OpenAI
OAI-SearchBot
Discovers content for ChatGPT search results.
AI searchAI search
ExaSearchBot
Indexes public pages for Exa search and retrieval.
Operated by Exa
See your agent traffic PurposeAI search
HTTP identifierExaSearchBot
IdentityVerify beyond the name
THE SIGNAL
What this visit tells you
Index access can support downstream agent research; it is not a completed conversion.
Fetched pages
Failed retrievals
Repeat fetches
Your next move
Verify Exa’s HTTP message signature and inspect errors on pages you want discoverable.
The technical details
MarkdownHow to identify it
Look for the ExaSearchBot identifier in a request’s User-Agent. This is a name match, not identity verification. Version strings may change.
How to check identity
Validate the HTTP Message Signature against Exa’s published Web Bot Auth key directory linked in its crawler documentation.
Access and robots.txt
The operator documents robots.txt rules for this identifier.
Optional full-site opt-out. Merge with existing rules only if intended. robots.txt does not secure private content.
User-agent: ExaSearchBot
Disallow: /Seeing 403 or 404 responses?
403 means access was denied; 404 means the resource was not found. Compare the public path, request time, edge security event and origin response to find the cause.
Separate intended restrictions and secret-file probes from pages that should work. A User-Agent name alone does not justify allowing a request.
SourcesReviewed 2026-09-14
Identity and purpose are based on these sources. Analytics interpretation and suggested checks are Apostl guidance.
APOSTL PulseSee ExaSearchBot in context
See their requests. Find the pages that matter.
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