Robots.txt Generator - Create Crawl Rules Online

Generate a clean, valid robots.txt file for your website in seconds with this free online robots.txt generator. Define which search-engine crawlers are allowed or blocked from specific paths, add a sitemap reference, and set a crawl delay — all produced instantly in your browser with no signup and no uploads.

The robots.txt file lives at the root of your domain (for example https://example.com/robots.txt ) and tells crawlers like Googlebot which parts of your site they may access. Our generator groups rules by user-agent automatically and outputs ready-to-publish text.

Why Use a Robots.txt Generator?

An online robots.txt generator removes the syntax errors that silently wreck crawl budgets. A single mistyped User-agent, a missing blank line between rule groups, or a malformed Disallow path can block the wrong pages from Google or, worse, accidentally deindex the whole site. Generating the file from a form guarantees valid syntax and a sensible structure every time.

This create robots.txt tool also handles the parts people forget: the Sitemap: directive that points crawlers at your XML sitemap, per-user-agent rules so you can welcome Googlebot while blocking a scraping bot, and optional Crawl-delay for sites that need rate limiting. Pair the output with tags from the Meta Tag Generator and structured data from the Schema Markup Generator for a complete SEO foundation.

Key Features

Live Output: Your robots.txt regenerates instantly as you type or edit rules - no Generate button needed.
Allow / Disallow Rules: Add unlimited rules and choose whether each path is allowed or blocked.
User-Agent Targeting: Use * for all crawlers, or restrict rules to a specific bot like Googlebot . Rules are grouped automatically.
Sitemap Reference: Append a Sitemap: directive so crawlers discover your XML sitemap.
Crawl Delay: Optionally set a Crawl-delay for all robots to slow down aggressive crawling.
Copy & Download: Copy the result or download it directly as robots.txt .
100% Private: Everything runs in your browser - nothing is sent to a server.

How to Use the Robots.txt Generator

Add an Allow or Disallow rule for each path you want to control, using a leading slash (for example /private/ ).
Set the User-agent to * for all crawlers, or a specific bot name for targeted rules.
Optionally enter your sitemap URL and a crawl delay value.
Click "Copy" to copy the file, or "Download" to save it as robots.txt .
Upload the file to the root directory of your website so it is reachable at /robots.txt .

About robots.txt

robots.txt is a plain-text file you place at the root of your site (e.g. https://example.com/robots.txt) that tells crawlers which parts of your site they may visit. It is built from groups, each starting with a User-agent line that names the crawler (or * for all), followed by Allow and Disallow rules that match URL paths, plus an optional Crawl-delay and a site-wide Sitemap directive pointing to your XML sitemap.

Path matching supports two wildcards: * matches any sequence of characters and $ anchors the match to the end of the URL. So Disallow: /*.pdf$ blocks all PDFs, and Disallow: /private/ blocks everything under that folder. A crucial distinction: robots.txt controls crawling, not indexing. A blocked URL can still appear in search results if it is linked from elsewhere; to truly keep a page out of the index, use a noindex meta tag or response header instead. Never use robots.txt to hide sensitive pages — it is publicly readable.

Common uses are disallowing duplicate or faceted-URL parameters, keeping staging or admin paths out of the crawl budget, and pointing crawlers at your sitemap. Keep rules simple, test them, and avoid blocking the CSS and JavaScript Google needs to render a page. To generate the matching on-page tags instead, use the Meta Tag Generator, and craft clean URLs with the URL Slug Generator.

Common Errors and How to Fix Them

Page still indexed despite Disallow: Disallow blocks crawling, not indexing. Use a noindex meta tag to keep a URL out of results.
Blocked JS/CSS breaks rendering: Don't disallow stylesheets or scripts. Google needs them to render and understand the page.
Used robots.txt to hide secrets: Don't. It is public and effectively advertises the paths. Secure sensitive URLs with authentication instead.
Rules not taking effect: The file must be at the domain root and return HTTP 200. Check for typos and that User-agent groups are well-formed.

Frequently Asked Questions

1What is a robots.txt file?

A robots.txt file is a plain-text file placed at the root of your website (for example https://example.com/robots.txt) that tells search-engine crawlers which pages or directories they are allowed or disallowed to crawl.

2Where do I upload the generated robots.txt file?

Upload the file to the root directory of your website so that it is reachable at https://yourdomain.com/robots.txt. Crawlers fetch it from that exact location.

3What does User-agent: * mean?

An asterisk (*) matches all crawlers. Rules listed under User-agent: * apply to every search bot. To target a specific crawler, use its name, such as Googlebot or Bingbot.

4What is the difference between Allow and Disallow?

Allow permits a crawler to access a path, while Disallow blocks it. Disallow: / blocks the entire site, Disallow: /private/ blocks only the private directory, and an empty Disallow allows everything.

5What does Crawl-delay do?

Crawl-delay asks compliant crawlers to wait a number of seconds between requests to reduce server load. Note that major search engines like Google generally ignore this directive.

6Are my rules sent to a server?

No. All generation happens entirely in your browser. Your robots.txt content never leaves your computer, so it remains completely private.