Who blocks AI · #1321 in the Majestic Million
Does zdf.de block AI crawlers?
No. zdf.de’s robots.txt lets all 19 AI crawlers we track crawl the site, though it keeps GPTBot, Google-Extended and 2 more out of some paths. Search engines such as Googlebot and Bingbot may crawl it.
GPTBotPartly blockedOAI-SearchBotAllowedClaudeBotAllowedPerplexityBotAllowedGoogle-ExtendedPartly blockedCCBotPartly blocked- robots.txt
- www.zdf.de/robots.txt · 36 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 | Allowed | no group applies | |
Bingbot | Microsoft | Allowed | no group applies |
DuckDuckBot | DuckDuckGo | Allowed | no group applies |
Applebot | Apple | Allowed | no group applies |
PetalBot | Huawei | Allowed | no group applies |
YandexBot | Yandex | Allowed | no group applies |
Baiduspider | Baidu | Allowed | no group applies |
AI search
| Bot | Operator | robots.txt | Deciding line |
|---|---|---|---|
OAI-SearchBot | OpenAI | Allowed | no group applies |
PerplexityBot | Perplexity | Allowed | no group applies |
Claude-SearchBot | Anthropic | Allowed | no group applies |
DuckAssistBot | DuckDuckGo | Allowed | no group applies |
Amazonbot | Amazon | Allowed | no group applies |
YouBot | You.com | Allowed | no group applies |
AI training
| Bot | Operator | robots.txt | Deciding line |
|---|---|---|---|
GPTBot | OpenAI | Partly blocked | line 25 · Disallow: /video/kurzfassungen/bundesliga-saison-2023-2024-fussball-highlights-zusammenfassung-100/ line 26 · Disallow: /video/kurzfassungen/bundesliga-fussball-highlights-zusammenfassung-100/ and 10 more |
ClaudeBot | Anthropic | Allowed | no group applies |
Google-Extended | Partly blocked | line 25 · Disallow: /video/kurzfassungen/bundesliga-saison-2023-2024-fussball-highlights-zusammenfassung-100/ line 26 · Disallow: /video/kurzfassungen/bundesliga-fussball-highlights-zusammenfassung-100/ and 10 more | |
CCBot | Common Crawl | Partly blocked | line 25 · Disallow: /video/kurzfassungen/bundesliga-saison-2023-2024-fussball-highlights-zusammenfassung-100/ line 26 · Disallow: /video/kurzfassungen/bundesliga-fussball-highlights-zusammenfassung-100/ and 10 more |
Applebot-Extended | Apple | Allowed | no group applies |
GoogleOther | Allowed | no group applies | |
Meta-ExternalAgent | Meta | Allowed | no group applies |
Bytespider | ByteDance | Allowed | no group applies |
User-triggered fetchers
| Bot | Operator | robots.txt | Deciding line |
|---|---|---|---|
ChatGPT-User | OpenAI | Partly blocked | line 25 · Disallow: /video/kurzfassungen/bundesliga-saison-2023-2024-fussball-highlights-zusammenfassung-100/ line 26 · Disallow: /video/kurzfassungen/bundesliga-fussball-highlights-zusammenfassung-100/ and 10 more |
Claude-User | Anthropic | Allowed | no group applies |
Perplexity-User | Perplexity | Allowed | no group applies |
MistralAI-User | Mistral | Allowed | no group applies |
Meta-ExternalFetcher | Meta | Allowed | no group applies |
SEO tools
| Bot | Operator | robots.txt | Deciding line |
|---|---|---|---|
AhrefsBot | Ahrefs | Allowed | no group applies |
SemrushBot | Semrush | Partly blocked | line 25 · Disallow: /video/kurzfassungen/bundesliga-saison-2023-2024-fussball-highlights-zusammenfassung-100/ line 26 · Disallow: /video/kurzfassungen/bundesliga-fussball-highlights-zusammenfassung-100/ and 10 more |
MJ12bot | Majestic | Allowed | no group applies |
DotBot | Moz | Allowed | no group applies |
View www.zdf.de/robots.txt · 36 lines
What do the bots actually get?
This page reads robots.txt, which states what zdf.de 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 zdf.de Test a path in the robots.txt tester
History
- 19 October 2026: first checked.
Questions
Does zdf.de block GPTBot?
Partly. zdf.de’s robots.txt keeps GPTBot out of some paths, such as /video/kurzfassungen/bundesliga-saison-2023-2024-fussball-highlights-zusammenfassung-100/, and lets it crawl the rest. GPTBot is OpenAI’s crawler for training data; blocking it doesn’t affect ChatGPT search, which uses OAI-SearchBot. Checked 9 November 2026.
Does zdf.de block ClaudeBot?
No. zdf.de’s robots.txt lets ClaudeBot crawl the site. ClaudeBot is Anthropic’s crawler for training data. Checked 9 November 2026.
Does zdf.de block Google-Extended?
Partly. zdf.de’s robots.txt keeps Google-Extended out of some paths, such as /video/kurzfassungen/bundesliga-saison-2023-2024-fussball-highlights-zusammenfassung-100/, and lets it crawl the rest. 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 zdf.de block PerplexityBot?
No. zdf.de’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 zdf.de?
Yes. zdf.de’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.