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Grok DeepSearch

Grok DeepSearch performs multi-step research across the web to answer complex Grok queries with cited sources.
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What is Grok DeepSearch?

Grok DeepSearch is xAI's AI assistant crawler. Grok DeepSearch performs multi-step research across the web to answer complex Grok queries with cited sources.

Grok DeepSearch helps decide whether you show up in AI answers. It fetches and indexes pages so its assistant can cite them in responses, which means the content it can reach is the content that can be quoted, linked, and recommended to users. For generative engine optimization, keeping Grok DeepSearch allowed is important: block it and you effectively opt out of being cited on that AI surface.

Tracking which AI crawlers and agents reach your site, and what they do once there, is the foundation of generative engine optimization. See our guides to AI crawlers and robots.txt to control automated access and protect your AI search visibility.

Promptwatch tracks Grok DeepSearch in real time from your server and CDN logs, so you can see exactly when it visits, which pages it requests, and how those crawls relate to citations. Learn more in AI crawler logs.

Track Grok DeepSearch with Promptwatch

Promptwatch classifies Grok DeepSearch (Grok-DeepSearch) in real time from your server and CDN logs. See exactly when it visits, which pages it requests, the status codes it gets, and how those crawls map to AI citations.

How to handle Grok DeepSearch

Most sites keep Grok DeepSearch allowed, because blocking it can remove your pages from the AI answers and search results it powers. Only disallow it if you specifically want to opt out of that surface.

To control Grok DeepSearch, add a rule for its user agent to your robots.txt:

User-agent: Grok-DeepSearch
Disallow: /

Because Grok DeepSearch performs user-initiated or real-time fetches, it may not always honor robots.txt, so confirm its behavior by watching your access logs.

Examples

  • After publishing a new comparison page, a marketer checks whether Grok DeepSearch has fetched it so the content can appear in AI answers.
  • An SEO lead keeps Grok DeepSearch allowed in robots.txt to preserve visibility in AI-powered search.

Related bots

GrokBot

GrokBot is xAI's crawler used to gather web content for training the Grok family of models. xAI publishes limited documentation for it.

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Grok Search

Grok Search fetches web pages in real time to power Grok's search and answer features inside X and the Grok apps.

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Gemini Deep Research

Gemini Deep Research is Google's AI-powered research tool that performs comprehensive multi-step research on complex topics, analyzing web content to provide detailed insights and answers.

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Perplexity-User

Handles user-initiated requests in Perplexity, accessing external content to provide real-time information; not used for automated crawling or AI training.

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ChatGPT-User

Handles user-initiated requests in ChatGPT, accessing external content to provide real-time information; not used for automated crawling or AI training.

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Frequently asked questions about Grok DeepSearch

Learn about AI visibility monitoring and how Promptwatch helps your brand succeed in AI search.

Grok DeepSearch is operated by xAI. It functions as xAI's AI assistant crawler.

Be the brand AI recommends

Monitor your brand's visibility across ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Gemini. Get actionable insights and create content that gets cited by AI search engines.

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