DeepSeek AI
AggressiveUser-agent: DeepSeekBot
Category: AI & LLM Bots
SEO impact if blocked: 2/10
DeepSeek
1 crawler operated by DeepSeek
Who DeepSeek is, for site owners
DeepSeek operates 1 crawler in our directory, filed under AI & LLM Bots. Its crawl behaviour is rated aggressive.
Blocking DeepSeek carries an SEO impact score of 2/10. Blocking impact is rated: Low - No SEO ranking impact.
Our recommendation for DeepSeek: Generally safe to allow; provides legitimate crawling value.
DeepSeek at a glance
| Operator | DeepSeek |
|---|---|
| Crawler in directory | 1 |
| Categories | AI & LLM Bots |
| SEO impact if blocked | 2/10 |
| Crawl behaviour | 1 rated aggressive |
Crawler operated by DeepSeek
What DeepSeek's crawlers are for
DeepSeek runs 1 crawler in our database. Grouped by the job each one does:
- a training crawler:
DeepSeekBot
The highest-priority token is Tier 2. That puts DeepSeek among the operators whose crawlers have a direct effect on whether AI answers or search results can include your pages.
How site owners treat DeepSeek
How often site owners write rules for DeepSeek's tokens, from our own robots.txt study of the Tranco top 10,000:
| Token | Files naming it | Files blocking it |
|---|---|---|
DeepSeekBot | 169 (3%) | Not measured |
A DeepSeek token can be blocked without being named, through a User-agent: * group with Disallow: /, so its blocking share can be higher than its naming share.
All counts come from 5,583 valid files fetched October 20, 2026.
Writing one policy for DeepSeek
A robots.txt file cannot say "DeepSeek"; it can only name DeepSeek's tokens, one group at a time. With a single token, one group is the whole policy.
# One token controls everything DeepSeek fetches through it
User-agent: DeepSeekBot
Disallow: /private/
Allow: /- Decide per job, not per company. Training, search and user-triggered fetching have different trade-offs, even from the same operator.
- Name every token you mean. A token you leave out follows
User-agent: *. - Repeat shared rules. A named group ignores the
*group, so copy anyDisallowlines you still want it to obey. - Verify from outside. Run the AI search crawlability check after any change to see the result for each DeepSeek token, including firewall refusals.
Test yourself: does User-agent: DeepSeek block all of DeepSeek's crawlers?
No. robots.txt matches crawler tokens, not company names. Use the token DeepSeekBot.
Test yourself: if you block one DeepSeek token, are the others blocked too?
No. Each token is read separately. Blocking one leaves the rest following whatever group applies to them.
Each DeepSeek crawler, explained
A one-paragraph brief for every DeepSeek token in our database, covering what it does, how it treats robots.txt and how often large sites write rules for it:
- DeepSeek AI (
DeepSeekBot, Tier 2): a training crawler that collects pages both for training and for search or answers. Rated aggressive. 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. 3% of top-site robots.txt files name it.
Common mistakes with DeepSeek's crawlers
The errors we see most often with DeepSeek's crawlers in the files and firewalls we test:
- Assuming that blocking DeepSeek's crawlers removes you from AI answers. It is a training crawler; AI answers are fed by retrieval and user-triggered crawlers with different tokens.
- Blocking DeepSeek's crawlers with a broad
User-agent: *rule that also catches search engines. NameDeepSeekBotin its own group instead. - Expecting a DeepSeek's crawlers block to remove content already collected. robots.txt only affects future visits.
All three hide inside a file that looks correct, so check DeepSeek's crawlers from outside after every change.
What our own data shows about DeepSeek
Everything below comes from the AI Crawler Check bot database and our two most recent robots.txt scans of the Tranco top 10,000, not from DeepSeek's marketing. DeepSeek has one token in our database, so the whole picture fits in one place.
DeepSeekBot in our records
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. DeepSeekBot is outside our tracked token set, but 169 of 5,583 top-site files already name it, which is enough to show owners treat it as a real crawler.
Among the 104 AI and LLM crawlers in our database, DeepSeekBot sits 35th by priority (Tier 2), level with AddSearchBot, AI2Bot, AI2Bot-DeepResearchEval, aiHitBot. 1 of the 104 share its aggressive rating. Other operators with a crawler that collects pages both for training and for search or answers: PerplexityBot (Perplexity AI, Tier 1), Andibot (Andi, Tier 2), Bytespider (ByteDance, Tier 2), cohere-ai (Cohere, Tier 2), DoubaoBot (ByteDance, Tier 2). A policy for DeepSeekBot is usually a policy for these too.
A decision record for DeepSeekBot
Teams that review crawlers once a quarter keep one short entry per token, so anyone can see why a rule exists and when it was last checked. Filled in from our data, the DeepSeekBot entry reads:
- Operator and job: DeepSeek; it collects pages both for training and for search or answers.
- Priority and behaviour: Tier 2, rated aggressive, blocking impact low.
- Suggested starting point: Disallow, and back it with a server rule.
- Enforcement: DeepSeekBot's operator does not clearly document how it treats robots.txt. Write the DeepSeekBot rule anyway, then confirm in your logs that its requests stop.
User-agent: DeepSeekBot
Disallow: /Paste the line into the validator with one of your own URLs before it goes live. Revisit the DeepSeekBot entry sooner than most: a aggressive rating means DeepSeek traffic deserves a monthly look at your logs.
Checking DeepSeekBot on your own site
Because DeepSeek runs only DeepSeekBot in our records, one check covers the whole operator. Search your access logs for the string DeepSeekBot over the last 30 days, note how many requests it made and which paths it asked for, then compare that with what your robots.txt allows. DeepSeek publishes no page about the crawler that we could find, so judge it by the requests you actually see rather than by its name. A Tier 2 crawler rated aggressive is worth confirming every month, and our log checker does the counting for you.
How top sites treat DeepSeek's crawlers
From our robots.txt study of the Tranco top 10,000 (5,583 valid files, fetched October 20, 2026):
None of the tokens for DeepSeek's crawlers is tracked by name in our study. For scale, 20.1% of top-site files block at least one AI training crawler and 4.3% refuse every unnamed crawler with User-agent: * and Disallow: /, which would catch DeepSeek's crawlers too.
More questions about DeepSeek
- Will blocking DeepSeek affect my Google rankings?
- Only if one of its tokens is a Google search crawler. None of DeepSeek's tokens are Googlebot, so classic Google rankings are unaffected.
- How quickly does a robots.txt change take effect for DeepSeek?
- Crawlers cache robots.txt, commonly for up to a day. Expect a change to apply within about 24 hours, and confirm it in your logs.
- Can I allow DeepSeek on some sections and block it on others?
- Yes. Inside the group for
DeepSeekBot, addDisallowlines for the paths to keep private andAllowlines for exceptions. The longest matching rule wins. - Does blocking DeepSeek delete content it already collected?
- No. robots.txt only controls future visits. For content already collected, check whether DeepSeek offers a removal or opt-out process.
- Is a firewall block better than robots.txt for DeepSeek?
- A firewall enforces the decision, while robots.txt asks politely. Many operators recommend robots.txt because blocking their IPs can stop them reading your rules at all. Use robots.txt first, and add a firewall rule only if requests continue.
A five-minute DeepSeek review
- Confirm the token. Compare the user-agent in your logs with the tokens listed on this page. A close spelling is not the same crawler.
- Decide the outcome per crawler. Use the briefs above to choose allow, limit or block for each token.
- Write the group. Add or edit one
User-agentgroup per decision and repeat any shared rules inside it. - Publish and wait. Allow about a day for crawlers to fetch the new file.
- Confirm the result. Check your logs, then run the free AI crawler check to see the outcome from outside, including any firewall layer.
How to block or allow DeepSeek in robots.txt
This rule covers the single crawler DeepSeek operates. Add it to the robots.txt file at the root of your domain.
Block DeepSeek completely
User-agent: DeepSeekBot
Disallow: /
Allow DeepSeek explicitly
User-agent: DeepSeekBot
Allow: /
These DeepSeek rules ask; they do not enforce. If a DeepSeek token ignores them, block it at the server or CDN. Paths are case-sensitive, and each rule matches the token, not the full user-agent string.
Frequently asked questions about DeepSeek
What crawler does DeepSeek run?
DeepSeek operates 1 crawler in our directory: DeepSeek AI (user-agent DeepSeekBot).
Should I block DeepSeek?
Generally safe to allow; provides legitimate crawling value. The SEO impact score for blocking is 2/10, where 10 means blocking costs you the most visibility.
How do I block DeepSeek in robots.txt?
Add the following to robots.txt at your domain root: User-agent: DeepSeekBot then Disallow: /.
Does blocking DeepSeek hurt my search rankings?
Blocking impact is rated: Low - No SEO ranking impact. Google's own ranking crawler is Googlebot, which this operator does not run, so blocking DeepSeek does not by itself remove you from Google's index. What it can change is whether AI assistants and analytics tools can read your pages.