🤖 Robots.txt Tester
Test any URL against robots.txt rules — see what bots can and cannot crawl
What Is the Robots.txt Tester?
Robots.txt Tester fetches a website's robots.txt file and tests whether a specific URL path is allowed or blocked for a given user-agent (Googlebot, Bingbot, etc.). Essential for SEO auditing and crawl budget optimization.
Key Features
- Fetch robots.txt: Retrieves the live robots.txt from any website.
- Rule Parsing: Parses Allow/Disallow directives for each user-agent.
- Path Testing: Test any URL path against the parsed rules.
- Custom User-Agents: Choose Googlebot, Bingbot, wildcard, or a custom bot.
📋 When to Use
Use to verify that important pages are crawlable, check that staging sites are properly blocked, debug unexpected deindexing, and audit robots.txt before deployments.
⚙️ How It Works
The tool fetches /robots.txt via the ToolStand proxy, parses the directives line-by-line, groups rules by user-agent, then matches the test path against the most specific rule for the selected user-agent.
How to Use the Robots.txt Tester
- Enter a base URL to fetch its robots.txt.
- Enter a path you want to test (e.g. /admin/).
- Select a user-agent or type a custom one.
- Click Test to see the result and raw robots.txt.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is robots.txt?
A text file at the root of a website that instructs crawlers which paths they may or may not access.
How do I test if a URL is blocked?
Enter the site's base URL, the path, and a user-agent. The tester fetches robots.txt and applies the rules.
What does Disallow: / mean?
It blocks the user-agent from crawling the entire site.
Can I use custom user-agents?
Yes, select "Custom…" and type any bot name.
Is it free?
Yes, completely free — no sign-up and no API keys. A fair-use rate limit of 30 checks per minute per IP applies to protect the service.