBot in a User-agent line. That shows site owners treat the token as a real crawler worth a rule. It does not, on its own, prove who operates it.

Does it follow robots.txt?

DeepSeek AI's operator does not clearly document how it treats robots.txt. Write the DeepSeek AI rule anyway, then confirm in your logs that its requests stop.

DeepSeek crawlers and close alternatives

DeepSeek runs only this one crawler in our database, so a single User-agent: DeepSeekBot group controls everything DeepSeek fetches through it.

Other AI and LLM crawlers that do the same job (collects pages both for training and for search or answers) include PerplexityBot from Perplexity AI, Andibot from Andi, cohere-ai from Cohere, DoubaoBot from ByteDance, GrokBot from xAI, iAskBot from iAsk. Deciding about DeepSeek AI is usually a decision about the whole group, so check how your file treats these too.

We first recorded DeepSeekBot on March 17, 2026. We could not find a page where DeepSeek names it, so treat the token as reported rather than documented.

Which rule DeepSeek AI actually follows

DeepSeek AI reads exactly one group in robots.txt, the most specific one that names DeepSeekBot, and never combines rules across groups. This short file shows the trap:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /private/

User-agent: DeepSeekBot
Disallow: /drafts/
  1. Find the group. DeepSeek AI looks for a group naming DeepSeekBot. One exists, so it ignores User-agent: * completely.
  2. Apply only that group. It is refused /drafts/ and nothing else.
  3. The surprise. /private/ is open to DeepSeek AI, because that rule lives in the * group it no longer reads. To keep it out of both, repeat Disallow: /private/ inside its own group.
Test yourself: does a rule under User-agent: * apply to DeepSeek AI if the file also has a User-agent: DeepSeekBot group?

No. Once a group names it, DeepSeek AI reads only that group. Put every rule you want it to follow inside its own group.

Test yourself: will blocking DeepSeek AI remove your pages from AI answers?

No. DeepSeek AI collects training data. Blocking it changes what future models learn, not which pages AI answers cite today.

Test yourself: is User-agent: deepseekbot the same as User-agent: DeepSeekBot?

Yes. RFC 9309 makes user-agent matching case-insensitive. Paths are a different story: Disallow: /Blog/ does not block /blog/.

Should you allow DeepSeek AI? Decide by situation

Recommended setting for DeepSeek AI by type of site
If you are...Recommended setting
You publish content and want AI answers to cite itYour call. DeepSeek AI is a training crawler, so blocking it does not remove you from AI answers; retrieval crawlers do that job.
You license content and want to stop AI trainingBlock it by name with User-agent: DeepSeekBot and Disallow: /.
You run an online shopAllow it unless your logs show it is costly.
Your server is under load from botsBlock it first; it is rated aggressive in our database.

Check DeepSeek AI on your own site

  1. Open /robots.txt on your domain and search for DeepSeekBot. If it is not named, it follows User-agent: *.
  2. List the Disallow lines in the group DeepSeek AI follows and test your key URLs against them; the longest match wins, and Allow wins a tie.
  3. Look beyond the file. A firewall or bot manager can refuse DeepSeek AI even when robots.txt allows it, and that never shows in the file.
  4. Run our crawlability checker for AI search to see how DeepSeek AI and every other crawler we track are treated in one pass, including firewall refusals.

Common mistakes with DeepSeek AI

The errors we see most often with DeepSeek AI in the files and firewalls we test:

  1. Assuming that blocking DeepSeek AI removes you from AI answers. It is a training crawler; AI answers are fed by retrieval and user-triggered crawlers with different tokens.
  2. Blocking DeepSeek AI with a broad User-agent: * rule that also catches search engines. Name DeepSeekBot in its own group instead.
  3. Expecting a DeepSeek AI block to remove content already collected. robots.txt only affects future visits.

All three hide inside a file that looks correct, so check DeepSeek AI from outside after every change.

Spotting DeepSeek AI in your logs

robots.txt says what DeepSeek AI may do; your access logs show what it actually did.

Count requests

On a server with standard Nginx or Apache logs, this counts matching requests per day (adjust the log path for your host):

grep -iE "DeepSeekBot" /var/log/nginx/access.log \
  | awk '{print $4}' | cut -d: -f1 | sort | uniq -c

And this shows which paths it requested most, which is the quickest way to see whether your Disallow lines are being respected:

grep -iE "DeepSeekBot" /var/log/nginx/access.log \
  | awk '{print $7}' | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn | head -20

Check the requests are genuine

Anyone can send the DeepSeek AI user-agent, so confirm the source before acting on a match:

  • DeepSeekBot: we hold no published IP list, so use reverse DNS where the operator documents a hostname and treat an unverifiable DeepSeek AI request with caution.

Frequently Asked Questions

What user-agent string does DeepSeek AI use?
DeepSeek AI is reported to identify itself with DeepSeekBot. Evidence that the spelling is in real use comes from our own robots.txt study: 169 of the 5,583 valid robots.txt files in the Tranco top 10,000 name it (fetched October 20, 2026), not from DeepSeek, 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 DeepSeek AI safe?
DeepSeek AI is rated Aggressive in this directory, based on public reports of heavy or non-compliant crawling. It is a Reported token: DeepSeek 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 DeepSeek AI hurt my SEO?
✅ No SEO Impact - Blocking DeepSeek AI does not affect your rankings in Google, Bing, or any other search engine. DeepSeek AI 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 DeepSeek AI in robots.txt?
Add the following lines to your /robots.txt file:
User-agent: DeepSeekBot
Disallow: /

This instructs DeepSeek AI not to crawl any path on your site. To block only specific sections, replace / with the path (e.g., Disallow: /blog/).
Does DeepSeek AI respect robots.txt?
Not documented. DeepSeek has published no statement that DeepSeek AI reads robots.txt. A rule for DeepSeekBot will stop a client that chooses to honour it; for enforcement, add a firewall or CDN rule as well.
How do I verify if DeepSeek AI is crawling my site?
Search your access logs for DeepSeekBot (for example grep -i "DeepSeekBot" /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 DeepSeek sent it.

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