Is this bot real?
Anyone can call themselves GPTBot or Googlebot. Paste an IP address and user agent from your logs, and we'll check them against what the operator publishes, the same way Ghost Agent Lab checks every request.
You can prove requests from 15 of the agents in our directory, because their operators publish IP lists or reverse DNS names: ChatGPT-User, Perplexity-User, Amazonbot, Applebot, Baiduspider, Bingbot, Google-InspectionTool, Googlebot, OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot, Storebot-Google, YandexBot, GoogleOther, GPTBot, AdsBot-Google. For the rest, a user agent is a claim no one can check.
Questions
How do you tell if a bot is real?
Anyone can put GPTBot or Googlebot in a user agent, so the name proves nothing. The real ones come from addresses their operator controls. Some operators, like OpenAI and Perplexity, publish lists of their IP ranges. Others, like Google, Microsoft and Apple, give their machines reverse DNS names on their own domains. We check the IP against the published list, and look up its reverse DNS name and confirm it points back to the same IP.
Why does it matter?
Impostors use famous bot names to get past rules meant for the real thing, to scrape prices, copy content or probe for weak spots. If you allow GPTBot or Googlebot in your firewall, an impostor gets the same pass. They also skew your reports: requests counted as AI traffic that never came from an AI company.
Why does it say it can't tell?
Some operators don't publish IP ranges or a reverse DNS domain for their agents, so no one can prove a request came from them. Each agent's page in our directory says whether it can be verified. It can also happen when the operator's IP list couldn't be loaded or the DNS lookup timed out. Try again in a minute.
Is this the same check Ghost Agent Lab runs?
Yes. It uses the same code and the same IP lists as the app, which verifies every request in your logs this way and keeps impostors out of your AI traffic numbers.
Do you store what I enter?
No. We use the IP address and user agent to run the check and don't keep them. Checks are limited to 60 an hour for each visitor.
Verify every agent, automatically
Connect your logs and Ghost Agent Lab verifies every AI agent request, flags impostors and shows the real AI traffic your analytics can't see.