What is quillbot.com?

quillbot.com is a bot in the AI assistants and agents category, operated by QuillBot.

Bot name
quillbot.com
Operator
QuillBot
Type
Bot
Respects robots.txt
Not confirmed
robots.txt user agent
quillbot.com
Signs requests (Web Bot Auth)
No

About quillbot.com

QuillBot fetches a page when a user asks the QuillBot writing assistant to read, summarise or check its text.

AI assistants fetch pages on demand when a user asks a chatbot or an agent to read, summarise or act on a URL. Each request is tied to a person, but the visit carries no ad impressions or analytics. Decide per agent whether the value is worth the load.

quillbot.com user agent

quillbot.com identifies itself with this user agent string:

  • quillbot.com

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 quillbot.com in robots.txt

We have not confirmed whether quillbot.com 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 quillbot.com from the whole site

User-agent: quillbot.com
Disallow: /

Block quillbot.com from some folders

User-agent: quillbot.com
Disallow: /private/
Disallow: /search

Allow quillbot.com only on some folders

User-agent: quillbot.com
Allow: /blog/
Disallow: /

Allow quillbot.com and block other crawlers

User-agent: quillbot.com
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: quillbot.com group, quillbot.com ignores your User-agent: * rules, so repeat any that should still apply.
  • The user agent name is not case sensitive. We take quillbot.com from quillbot.com's user agent; check QuillBot'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. quillbot.com may not follow the rule. robots.txt is a request that nothing enforces, and we have not confirmed that quillbot.com 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 quillbot.com's user agent, and a scraper using it is not bound by QuillBot's robots.txt policy. Only checking the source network tells a real quillbot.com from a fake one.

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

Who should care about quillbot.com

Publishers

quillbot.com reads pages for a person who asked an AI about them. The visit carries no ad impressions, so exclude it from ad requests and decide whether it may read paywalled content.

Transfon Security for publishers

Media buyers and advertisers

Agent visits can click through landing pages and fill in forms. Exclude quillbot.com from conversions so campaign optimisation is based on people.

Transfon Security for advertisers

E-commerce

Agents like quillbot.com can compare prices and may soon place orders. Decide whether agents may reach checkout, and verify them before they do.

Transfon Security for e-commerce

SaaS and APIs

quillbot.com can sign up, log in and call endpoints on a user's behalf. Rate limit it on sign-up and API routes, where fake trials and abuse start.

Transfon Security for SaaS and APIs

Block quillbot.com with Transfon Security

robots.txt is a request, not an enforcement. Transfon Security shows quillbot.com 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 quillbot.com on your site

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

Frequently asked questions

What is quillbot.com?

quillbot.com is a bot in the AI assistants and agents category, operated by QuillBot. QuillBot fetches a page when a user asks the QuillBot writing assistant to read, summarise or check its text.

Does quillbot.com respect robots.txt?

We have not confirmed whether quillbot.com 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 quillbot.com?

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

Is robots.txt enough to block quillbot.com?

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

Should I block quillbot.com?

AI assistants fetch pages on demand when a user asks a chatbot or an agent to read, summarise or act on a URL. Each request is tied to a person, but the visit carries no ad impressions or analytics. Decide per agent whether the value is worth the load.

Related bots

All AI assistants and agents · 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.

Stay ahead of the publishing curve

Privacy, security, monetization, and performance insights. A few emails a month, no spam.

By subscribing you agree to our privacy policy.