Who blocks AI · #339 in the Majestic Million

robots.txt · checked 9 Nov 2026

Does webmd.com block AI crawlers?

Yes. webmd.com’s robots.txt blocks 3 of the 19 AI crawlers we track, including GPTBot, ClaudeBot and CCBot. Search engines such as Googlebot and Bingbot may crawl it.

GPTBotBlocked OAI-SearchBotAllowed ClaudeBotBlocked PerplexityBotAllowed Google-ExtendedAllowed CCBotBlocked

robots.txt: www.webmd.com/robots.txt · 44 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 41 · `Disallow: /` under `User-agent: GPTBot`
`ClaudeBot`	Anthropic	Blocked	line 35 · `Disallow: /` under `User-agent: ClaudeBot`
`Google-Extended`	Google	Allowed	no rule matches the home page
`CCBot`	Common Crawl	Blocked	line 32 · `Disallow: /` under `User-agent: CCBot`
`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	Allowed	no rule matches the home page
`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.webmd.com/robots.txt · 44 lines

1# Robots.txt file WebMD

2# Updated 10/22/2026 (CONSFE-492)

4User-agent: *

5Disallow: */search/search_results/

6Disallow: /500

7Disallow: /aim/

8Disallow: /api/

9Disallow: /bipolar-disorder/video/bipolar-fatherhood

10Disallow: /bipolar-disorder/video/bipolar-toolbox

11Disallow: /breast-cancer/bc-treatment-21/provider-select

12Disallow: /click*

13Disallow: /dna

14Disallow: /drugs/2/search*

15Disallow: /drugs/ReportAbuse.aspx*

16Disallow: /kapi/

17Disallow: /mm/

18Disallow: /my-library

19Disallow: /news/header.php

20Disallow: /pill-identification/search-results*

21Disallow: /search/2/api/

22Disallow: /Share.aspx*

23Disallow: /sponsored/

24Disallow: /static/

25Disallow: /story/

26Disallow: /webmd_static_vue/

28User-agent: AdsBot-Google

29Disallow: /mm/

31User-agent: CCBot

32Disallow: /

34User-agent: ClaudeBot

35Disallow: /

37User-agent: Doximity

38Disallow: /

40User-agent: GPTBot

41Disallow: /

43Sitemap: https://www.webmd.com/sitemapxml/sitemap.xml

What do the bots actually get?

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

History

19 October 2026: first checked.

Questions

Does webmd.com block GPTBot?

Yes. webmd.com’s robots.txt disallows GPTBot from the whole site (line 41: 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 webmd.com block ClaudeBot?

Yes. webmd.com’s robots.txt disallows ClaudeBot from the whole site (line 35: Disallow: /). ClaudeBot is Anthropic’s crawler for training data. Checked 9 November 2026.

Does webmd.com block Google-Extended?

No. webmd.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 webmd.com block PerplexityBot?

No. webmd.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 webmd.com?

Yes. webmd.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.