# Claude-User vs ClaudeBot

Claude-User and ClaudeBot compared on 15 documented fields, from 22 claims, last verified 2026-09-15.

| Field | Claude-User | ClaudeBot | Comparison |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| anti_circumvention_stance | not documented | documented | different |
| cites_sources | not_documented | not documented | different |
| honours_crawl_delay | yes | yes | same |
| observed_fetches_json | not documented | yes | different |
| observed_fetches_markdown | not documented | yes | different |
| observed_first_request_path | not documented | /sitemap.xml | different |
| observed_format_pass_order | not documented | html_json_md | different |
| publishes_ip_list | yes | yes | same |
| purpose_documented | user_fetch | training | different |
| reads_llms_txt | not_documented | not documented | different |
| respects_robots_txt | yes | yes | same |
| separate_search_and_training_tokens | not_documented | yes | different |
| user_agent_string_full | not_documented | not_documented | same |
| user_fetch_exception_documented | no | not documented | different |
| verifiable_by_rdns | not_documented | not_documented | same |

## Differences

| Field | Claude-User statement | ClaudeBot statement |
| --- | --- | --- |
| anti_circumvention_stance | not documented | ClaudeBot respects anti-circumvention technologies and does not bypass CAPTCHAs on crawled sites. |
| cites_sources | Anthropic does not publish whether Claude responses cite pages fetched by Claude-User. | not documented |
| observed_fetches_json | not documented | ClaudeBot made 177 JSON requests to Rattlesnakes By Mail between 2026-09-13T20:00Z and 2026-09-15T09:00Z, covering the .json twin of 170 base paths. The .json URLs of Rattlesnakes By Mail appear in no entry of the 171 URL sitemap. |
| observed_fetches_markdown | not documented | ClaudeBot fetched the .md twin of 170 base paths on Rattlesnakes By Mail between 2026-09-13T20:00Z and 2026-09-15T09:00Z, 170 Markdown requests of 542 ClaudeBot requests in that window. The .md URLs of Rattlesnakes By Mail appear in no entry of the 171 URL sitemap. |
| observed_first_request_path | not documented | ClaudeBot's first request to Rattlesnakes By Mail between 2026-09-13T20:00Z and 2026-09-15T09:00Z was /sitemap.xml at 2026-09-14T19:53:45Z. ClaudeBot fetched /robots.txt on the second request to Rattlesnakes By Mail. |
| observed_format_pass_order | not documented | ClaudeBot fetched Rattlesnakes By Mail in three format passes between 2026-09-13T20:00Z and 2026-09-15T09:00Z, HTML from 2026-09-14T20:52Z to 2026-09-14T20:57Z, then JSON from 2026-09-14T21:37Z to 2026-09-14T21:56Z, then Markdown from 2026-09-14T21:37Z to 2026-09-14T21:57Z. The same order holds on 170 of 170 base paths that ClaudeBot fetched in all three formats on Rattlesnakes By Mail. |
| purpose_documented | Claude-User accesses websites in response to questions that individual users ask Claude. | ClaudeBot collects web content for training Anthropic generative AI models. |
| reads_llms_txt | Anthropic does not publish whether Claude-User reads llms.txt files. | not documented |
| separate_search_and_training_tokens | Anthropic does not document Claude-User as a search or training opt-out token. | Anthropic separates training and search controls into two robots.txt tokens: ClaudeBot for training and Claude-SearchBot for search. |
| user_fetch_exception_documented | Anthropic applies the same robots.txt statement to Claude-User as to ClaudeBot and Claude-SearchBot and documents no exception for user-initiated fetches. | not documented |

## Sources

- https://claude.com/crawling/bots.json
- https://rattlesnakesbymail.com/observed/claudebot
- https://support.claude.com/en/articles/8896518-does-anthropic-crawl-content-from-the-web-and-how-can-site-owners-block-the-crawler