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CNN (cnn.com): AI Crawler Rules in robots.txt

GPTBot is disallowed by cnn.com's robots.txt (checked ). In all, the file disallows 15 of the 17 AI bot tokens we monitor (88.2%). Observed Source · Methodology

What this means for you

robots.txt on this site disallows 15 of the 17 AI agents we monitor: 4 of 4 search and answer bots (OAI-SearchBot, Claude-SearchBot, PerplexityBot, DuckAssistBot), 3 of 3 user-requested fetchers (ChatGPT-User, Claude-User, Perplexity-User) and 8 of 10 other crawlers.

An assistant that follows robots.txt may not read or cite this site when a user asks about it, because the disallowed agents are the ones that fetch pages for answers.

To publish rules like these for your own site, see How to Block GPTBot and Other AI Crawlers in robots.txt. A host or CDN can also block AI crawlers on its own, which robots.txt does not show: our hosting checker names the provider behind any domain, and our hosting price tracker shows what the plans we check cost.

What robots.txt says

15 of 17 bots disallowed on /

robots.txt disallows 15 of 17 monitored bots on path /.

  • Amazonbot · Disallowed · Disallow: /
  • anthropic-ai · Disallowed · Disallow: /
  • Applebot-Extended · Disallowed · Disallow: /
  • Bytespider · Disallowed · Disallow: /
  • CCBot · Disallowed · Disallow: /
  • ChatGPT-User · Disallowed · Disallow: /
  • Claude-SearchBot · Disallowed · Disallow: /
  • Claude-User · Disallowed · Disallow: /
  • ClaudeBot · Disallowed · Disallow: /
  • cohere-ai · Disallowed · Disallow: /
  • DuckAssistBot · Disallowed · Disallow: /
  • GPTBot · Disallowed · Disallow: /
  • OAI-SearchBot · Disallowed · Disallow: /
  • Perplexity-User · Disallowed · Disallow: /
  • PerplexityBot · Disallowed · Disallow: /
  • Google-Extended · Allowed
  • meta-externalagent · Allowed
robots.txt excerpt
User-agent: AliyunSecBot User-agent: Amazonbot User-agent: amzn-searchbot User-agent: amzn-user User-agent: anthropic-ai User-agent: Applebot-Extended User-agent: AwarioRssBot …

Homepage and robots.txt responses at our latest check

homepage HTTP 200 · robots.txt HTTP 200
Homepage
HTTP 200
Challenge page
Unknown
robots.txt
HTTP 200

History and how we checked

24 checks since Sep 28, 2026 · 1 change, last on Oct 15, 2026

How we got this number

  • What we read: the robots.txt file at edition.cnn.com/robots.txt
  • Checked: ; tracked since Sep 28, 2026
  • Shown in: Switzerland
  • Checks so far: 24 checks on 21 days since Sep 28, 2026
  • What changed: the answer last changed on ; every change is listed under History
  • Page updated:

Changes

  1. — 94.1% → 88.2% Confirmed by the check on Oct 16, 2026. What this means for you: The figure you would rely on has moved; check the evidence before relying on the old one.
  2. — First check: 94.1%
Record history 24 records for 1 question
Last record
Shown in
Switzerland
TimeValueStatus
Oct 18, 202688.2%Observed
Oct 17, 202688.2%Observed
Oct 16, 202688.2%Observed
Oct 15, 202688.2%Observed
Oct 14, 202694.1%Observed
Oct 13, 202694.1%Observed
Oct 12, 202694.1%Observed
Oct 11, 202694.1%Observed
Oct 10, 202694.1%Observed
Oct 9, 202694.1%Observed
Oct 8, 202694.1%Observed
Oct 7, 202694.1%Observed
Oct 6, 202694.1%Observed
Oct 5, 202694.1%Observed
Oct 4, 202694.1%Observed
Oct 3, 202694.1%Observed
Oct 2, 202694.1%Observed
Oct 1, 202694.1%Observed
Sep 30, 202694.1%Observed
Sep 29, 202694.1%Observed
Sep 28, 202694.1%Observed
Sep 28, 202694.1%Observed
Sep 28, 202694.1%Observed
Sep 28, 202694.1%Observed
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