diff --git a/backend/internal/api/compress.go b/backend/internal/api/compress.go
index ac4be6e..53ce0f1 100644
--- a/backend/internal/api/compress.go
+++ b/backend/internal/api/compress.go
@@ -246,7 +246,7 @@ func etagMatches(header, etag string) bool {
 //   - /api/health and /api/admin/* are never cached (sensitive / monitoring)
 //   - /api/categories is cached for 5 minutes (rarely changes)
 //   - /api/news/trending is server-cached for minutes, so browsers and CDNs may reuse it
-//   - /robots.txt is cached for 1 day
+//   - /robots.txt is marked no-cache so crawlers always receive real-time rules
 //   - /sitemap.xml is cached for 1 hour
 //   - static assets (including /site.webmanifest, favicons, /uploads/) are cached for 30 days
 //   - immutable assets (/_app/immutable/*) are cached for 1 year
@@ -263,7 +263,7 @@ func (s *Server) cacheControl(next http.Handler) http.Handler {
 		case path == "/api/news/trending":
 			w.Header().Set("Cache-Control", "public, max-age=60, stale-while-revalidate=60")
 		case path == "/robots.txt":
-			w.Header().Set("Cache-Control", "public, max-age=86400")
+			w.Header().Set("Cache-Control", "no-cache")
 		case path == "/sitemap.xml":
 			w.Header().Set("Cache-Control", "public, max-age=3600")
 		case strings.HasPrefix(path, "/_app/immutable/"):
diff --git a/backend/internal/api/handlers.go b/backend/internal/api/handlers.go
index 8300b2d..e31ff63 100644
--- a/backend/internal/api/handlers.go
+++ b/backend/internal/api/handlers.go
@@ -369,7 +369,7 @@ func (s *Server) handleRobotsTXT(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
 		"User-agent: meta-externalagent\nDisallow: /\n\n" +
 		"Sitemap: " + origin + "/sitemap.xml\n"
 	w.Header().Set("Content-Type", "text/plain; charset=utf-8")
-	w.Header().Set("Cache-Control", "public, max-age=86400")
+	w.Header().Set("Cache-Control", "no-cache")
 	_, _ = w.Write([]byte(body))
 }
 
diff --git a/backend/internal/api/handlers_test.go b/backend/internal/api/handlers_test.go
index cbf0319..4ed58d1 100644
--- a/backend/internal/api/handlers_test.go
+++ b/backend/internal/api/handlers_test.go
@@ -1792,7 +1792,7 @@ func TestCacheControlHeaders(t *testing.T) {
 		{"/api/healthz", "no-store"},
 		{"/api/news/trending", "public, max-age=60, stale-while-revalidate=60"},
 		{"/api/categories", "public, max-age=300, stale-while-revalidate=60"},
-		{"/robots.txt", "public, max-age=86400"},
+		{"/robots.txt", "no-cache"},
 		{"/sitemap.xml", "public, max-age=3600"},
 	}