Who blocks AI · #1100 in the Majestic Million

robots.txt · checked 9 Nov 2026

Does irishtimes.com block AI crawlers?

Yes. irishtimes.com’s robots.txt blocks 2 of the 19 AI crawlers we track, including GPTBot and ChatGPT-User. Search engines such as Googlebot and Bingbot may crawl it.

GPTBotBlocked OAI-SearchBotAllowed ClaudeBotAllowed PerplexityBotAllowed Google-ExtendedAllowed CCBotAllowed

robots.txt: www.irishtimes.com/robots.txt · 98 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	Allowed	no rule matches the home page
`Bingbot`	Microsoft	Allowed	no rule matches the home page
`DuckDuckBot`	DuckDuckGo	Allowed	no rule matches the home page
`Applebot`	Apple	Allowed	no rule matches the home page
`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	Allowed	no rule matches the home page
`PerplexityBot`	Perplexity	Allowed	no rule matches the home page
`Claude-SearchBot`	Anthropic	Allowed	no rule matches the home page
`DuckAssistBot`	DuckDuckGo	Allowed	no rule matches the home page
`Amazonbot`	Amazon	Allowed	no rule matches the home page
`YouBot`	You.com	Allowed	no rule matches the home page

AI training

Bot	Operator	robots.txt	Deciding line
`GPTBot`	OpenAI	Blocked	line 7 · `Disallow: /` under `User-agent: GPTBot`
`ClaudeBot`	Anthropic	Allowed	no rule matches the home page
`Google-Extended`	Google	Allowed	no rule matches the home page
`CCBot`	Common Crawl	Allowed	no rule matches the home page
`Applebot-Extended`	Apple	Allowed	no rule matches the home page
`GoogleOther`	Google	Allowed	no rule matches the home page
`Meta-ExternalAgent`	Meta	Allowed	no rule matches the home page
`Bytespider`	ByteDance	Allowed	no rule matches the home page

User-triggered fetchers

Bot	Operator	robots.txt	Deciding line
`ChatGPT-User`	OpenAI	Blocked	line 3 · `Disallow: /` under `User-agent: ChatGPT-User`
`Claude-User`	Anthropic	Allowed	no rule matches the home page
`Perplexity-User`	Perplexity	Allowed	no rule matches the home page
`MistralAI-User`	Mistral	Allowed	no rule matches the home page
`Meta-ExternalFetcher`	Meta	Allowed	no rule matches the home page

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.irishtimes.com/robots.txt · 98 lines

1# Block ChatGPT crawler

2User-agent: ChatGPT-User

3Disallow: /

5# Block ChatGPT crawler

6User-agent: GPTBot

7Disallow: /

9User-agent: Googlebot-News

10Disallow: /sponsored/

12User-agent: *

13Disallow: /blogimageupload/

14Disallow: /captcha/

15Disallow: /content/

16Disallow: /cmlink/

17Disallow: /cm/

18Disallow: /error/

19Disallow: /errorpages/

20Disallow: /logger/

21Disallow: /mailapi/

22Disallow: /membership/

23Disallow: /mobile/

24Disallow: /newspaper/archive/

25Disallow: /photosales/index.cfm?fuseaction=

26Disallow: /poll/

27Disallow: /polopolydevelopment/

28Disallow: /redirect/

29Disallow: /rta-logging/reader-history.php

30Disallow: /search/

31Disallow: /search-results/

32Disallow: /search/archive.html

33Disallow: /search/search-7.4195619

34Disallow: /search/search-7.1213540

35Disallow: /search/search-7.2285082

36Disallow: /status/

37Disallow: /zephr/feature-decisions

38Disallow: /zephr/features

39Disallow: /polopoly_fs/

41Sitemap: https://www.irishtimes.com/arc/outboundfeeds/sitemap/

42Sitemap: https://www.irishtimes.com/arc/outboundfeeds/sitemap-days/

43Sitemap: https://www.irishtimes.com/arc/outboundfeeds/sitemap-news-index/

44Sitemap: https://www.irishtimes.com/arc/outboundfeeds/sitemap-section-index/

45Sitemap: https://www.irishtimes.com/arc/outboundfeeds/sitemap-section/

46Sitemap: https://www.irishtimes.com/arc/outboundfeeds/video-sitemap/

48# CSS, JS, Images

49Allow: /subscribe/core/*.css$

50Allow: /subscribe/core/*.css?

51Allow: /subscribe/core/*.js$

52Allow: /subscribe/core/*.js?

53Allow: /subscribe/core/*.gif

54Allow: /subscribe/core/*.jpg

55Allow: /subscribe/core/*.jpeg

56Allow: /subscribe/core/*.png

57Allow: /subscribe/core/*.svg

58Allow: /subscribe/profiles/*.css$

59Allow: /subscribe/profiles/*.css?

60Allow: /subscribe/profiles/*.js$

61Allow: /subscribe/profiles/*.js?

62Allow: /subscribe/profiles/*.gif

63Allow: /subscribe/profiles/*.jpg

64Allow: /subscribe/profiles/*.jpeg

65Allow: /subscribe/profiles/*.png

66Allow: /subscribe/profiles/*.svg

68# Directories

69Disallow: /subscribe/core/

70Disallow: /subscribe/profiles/

72# Files

73Disallow: /subscribe/README.md

74Disallow: /subscribe/composer/Metapackage/README.txt

75Disallow: /subscribe/composer/Plugin/ProjectMessage/README.md

76Disallow: /subscribe/composer/Plugin/Scaffold/README.md

77Disallow: /subscribe/composer/Plugin/VendorHardening/README.txt

78Disallow: /subscribe/composer/Template/README.txt

79Disallow: /subscribe/modules/README.txt

80Disallow: /subscribe/sites/README.txt

81Disallow: /subscribe/themes/README.txt

83# Paths (clean URLs)

84Disallow: /subscribe/admin/

85Disallow: /subscribe/comment/reply/

86Disallow: /subscribe/filter/tips

87Disallow: /subscribe/node/add/

88Disallow: /subscribe/product/add/

89Disallow: /subscribe/block/add/

90Disallow: /subscribe/node/add/

91Disallow: /subscribe/product/add/

93Disallow: /myaccount/register

94Disallow: /myaccount/logout

96Disallow: /subscribe/media/oembed

97Disallow: /subscribe/*/media/oembed

What do the bots actually get?

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

History

19 October 2026: first checked.

Questions

Does irishtimes.com block GPTBot?

Yes. irishtimes.com’s robots.txt disallows GPTBot from the whole site (line 7: 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 irishtimes.com block ClaudeBot?

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

Does irishtimes.com block Google-Extended?

No. irishtimes.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 irishtimes.com block PerplexityBot?

No. irishtimes.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 irishtimes.com?

Yes. irishtimes.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.