Robots.txt Leaderboard
How the web's top news & publisher sites compare on openness to AI crawlers. Graded straight from each site's robots.txt against the major AI bots (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, Google-Extended and more). Use this page to see how your site compares, and to check if your robots.txt is blocking or allowing the AI bots you want to allow or block.
45%
of 1,240 ranked sites block GPTBot in robots.txt
1,240
sites graded this batch (2026-11)
60/100
average openness score (higher = more open to AI)
Share of sites blocking each AI crawler
Click a bot to filter the ranking to sites that block it.
Grade distribution
A = wide open to AI, F = walled off.
- A
- 578 sites
- B
- 54 sites
- C
- 73 sites
- D
- 216 sites
- F
- 319 sites
| # | AI crawlers | Region | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 701 |
The Peninsula Qatar
thepeninsulaqatar.com
|
A | 91 | 1/11 |
CCBot
|
MENA-Africa |
| 702 |
ThePrint
theprint.in
|
A | 91 | 1/11 |
CCBot
|
Asia |
| 703 |
The Province
theprovince.com
|
A | 91 | 1/11 |
Meta-ExternalAgent
|
CA |
| 704 |
The Spinoff
thespinoff.co.nz
|
A | 91 | 1/11 |
Meta-ExternalAgent
|
Oceania |
| 705 |
The Thaiger
thethaiger.com
|
A | 91 | 1/11 |
Applebot-Extended
|
Asia |
| 706 |
TheWrap
thewrap.com
|
A | 91 | 1/11 |
PerplexityBot
|
US |
| 707 |
Times Colonist
timescolonist.com
|
A | 91 | 1/11 |
GPTBot
|
CA |
| 708 |
The Times of India
timesofindia.indiatimes.com
|
A | 91 | 1/11 |
Meta-ExternalAgent
|
Asia |
| 709 |
Toronto Sun
torontosun.com
|
A | 91 | 1/11 |
Meta-ExternalAgent
|
CA |
| 710 |
TVN24
tvn24.pl
|
A | 91 | 1/11 |
GPTBot
|
EU |
| 711 |
Vancouver Sun
vancouversun.com
|
A | 91 | 1/11 |
Meta-ExternalAgent
|
CA |
| 712 |
VnExpress
vnexpress.net
|
A | 91 | 1/11 |
Amazonbot
|
Asia |
| 713 |
W Magazine
wmagazine.com
|
A | 91 | 1/11 |
Applebot-Extended
|
US |
| 714 |
20 Minuten
20min.ch
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | EU |
| 715 |
24.hu
24.hu
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | EU |
| 716 |
24 Horas (TVN)
24horas.cl
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | LatAm |
| 717 |
444
444.hu
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | EU |
| 718 |
9News
9news.com.au
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | Oceania |
| 719 |
Asharq Al-Awsat
aawsat.com
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | MENA-Africa |
| 720 |
Above the Law
abovethelaw.com
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | US |
| 721 |
ABS-CBN News
abs-cbn.com
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | Asia |
| 722 |
Ad Age
adage.com
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | US |
| 723 |
Addis Standard
addisstandard.com
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | MENA-Africa |
| 724 |
Adevarul
adevarul.ro
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | EU |
| 725 |
Adweek
adweek.com
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | US |
| 726 |
Africanews
africanews.com
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | MENA-Africa |
| 727 |
Agentstvo (Agents Media)
agents.media
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | EU |
| 728 |
Agerpres
agerpres.ro
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | EU |
| 729 |
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
ajc.com
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | US |
| 730 |
Al-Monitor
al-monitor.com
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | MENA-Africa |
| 731 |
Al Arabiya
alarabiya.net
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | MENA-Africa |
| 732 |
Al-Araby Al-Jadeed (The New Arab)
alaraby.co.uk
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | MENA-Africa |
| 733 |
Al-Masry Al-Youm
almasryalyoum.com
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | MENA-Africa |
| 734 |
Ambito Financiero
ambito.com
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | LatAm |
| 735 |
AnandTech
anandtech.com
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | US |
| 736 |
Animal Politico
animalpolitico.com
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | LatAm |
| 737 |
Associated Press of Pakistan
app.com.pk
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | Asia |
| 738 |
Arab News
arabnews.com
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | MENA-Africa |
| 739 |
Arab Times (Kuwait)
arabtimesonline.com
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | MENA-Africa |
| 740 |
Asharq News
asharq.com
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | MENA-Africa |
| 741 |
Asia Times
asiatimes.com
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | Asia |
| 742 |
Astronomy Magazine
astronomy.com
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | US |
| 743 |
Automotive News
autonews.com
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | US |
| 744 |
Aviation Week
aviationweek.com
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | US |
| 745 |
The Baltimore Sun
baltimoresun.com
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | US |
| 746 |
Band
band.uol.com.br
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | LatAm |
| 747 |
Bangkok Post
bangkokpost.com
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | Asia |
| 748 |
Banking Dive
bankingdive.com
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | US |
| 749 |
Bankrate
bankrate.com
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | US |
| 750 |
Barstool Sports
barstoolsports.com
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | US |
All 1,240 graded sites from the 2026-11 batch, regardless of the filters above.
Methodology
For each site we fetch its public robots.txt and grade it against
11 of the major AI crawlers,
including GPTBot, ClaudeBot, Google-Extended, PerplexityBot and CCBot. A site
“blocks” a bot when its robots.txt has a Disallow rule that applies
to that crawler’s user-agent token. The openness score is the share of
graded bots that are allowed, rolled up into an A–F grade.
This measures declared access in robots.txt, not enforcement. robots.txt is a request, not a firewall: a well-behaved crawler obeys it, but it does not technically stop anything. A site can also block AI bots at the edge (WAF, rate limits, IP blocks) in ways this ranking cannot see. Treat the grades as a signal of intent, not a guarantee.
The trend combines two sources: current grades come from a live scan of each site’s robots.txt, while historical snapshots are reconstructed from the Internet Archive (Wayback Machine): we grade the nearest archived robots.txt at or before each quarter. Historical points therefore reflect the best available capture, not necessarily the exact first of the period.
Latest batch: 2026-11. Reads stored scan data only: no live requests are made when you load this page.
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