Who blocks AI · #324 in the Majestic Million

robots.txt · checked 9 Nov 2026

Does huffpost.com block AI crawlers?

Yes. huffpost.com’s robots.txt blocks 16 of the 19 AI crawlers we track, including GPTBot, ClaudeBot, Google-Extended and 13 more. Search engines such as Googlebot and Bingbot may crawl it.

GPTBotBlocked OAI-SearchBotBlocked ClaudeBotBlocked PerplexityBotBlocked Google-ExtendedBlocked CCBotBlocked

robots.txt: www.huffpost.com/robots.txt · 140 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 64 · `Disallow: /?err_code=404` line 65 · `Disallow: /search` and 1 more
`Bingbot`	Microsoft	Allowed	no rule matches the home page
`DuckDuckBot`	DuckDuckGo	Allowed	no rule matches the home page
`Applebot`	Apple	Partly blocked	line 64 · `Disallow: /?err_code=404` line 65 · `Disallow: /search` and 1 more
`PetalBot`	Huawei	Allowed	no rule matches the home page
`YandexBot`	Yandex	Allowed	no rule matches the home page
`Baiduspider`	Baidu	Allowed	no rule matches the home page

AI search

Bot	Operator	robots.txt	Deciding line
`OAI-SearchBot`	OpenAI	Blocked	line 78 · `Disallow: /` under `User-agent: OAI-SearchBot`
`PerplexityBot`	Perplexity	Blocked	line 84 · `Disallow: /` under `User-agent: PerplexityBot`
`Claude-SearchBot`	Anthropic	Blocked	line 96 · `Disallow: /` under `User-agent: Claude-SearchBot`
`DuckAssistBot`	DuckDuckGo	Blocked	line 51 · `Disallow: /` under `User-agent: DuckAssistBot`
`Amazonbot`	Amazon	Blocked	line 21 · `Disallow: /` under `User-agent: Amazonbot`
`YouBot`	You.com	Allowed	no rule matches the home page

AI training

Bot	Operator	robots.txt	Deciding line
`GPTBot`	OpenAI	Blocked	line 57 · `Disallow: /` under `User-agent: GPTBot`
`ClaudeBot`	Anthropic	Blocked	line 42 · `Disallow: /` under `User-agent: ClaudeBot`
`Google-Extended`	Google	Blocked	line 60 · `Disallow: /` under `User-agent: Google-Extended`
`CCBot`	Common Crawl	Blocked	line 33 · `Disallow: /` under `User-agent: CCBot`
`Applebot-Extended`	Apple	Blocked	line 27 · `Disallow: /` under `User-agent: Applebot-Extended`
`GoogleOther`	Google	Allowed	no rule matches the home page
`Meta-ExternalAgent`	Meta	Blocked	line 72 · `Disallow: /` under `User-agent: meta-externalagent`
`Bytespider`	ByteDance	Blocked	line 30 · `Disallow: /` under `User-agent: Bytespider`

User-triggered fetchers

Bot	Operator	robots.txt	Deciding line
`ChatGPT-User`	OpenAI	Blocked	line 36 · `Disallow: /` under `User-agent: ChatGPT-User`
`Claude-User`	Anthropic	Blocked	line 99 · `Disallow: /` under `User-agent: Claude-User`
`Perplexity-User`	Perplexity	Blocked	line 81 · `Disallow: /` under `User-agent: Perplexity-User`
`MistralAI-User`	Mistral	Allowed	no rule matches the home page
`Meta-ExternalFetcher`	Meta	Blocked	line 75 · `Disallow: /` under `User-agent: Meta-ExternalFetcher`

SEO tools

Bot	Operator	robots.txt	Deciding line
`AhrefsBot`	Ahrefs	Allowed	no rule matches the home page
`SemrushBot`	Semrush	Allowed	no rule matches the home page
`MJ12bot`	Majestic	Allowed	no rule matches the home page
`DotBot`	Moz	Allowed	no rule matches the home page

View www.huffpost.com/robots.txt · 140 lines

1# Cambria robots

3User-agent: grapeshot

4Disallow: /member

5Disallow: /*?*err_code=404

6Disallow: /search

7Disallow: /search/?*

9User-agent: *

10Disallow: /*?*page=

11Disallow: /member

12Disallow: /*?*err_code=404

13Disallow: /search

14Disallow: /search/?*

15Disallow: /mapi/v4/*/user/*

16Disallow: /embed

17Disallow: /*/webview

18Disallow: /api

20User-agent: Amazonbot

21Disallow: /

23User-agent: anthropic-ai

24Disallow: /

26User-agent: Applebot-Extended

27Disallow: /

29User-agent: Bytespider

30Disallow: /

32User-agent: CCBot

33Disallow: /

35User-agent: ChatGPT-User

36Disallow: /

38User-agent: Claude-Web

39Disallow: /

41User-agent: ClaudeBot

42Disallow: /

44User-agent: cohere-ai

45Disallow: /

47User-agent: Diffbot

48Disallow: /

50User-agent: DuckAssistBot

51Disallow: /

53User-agent: FacebookBot

54Disallow: /

56User-agent: GPTBot

57Disallow: /

59User-agent: Google-Extended

60Disallow: /

62User-agent: Googlebot

63Allow: /

64Disallow: /*?*err_code=404

65Disallow: /search

66Disallow: /search/?*

68User-agent: magpie-crawler

69Disallow: /

71User-agent: meta-externalagent

72Disallow: /

74User-agent: Meta-ExternalFetcher

75Disallow: /

77User-agent: OAI-SearchBot

78Disallow: /

80User-agent: Perplexity-User

81Disallow: /

83User-agent: PerplexityBot

84Disallow: /

86User-agent: Timpibot

87Disallow: /

89User-agent: TurnitinBot

90Disallow: /

92User-agent: Ai2Bot-Dolma

93Disallow: /

95User-agent: Claude-SearchBot

96Disallow: /

98User-agent: Claude-User

99Disallow: /

100

101User-agent: omgilibot

102Disallow: /

103

104User-agent: TtoYouBot

105Disallow: /

106

107User-agent: WebGPTBot

108Disallow: /

109

110User-agent: Scope3/2.0 (scope3.com)

111Allow: /$

112Allow: /*

113Disallow: /*?*page=

114Disallow: /member

115Disallow: /*?*err_code=404

116Disallow: /search

117Disallow: /search/?*

118Disallow: /mapi/v4/*/user/*

119Disallow: /embed

120Disallow: /api

121

122User-agent: AmazonAdBot

123Allow: /$

124Allow: /*

125Disallow: /*?*page=

126Disallow: /member

127Disallow: /*?*err_code=404

128Disallow: /search

129Disallow: /search/?*

130Disallow: /mapi/v4/*/user/*

131Disallow: /embed

132Disallow: /api

133

134# archives

135Sitemap: https://www.huffpost.com/static-assets/isolated/huffpostsitemapgeneratorjob-prod-public/us/sitemaps/sitemap-v1.xml

136Sitemap: https://www.huffpost.com/static-assets/isolated/huffpostsitemapgeneratorjob-prod-public/us/sitemaps/sitemap-google-news.xml

137Sitemap: https://www.huffpost.com/static-assets/isolated/huffpostsitemapgeneratorjob-prod-public/us/sitemaps/sitemap-google-video.xml

138Sitemap: https://www.huffpost.com/static-assets/isolated/huffpostsitemapgeneratorjob-prod-public/us/sitemaps/sections.xml

139Sitemap: https://www.huffpost.com/static-assets/isolated/huffpostsitemapgeneratorjob-prod-public/us/sitemaps/sitemap-top-sections.xml

140

What do the bots actually get?

This page reads robots.txt, which states what huffpost.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 huffpost.com Test a path in the robots.txt tester

History

19 October 2026: first checked.

Questions

Does huffpost.com block GPTBot?

Yes. huffpost.com’s robots.txt disallows GPTBot from the whole site (line 57: 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 huffpost.com block ClaudeBot?

Yes. huffpost.com’s robots.txt disallows ClaudeBot from the whole site (line 42: Disallow: /). ClaudeBot is Anthropic’s crawler for training data. Checked 9 November 2026.

Does huffpost.com block Google-Extended?

Yes. huffpost.com’s robots.txt disallows Google-Extended from the whole site (line 60: 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 huffpost.com block PerplexityBot?

Yes. huffpost.com’s robots.txt disallows PerplexityBot from the whole site (line 84: Disallow: /). PerplexityBot is the crawler that indexes pages for Perplexity’s answers. Checked 9 November 2026.

Can ChatGPT search find huffpost.com?

Not through its own crawler. huffpost.com’s robots.txt disallows OAI-SearchBot from the whole site (line 78: Disallow: /). OAI-SearchBot is the crawler behind ChatGPT search; blocking it keeps the site out of ChatGPT’s search answers. Checked 9 November 2026.