See it on a real storeBots, pages and people sent by AI on an example store. No sign-up.AI training, run by Common Crawl.
What is CCBot? Common Crawl's crawler that collects AI training data. Verifiable by IP ranges.
Run by Common Crawl.
Purpose: AI training. A visit means your content is being collected, possibly for training.
robots.txt name: CCBot.
Verifiable by IP ranges.
At a glance, the facts in one table.
CCBot at a glance. Taken from SenseGap's open bot directory, the same data that sorts every visit in the dashboard.
All bots| CCBot | |
|---|---|
| Operator | Common Crawl |
| Purpose | AI training |
| User agent contains | CCBot |
| robots.txt name | CCBot |
| Verification | IP ranges |
| Documentation | None listed |
Purpose, what it does and why it came.
What CCBot does. SenseGap sorts every visit by purpose. CCBot is in the AI training group.
CCBot is Common Crawl's crawler that collects web content that may be used to train AI models. Common Crawl publishes a free, open archive of the web. The archive is widely used to train AI models, so its crawler sits under training here.
What a visit means
A visit means your content is being collected, possibly for training. Nobody asked about you; training crawlers read the web in bulk and don't link back.
Training crawls say nothing about what people ask right now. SenseGap keeps them apart from visits made while answering a person, so a crawl spike never looks like demand.
Detection, the header SenseGap matches.
How SenseGap recognizes CCBot. By its User-Agent header. A separate check then decides whether the visit is real.
Every request carries a User-Agent header naming the software that sent it. SenseGap counts a request as CCBot when that header contains CCBot, in any letter case. The header is plain text, so any script can copy it. Matching the name is where recognition starts, not where trust starts.
/CCBot/iVerification, how to tell a real visit from a fake.
How to verify CCBot. Common Crawl publishes its IP ranges, so a real visit can be proven.
How we verify botsccbot.json
Published by Common Crawl at index.commoncrawl.org. A real CCBot visit comes from an address in this list.
Open the listChecked on every visit
SenseGap runs this check on every visit that claims to be CCBot. A pass is marked Real. A visit that sends the name and fails is marked Fake, and stays out of your other reports.
robots.txt, rules you can copy.
Block or allow CCBot in robots.txt. Its robots.txt name is CCBot. Paste a group into the robots.txt at your site's root.
User-agent: CCBot
Disallow: /User-agent: CCBot
Allow: /User-agent: CCBot
Disallow: /private/One rule catches people out. Under the robots.txt standard (RFC 9309), a crawler that finds a group naming it follows only that group and ignores your User-agent: * rules. If you add a CCBot group, repeat in it anything from the catch-all group you still want applied.
robots.txt is a request, not a lock. To enforce a block, match the User-Agent header at your server or CDN. In nginx:
# nginx, inside a server block
if ($http_user_agent ~* "CCBot") {
return 403;
}SenseGap reads your robots.txt and shows, bot by bot, what you allow and which bots fetched pages you disallowed. See what you get.
Trade-off, what blocking changes.
Should you block CCBot? It depends on what you want from Common Crawl. Here is what each choice means.
If you allow it
Future models may learn from your content, so they know your products, prices and wording.
If you block it
New content stops reaching that company's training data. It doesn't remove what was already collected, and because training crawlers don't send visitors, it costs no clicks directly.
AI training, other bots with the same job.
Other AI training crawlers. Same purpose, different companies.
Browse the directoryFAQ, CCBot in short answers.
CCBot, answered plainly
What is CCBot?
CCBot is Common Crawl's crawler that collects web content that may be used to train AI models. Common Crawl publishes a free, open archive of the web. The archive is widely used to train AI models, so its crawler sits under training here.
Who runs CCBot?
Common Crawl. SenseGap's directory has no documentation link for it yet.
What does a visit from CCBot mean?
A visit means your content is being collected, possibly for training. Nobody asked about you; training crawlers read the web in bulk and don't link back.
What user agent does CCBot use?
Its User-Agent header contains "CCBot". SenseGap matches it regardless of letter case.
How do I block CCBot?
Add "User-agent: CCBot" followed by "Disallow: /" to your robots.txt. robots.txt is a request, not a lock; to enforce it, block the user agent at your server or CDN.
How do I know a visit is really CCBot?
Common Crawl publishes the IP ranges CCBot uses (ccbot.json), so check that the visiting address falls inside one of them. SenseGap runs these checks on every visit.
Does Common Crawl publish IP ranges for CCBot?
Yes, at https://index.commoncrawl.org/ccbot.json.
What happens if I block CCBot?
New content stops reaching that company's training data. It doesn't remove what was already collected, and because training crawlers don't send visitors, it costs no clicks directly.