Who blocks AI · #1226 in the Majestic Million

robots.txt · checked 9 Nov 2026

Does answers.com block AI crawlers?

No. answers.com’s robots.txt lets all 19 AI crawlers we track crawl the site. Search engines such as Googlebot and Bingbot may crawl it.

GPTBotAllowed OAI-SearchBotAllowed ClaudeBotAllowed PerplexityBotAllowed Google-ExtendedAllowed CCBotAllowed

robots.txt: www.answers.com/robots.txt · 124 lines
llms.txt: none
Checked: 9 November 2026, as canaicrawl. We check again every week.

Every bot, and the line that decides

Search engines

Bot	Operator	robots.txt	Deciding line
`Googlebot`	Google	Partly blocked	line 29 · `Disallow: /search?` line 30 · `Disallow: /redirectSearch?` and 6 more
`Bingbot`	Microsoft	Partly blocked	line 41 · `Disallow: /search?` line 42 · `Disallow: /redirectSearch?` and 6 more
`DuckDuckBot`	DuckDuckGo	Allowed	line 2 · `Allow: /` under `User-agent: *`
`Applebot`	Apple	Partly blocked	line 17 · `Disallow: /search?` line 18 · `Disallow: /redirectSearch?` and 6 more
`PetalBot`	Huawei	Allowed	line 2 · `Allow: /` under `User-agent: *`
`YandexBot`	Yandex	Allowed	line 2 · `Allow: /` under `User-agent: *`
`Baiduspider`	Baidu	Partly blocked	line 89 · `Disallow: /search?` line 90 · `Disallow: /redirectSearch?` and 6 more

AI search

Bot	Operator	robots.txt	Deciding line
`OAI-SearchBot`	OpenAI	Allowed	line 2 · `Allow: /` under `User-agent: *`
`PerplexityBot`	Perplexity	Allowed	line 2 · `Allow: /` under `User-agent: *`
`Claude-SearchBot`	Anthropic	Allowed	line 2 · `Allow: /` under `User-agent: *`
`DuckAssistBot`	DuckDuckGo	Allowed	line 2 · `Allow: /` under `User-agent: *`
`Amazonbot`	Amazon	Allowed	line 2 · `Allow: /` under `User-agent: *`
`YouBot`	You.com	Allowed	line 2 · `Allow: /` under `User-agent: *`

AI training

Bot	Operator	robots.txt	Deciding line
`GPTBot`	OpenAI	Allowed	line 2 · `Allow: /` under `User-agent: *`
`ClaudeBot`	Anthropic	Allowed	line 2 · `Allow: /` under `User-agent: *`
`Google-Extended`	Google	Allowed	line 2 · `Allow: /` under `User-agent: *`
`CCBot`	Common Crawl	Allowed	line 2 · `Allow: /` under `User-agent: *`
`Applebot-Extended`	Apple	Allowed	line 2 · `Allow: /` under `User-agent: *`
`GoogleOther`	Google	Allowed	line 2 · `Allow: /` under `User-agent: *`
`Meta-ExternalAgent`	Meta	Allowed	line 2 · `Allow: /` under `User-agent: *`
`Bytespider`	ByteDance	Allowed	line 2 · `Allow: /` under `User-agent: *`

User-triggered fetchers

Bot	Operator	robots.txt	Deciding line
`ChatGPT-User`	OpenAI	Allowed	line 2 · `Allow: /` under `User-agent: *`
`Claude-User`	Anthropic	Allowed	line 2 · `Allow: /` under `User-agent: *`
`Perplexity-User`	Perplexity	Allowed	line 2 · `Allow: /` under `User-agent: *`
`MistralAI-User`	Mistral	Allowed	line 2 · `Allow: /` under `User-agent: *`
`Meta-ExternalFetcher`	Meta	Allowed	line 2 · `Allow: /` under `User-agent: *`

SEO tools

Bot	Operator	robots.txt	Deciding line
`AhrefsBot`	Ahrefs	Allowed	line 2 · `Allow: /` under `User-agent: *`
`SemrushBot`	Semrush	Allowed	line 2 · `Allow: /` under `User-agent: *`
`MJ12bot`	Majestic	Allowed	line 2 · `Allow: /` under `User-agent: *`
`DotBot`	Moz	Allowed	line 2 · `Allow: /` under `User-agent: *`

View www.answers.com/robots.txt · 124 lines

1User-Agent: *

2Allow: /

3Allow: /api/reactions/

4Disallow: /search?

5Disallow: /redirectSearch?

6Disallow: /http://

7Disallow: /api/

8Disallow: /nova/

9Disallow: /docs/

10Disallow: /notifications

11Disallow: /user/profile

12Disallow: /u/*

14User-Agent: Applebot

15Allow: /

16Allow: /api/reactions/

17Disallow: /search?

18Disallow: /redirectSearch?

19Disallow: /http://

20Disallow: /api/

21Disallow: /nova/

22Disallow: /docs/

23Disallow: /notifications

24Disallow: /user/profile

26User-Agent: Googlebot

27Allow: /

28Allow: /api/reactions/

29Disallow: /search?

30Disallow: /redirectSearch?

31Disallow: /http://

32Disallow: /api/

33Disallow: /nova/

34Disallow: /docs/

35Disallow: /notifications

36Disallow: /user/profile

38User-Agent: bingbot

39Allow: /

40Allow: /api/reactions/

41Disallow: /search?

42Disallow: /redirectSearch?

43Disallow: /http://

44Disallow: /api/

45Disallow: /nova/

46Disallow: /docs/

47Disallow: /notifications

48Disallow: /user/profile

50User-Agent: msnbot

51Allow: /

52Allow: /api/reactions/

53Disallow: /search?

54Disallow: /redirectSearch?

55Disallow: /http://

56Disallow: /api/

57Disallow: /nova/

58Disallow: /docs/

59Disallow: /notifications

60Disallow: /user/profile

62User-Agent: Slurp

63Allow: /

64Allow: /api/reactions/

65Disallow: /search?

66Disallow: /redirectSearch?

67Disallow: /http://

68Disallow: /api/

69Disallow: /nova/

70Disallow: /docs/

71Disallow: /notifications

72Disallow: /user/profile

74User-Agent: Facebot

75Allow: /

76Allow: /api/reactions/

77Disallow: /search?

78Disallow: /redirectSearch?

79Disallow: /http://

80Disallow: /api/

81Disallow: /nova/

82Disallow: /docs/

83Disallow: /notifications

84Disallow: /user/profile

86User-Agent: baiduspider

87Allow: /

88Allow: /api/reactions/

89Disallow: /search?

90Disallow: /redirectSearch?

91Disallow: /http://

92Disallow: /api/

93Disallow: /nova/

94Disallow: /docs/

95Disallow: /notifications

96Disallow: /user/profile

98User-Agent: sosobot

99Allow: /

100Allow: /api/reactions/

101Disallow: /search?

102Disallow: /redirectSearch?

103Disallow: /http://

104Disallow: /api/

105Disallow: /nova/

106Disallow: /docs/

107Disallow: /notifications

108Disallow: /user/profile

109

110User-Agent: exabot

111Allow: /

112Allow: /api/reactions/

113Disallow: /search?

114Disallow: /redirectSearch?

115Disallow: /http://

116Disallow: /api/

117Disallow: /nova/

118Disallow: /docs/

119Disallow: /notifications

120Disallow: /user/profile

121

122User-agent: Mediapartners-Google

123Allow: /

124

What do the bots actually get?

This page reads robots.txt, which states what answers.com asks of crawlers. A firewall or CDN can still refuse a bot that robots.txt allows. The live check requests the page as each bot and shows the status it gets.

Run a live check on answers.com Test a path in the robots.txt tester

History

19 October 2026: first checked.

Questions

Does answers.com block GPTBot?

No. answers.com’s robots.txt lets GPTBot crawl the site. GPTBot is OpenAI’s crawler for training data; blocking it doesn’t affect ChatGPT search, which uses OAI-SearchBot. Checked 9 November 2026.

Does answers.com block ClaudeBot?

No. answers.com’s robots.txt lets ClaudeBot crawl the site. ClaudeBot is Anthropic’s crawler for training data. Checked 9 November 2026.

Does answers.com block Google-Extended?

No. answers.com’s robots.txt lets Google-Extended crawl the site. Google-Extended is the token that controls whether Google may use pages for Gemini training and grounding; it doesn’t affect Google Search. Checked 9 November 2026.

Does answers.com block PerplexityBot?

No. answers.com’s robots.txt lets PerplexityBot crawl the site. PerplexityBot is the crawler that indexes pages for Perplexity’s answers. Checked 9 November 2026.

Can ChatGPT search find answers.com?

Yes. answers.com’s robots.txt lets OAI-SearchBot crawl the site. OAI-SearchBot is the crawler behind ChatGPT search; blocking it keeps the site out of ChatGPT’s search answers. Checked 9 November 2026.