Who blocks AI · #947 in the Majestic Million
robots.txt · checked 9 Nov 2026
Does digitaltrends.com block AI crawlers?
Yes. digitaltrends.com’s robots.txt blocks 6 of the 19 AI crawlers we track, including GPTBot, ClaudeBot, Google-Extended and 3 more. It also blocks PetalBot and YandexBot among search engines.
GPTBotBlockedOAI-SearchBotPartly blockedClaudeBotBlockedPerplexityBotPartly blockedGoogle-ExtendedBlockedCCBotBlocked- robots.txt
- www.digitaltrends.com/robots.txt · 167 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 | Partly blocked | line 13 · Disallow: /feed/ line 14 · Disallow: /?feed=rss2 and 27 more | |
Bingbot | Microsoft | Partly blocked | line 13 · Disallow: /feed/ line 14 · Disallow: /?feed=rss2 and 27 more |
DuckDuckBot | DuckDuckGo | Allowed | line 4 · Allow: / under User-agent: * |
Applebot | Apple | Partly blocked | line 13 · Disallow: /feed/ line 14 · Disallow: /?feed=rss2 and 27 more |
PetalBot | Huawei | Blocked | line 101 · Disallow: / under User-agent: PetalBot |
YandexBot | Yandex | Blocked | line 101 · Disallow: / under User-agent: YandexBot |
Baiduspider | Baidu | Partly blocked | line 115 · Disallow: /page/ line 116 · Disallow: /tag/ and 5 more |
AI search
| Bot | Operator | robots.txt | Deciding line |
|---|---|---|---|
OAI-SearchBot | OpenAI | Partly blocked | line 50 · Disallow: /feed/ line 51 · Disallow: /?feed=rss2 and 28 more |
PerplexityBot | Perplexity | Partly blocked | line 50 · Disallow: /feed/ line 51 · Disallow: /?feed=rss2 and 28 more |
Claude-SearchBot | Anthropic | Partly blocked | line 50 · Disallow: /feed/ line 51 · Disallow: /?feed=rss2 and 28 more |
DuckAssistBot | DuckDuckGo | Allowed | line 4 · Allow: / under User-agent: * |
Amazonbot | Amazon | Partly blocked | line 115 · Disallow: /page/ line 116 · Disallow: /tag/ and 5 more |
YouBot | You.com | Partly blocked | line 115 · Disallow: /page/ line 116 · Disallow: /tag/ and 5 more |
AI training
| Bot | Operator | robots.txt | Deciding line |
|---|---|---|---|
GPTBot | OpenAI | Blocked | line 88 · Disallow: / under User-agent: GPTBot |
ClaudeBot | Anthropic | Blocked | line 88 · Disallow: / under User-agent: ClaudeBot |
Google-Extended | Blocked | line 88 · Disallow: / under User-agent: Google-Extended | |
CCBot | Common Crawl | Blocked | line 88 · Disallow: / under User-agent: CCBot |
Applebot-Extended | Apple | Blocked | line 88 · Disallow: / under User-agent: Applebot-Extended |
GoogleOther | Allowed | line 4 · Allow: / under User-agent: * | |
Meta-ExternalAgent | Meta | Partly blocked | line 115 · Disallow: /page/ line 116 · Disallow: /tag/ and 5 more |
Bytespider | ByteDance | Blocked | line 88 · Disallow: / under User-agent: Bytespider |
User-triggered fetchers
| Bot | Operator | robots.txt | Deciding line |
|---|---|---|---|
ChatGPT-User | OpenAI | Partly blocked | line 50 · Disallow: /feed/ line 51 · Disallow: /?feed=rss2 and 28 more |
Claude-User | Anthropic | Partly blocked | line 50 · Disallow: /feed/ line 51 · Disallow: /?feed=rss2 and 28 more |
Perplexity-User | Perplexity | Partly blocked | line 50 · Disallow: /feed/ line 51 · Disallow: /?feed=rss2 and 28 more |
MistralAI-User | Mistral | Allowed | line 4 · Allow: / under User-agent: * |
Meta-ExternalFetcher | Meta | Allowed | line 4 · Allow: / under User-agent: * |
SEO tools
| Bot | Operator | robots.txt | Deciding line |
|---|---|---|---|
AhrefsBot | Ahrefs | Partly blocked | line 115 · Disallow: /page/ line 116 · Disallow: /tag/ and 5 more |
SemrushBot | Semrush | Partly blocked | line 115 · Disallow: /page/ line 116 · Disallow: /tag/ and 5 more |
MJ12bot | Majestic | Allowed | line 4 · Allow: / under User-agent: * |
DotBot | Moz | Allowed | line 4 · Allow: / under User-agent: * |
View www.digitaltrends.com/robots.txt · 167 lines
1# License https://m4ow.uk/socw/2.txt
2User-agent: *
3tdl: https://m4ow.uk/socw/2.txt
4Allow: /
5
6# DigitalTrends.com robots.txt (Nov 2026)
7# Named groups ignore the * group, so utility rules repeat per group.
8
9# --- Search engines (same rules as the previous Googlebot group, minus /brc/) ---
10User-agent: Googlebot
11User-agent: Bingbot
12User-agent: Applebot
13Disallow: /feed/
14Disallow: /?feed=rss2
15Disallow: /wp-admin/
16Disallow: /wp-login.php
17Disallow: /*?rand=
18Disallow: /*?s=
19Disallow: /search
20Disallow: /?search?
21Disallow: /*/feed/
22Disallow: /*?iab_category
23Disallow: /*?product_tag=
24Disallow: /*?dt_commerce_tag=
25Disallow: /*?brand=
26Disallow: /*?event=
27Disallow: /*?product=
28Disallow: /*?locations=
29Disallow: /*?carrier=
30Disallow: /*?entity=
31Disallow: /*?game_platform=
32Disallow: /*?persons=
33Disallow: /*?streaming_service=
34Disallow: /*?technology=
35Disallow: /*?original_series=
36Disallow: /tag/
37Disallow: /sponsored/
38Disallow: /aop/
39Disallow: /aop-uk/
40Disallow: /trash/
41Disallow: /uncategorized/
42
43# --- AI search and user-fetch agents (previous OAI-SearchBot/Perplexity rules, minus /brc/) ---
44User-agent: OAI-SearchBot
45User-agent: ChatGPT-User
46User-agent: Claude-SearchBot
47User-agent: Claude-User
48User-agent: PerplexityBot
49User-agent: Perplexity-User
50Disallow: /feed/
51Disallow: /?feed=rss2
52Disallow: /wp-admin/
53Disallow: /wp-login.php
54Disallow: /*?rand=
55Disallow: /*?s=
56Disallow: /search
57Disallow: /?search?
58Disallow: /?*
59Disallow: /*/feed/
60Disallow: /*?iab_category
61Disallow: /*?product_tag=
62Disallow: /*?dt_commerce_tag=
63Disallow: /*?brand=
64Disallow: /*?event=
65Disallow: /*?product=
66Disallow: /*?locations=
67Disallow: /*?carrier=
68Disallow: /*?entity=
69Disallow: /*?game_platform=
70Disallow: /*?persons=
71Disallow: /*?streaming_service=
72Disallow: /*?technology=
73Disallow: /*?original_series=
74Disallow: /tag/
75Disallow: /sponsored/
76Disallow: /aop/
77Disallow: /aop-uk/
78Disallow: /trash/
79Disallow: /uncategorized/
80
81# --- AI model training (blocked) ---
82User-agent: GPTBot
83User-agent: ClaudeBot
84User-agent: Google-Extended
85User-agent: Applebot-Extended
86User-agent: CCBot
87User-agent: Bytespider
88Disallow: /
89
90# --- Scrapers and engines we don not serve ---
91User-agent: omgili
92User-agent: diffbot
93User-agent: kangaroo
94User-agent: img2dataset
95User-agent: Greppr
96User-agent: TikTokSpider
97User-agent: YandexBot
98User-agent: Yandex
99User-agent: SeznamBot
100User-agent: PetalBot
101Disallow: /
102
103# --- Platform / SEO tools (throttle + partial block, unchanged) ---
104User-agent: SemrushBot
105User-agent: youbot
106User-agent: amazonbot
107User-agent: meta-externalagent
108User-agent: meta-webindexer
109User-agent: Baiduspider
110User-agent: Baiduspider-image
111User-agent: Baiduspider-video
112User-agent: Baiduspider-news
113User-agent: Baiduspider-favo
114User-agent: AhrefsBot
115Disallow: /page/
116Disallow: /tag/
117Disallow: /author/
118Disallow: /feed/
119Disallow: /trash/
120Disallow: /uncategorized/
121Disallow: /?*
122Crawl-delay: 20
123
124# --- Facebook link previews (unchanged) ---
125User-agent: facebookexternalhit
126Disallow: /page/
127Disallow: /tag/
128Disallow: /author/
129Disallow: /feed/
130Disallow: /trash/
131Disallow: /uncategorized/
132Disallow: /?*
133Crawl-delay: 10
134
135# --- Everyone else (unchanged) ---
136User-agent: *
137Disallow: /wp-admin/
138Disallow: /wp-login.php
139Disallow: /*?rand=
140Disallow: /*?s=
141Disallow: /search
142Disallow: /?search?
143Disallow: /*/feed/
144Disallow: /*?iab_category
145Disallow: /*?product_tag=
146Disallow: /*?dt_commerce_tag=
147Disallow: /*?brand=
148Disallow: /*?event=
149Disallow: /*?product=
150Disallow: /*?locations=
151Disallow: /*?carrier=
152Disallow: /*?entity=
153Disallow: /*?game_platform=
154Disallow: /*?persons=
155Disallow: /*?streaming_service=
156Disallow: /*?technology=
157Disallow: /*?original_series=
158Disallow: /tag/
159Disallow: /sponsored/
160Disallow: /aop/
161Disallow: /aop-uk/
162Disallow: /trash/
163Disallow: /uncategorized/
164Sitemap: https://www.digitaltrends.com/sitemap-articles-2024-index.xml
165Sitemap: https://www.digitaltrends.com/sitemap-articles-2025-index.xml
166Sitemap: https://www.digitaltrends.com/sitemap-all-articles-index.xml
167Sitemap: https://www.digitaltrends.com/sitemap-google-news-sitemap_1.xml
What do the bots actually get?
This page reads robots.txt, which states what digitaltrends.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 digitaltrends.com Test a path in the robots.txt tester
History
- 19 October 2026: first checked.
- 9 November 2026: now blocks part of the site to Claude-SearchBot; started blocking GPTBot; started blocking ClaudeBot; started blocking Google-Extended; started blocking CCBot; started blocking Applebot-Extended; started blocking Bytespider; now blocks part of the site to ChatGPT-User; now blocks part of the site to Claude-User.
Questions
Does digitaltrends.com block GPTBot?
Yes. digitaltrends.com’s robots.txt disallows GPTBot from the whole site (line 88: Disallow: /). GPTBot is OpenAI’s crawler for training data; blocking it doesn’t affect ChatGPT search, which uses OAI-SearchBot. Checked 9 November 2026.
Does digitaltrends.com block ClaudeBot?
Yes. digitaltrends.com’s robots.txt disallows ClaudeBot from the whole site (line 88: Disallow: /). ClaudeBot is Anthropic’s crawler for training data. Checked 9 November 2026.
Does digitaltrends.com block Google-Extended?
Yes. digitaltrends.com’s robots.txt disallows Google-Extended from the whole site (line 88: Disallow: /). 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 digitaltrends.com block PerplexityBot?
Partly. digitaltrends.com’s robots.txt keeps PerplexityBot out of some paths, such as /feed/, and lets it crawl the rest. PerplexityBot is the crawler that indexes pages for Perplexity’s answers. Checked 9 November 2026.
Can ChatGPT search find digitaltrends.com?
Partly. digitaltrends.com’s robots.txt keeps OAI-SearchBot out of some paths, such as /feed/, and lets it crawl the rest. OAI-SearchBot is the crawler behind ChatGPT search; blocking it keeps the site out of ChatGPT’s search answers. Checked 9 November 2026.