What is Bravebot?

Bravebot is a bot in the AI search crawlers category, operated by Brave Software, Inc..

Bot name
Bravebot
Operator
Brave Software, Inc.
Type
Bot
Respects robots.txt
Not confirmed
robots.txt user agent
Bravebot
Signs requests (Web Bot Auth)
No

About Bravebot

Brave search has a crawler to discover new pages and index their content.

AI search crawlers index pages so that AI answer engines can cite and link to them in their responses. Blocking them removes your pages from those answers, so many sites allow them while blocking training crawlers.

Bravebot user agent

Bravebot identifies itself with this user agent string:

  • Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; Bravebot/1.0; +https://search.brave.com/help/brave-search-crawler) Chrome/W.X.Y.Z Safari/537.36

Anyone can copy a user agent string. Transfon Security also checks where each request comes from, so a request that claims to be a known crawler but comes from the wrong network is treated as a fake, not as the real crawler.

How to block Bravebot in robots.txt

We have not confirmed whether Bravebot follows robots.txt. Add a rule, then check your logs to see that it stopped. robots.txt is a plain text file at the root of your domain, such as https://example.com/robots.txt.

Block Bravebot from the whole site

User-agent: Bravebot
Disallow: /

Block Bravebot from some folders

User-agent: Bravebot
Disallow: /private/
Disallow: /search

Allow Bravebot only on some folders

User-agent: Bravebot
Allow: /blog/
Disallow: /

Allow Bravebot and block other crawlers

User-agent: Bravebot
Allow: /

User-agent: *
Disallow: /

Things to know

  • Each host needs its own file. Rules on www.example.com do not apply to shop.example.com.
  • A crawler obeys only the most specific group that names it. Once you add a User-agent: Bravebot group, Bravebot ignores your User-agent: * rules, so repeat any that should still apply.
  • The user agent name is not case sensitive. We take Bravebot from Bravebot's user agent; check Brave Software, Inc.'s own documentation if it publishes a different robots.txt name.
  • Crawlers cache robots.txt, so changes can take up to a day to apply. Disallow stops crawling but does not remove pages already collected or indexed.

Limits of robots.txt

  1. Bravebot may not follow the rule. robots.txt is a request that nothing enforces, and we have not confirmed that Bravebot follows it. Check your logs after adding a rule.
  2. The user agent could be fake. robots.txt matches the name a request claims. Anyone can send Bravebot's user agent, and a scraper using it is not bound by Brave Software, Inc.'s robots.txt policy. Only checking the source network tells a real Bravebot from a fake one.

Treat robots.txt as a statement of your policy, and enforce it where requests arrive.

Who should care about Bravebot

Publishers

Bravebot decides whether AI answers cite and link your articles. Many publishers allow it while blocking training crawlers, and rate limit it so it does not crowd out readers.

Transfon Security for publishers

Media buyers and advertisers

AI search can send visitors to your landing pages. Keep Bravebot's own visits out of campaign reports so you can measure the real referrals.

Transfon Security for advertisers

E-commerce

Being indexed by Bravebot can put your products in AI shopping answers. Allow it on product and category pages, and keep it off cart, checkout and account pages.

Transfon Security for e-commerce

SaaS and APIs

Letting Bravebot index docs and pricing pages helps AI answers describe your product correctly. Keep it away from login and API endpoints.

Transfon Security for SaaS and APIs

Block Bravebot with Transfon Security

robots.txt is a request, not an enforcement. Transfon Security shows Bravebot by name in the Top Bots report, so you can see how often it visits and which pages it reads. Block or allow it with a User Agent rule, or slow it down with a rate limit decision rule.

Transfon Security

Control Bravebot on your site

  • See every Bravebot visit and the pages it reads
  • Spot bots that fake trusted crawler names
  • Block, allow or rate limit Bravebot with one rule
  • Works with or without robots.txt support

Frequently asked questions

What is Bravebot?

Bravebot is a bot in the AI search crawlers category, operated by Brave Software, Inc.. Brave search has a crawler to discover new pages and index their content.

Does Bravebot respect robots.txt?

We have not confirmed whether Bravebot follows robots.txt. Add a robots.txt rule, then check your logs to see that it stopped, and block it by user agent if it did not.

How do I block Bravebot?

Add "User-agent: Bravebot" followed by "Disallow: /" to the robots.txt file at the root of your site. To enforce it, block requests whose user agent contains "Bravebot" at your WAF. In Transfon Security that is one User Agent block rule.

Is robots.txt enough to block Bravebot?

No. robots.txt is voluntary, so Bravebot may not follow it, and anyone can send Bravebot's user agent, so a fake Bravebot ignores your rule. Enforce the rule where requests arrive, at your WAF, and check the source network.

Should I block Bravebot?

AI search crawlers index pages so that AI answer engines can cite and link to them in their responses. Blocking them removes your pages from those answers, so many sites allow them while blocking training crawlers.

Related bots

All AI search crawlers · Full bot directory

See Which Bots Visit Your Site

Transfon Security identifies every bot in this directory in your traffic reports, flags fake search crawlers, and lets you allow, block or rate limit each bot.

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