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 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1201 |
The Blade (Toledo)
toledoblade.com
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | US |
| 1202 |
To Vima
tovima.gr
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | EU |
| 1203 |
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
triblive.com
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | US |
| 1204 |
The Express Tribune
tribune.com.pk
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | Asia |
| 1205 |
The Tribune
tribuneindia.com
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | Asia |
| 1206 |
Nigerian Tribune
tribuneonlineng.com
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | MENA-Africa |
| 1207 |
Trome
trome.com
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | LatAm |
| 1208 |
TRT World
trtworld.com
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | MENA-Africa |
| 1209 |
Arizona Daily Star
tucson.com
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | US |
| 1210 |
Tuko
tuko.co.ke
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | MENA-Africa |
| 1211 |
Tulsa World
tulsaworld.com
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | US |
| 1212 |
Tunisie Numerique
tunisienumerique.com
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | MENA-Africa |
| 1213 |
Tuoi Tre
tuoitre.vn
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | Asia |
| 1214 |
Ukrinform
ukrinform.net
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | EU |
| 1215 |
Undark
undark.org
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | US |
| 1216 |
UNIAN
unian.ua
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | EU |
| 1217 |
Universe Today
universetoday.com
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | US |
| 1218 |
Utility Dive
utilitydive.com
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | US |
| 1219 |
Vanguard (Nigeria)
vanguardngr.com
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | MENA-Africa |
| 1220 |
Veja
veja.abril.com.br
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | LatAm |
| 1221 |
Verstka
verstka.media
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | EU |
| 1222 |
VICE
vice.com
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | Global |
| 1223 |
VietNamNet
vietnamnet.vn
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | Asia |
| 1224 |
Vietnam News
vietnamnews.vn
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | Asia |
| 1225 |
Vietnam Plus
vietnamplus.vn
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | Asia |
| 1226 |
VilaWeb
vilaweb.cat
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | EU |
| 1227 |
The Vindicator (Youngstown)
vindy.com
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | US |
| 1228 |
Vietnam Investment Review
vir.com.vn
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | Asia |
| 1229 |
Visir
visir.is
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | EU |
| 1230 |
VRT
vrt.be
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | EU |
| 1231 |
Watson
watson.ch
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | EU |
| 1232 |
The Courier (Waterloo)
wcfcourier.com
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | US |
| 1233 |
XXL
xxlmag.com
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | US |
| 1234 |
Yardbarker
yardbarker.com
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | US |
| 1235 |
Ynetnews
ynetnews.com
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | MENA-Africa |
| 1236 |
The Yorkshire Post
yorkshirepost.co.uk
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | UK |
| 1237 |
Youm7
youm7.com
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | MENA-Africa |
| 1238 |
ZDF
zdf.de
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | EU |
| 1239 |
Zero Hora
zerohora.com.br
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | LatAm |
| 1240 |
Ziare.com
ziare.com
|
A | 100 | 0/11 | Allows all | EU |
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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