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To signal that AI training crawlers should not fetch your site, add provider-specific groups to the root robots.txt file. Block GPTBot, Google-Extended, and ClaudeBot as needed. You can block OpenAI’s training crawler while allowing OAI-SearchBot for search discovery because OpenAI documents those controls separately.

There is no universal noai meta tag that every AI company must honor. Use noindex for search-index exclusion, and use a CDN, web application firewall (WAF), or bot-management rule when you need technical request blocking rather than an advisory preference.

What an AI-training opt-out actually controls

An opt-out policy can express that a named crawler should not collect your pages for model development. It does not erase copies that a company already collected, bind unidentified crawlers, or guarantee that every automated client will identify itself honestly.

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The practical controls have different jobs. A provider-specific robots.txt rule is a signal to a named user agent about whether it should fetch URLs. A noindex directive tells compliant search systems not to index or display a page. A WAF or bot-management rule can reject requests at the network edge. These mechanisms should be planned separately rather than treated as interchangeable.

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Control Primary purpose Scope Mechanism Effect on ordinary search
Provider-specific robots.txt Signal a crawler not to fetch content One named provider or user agent Advisory policy file Can leave other search crawlers available
noindex Prevent indexing or search-result display Pages understood by the indexing system Page directive or HTTP header Removes visibility from compliant search indexes
Generic noai tag No universal purpose established Depends on a provider that documents it Provider-specific or unsupported metadata Not a reliable cross-provider control
CDN, WAF, or bot management Block requests technically Traffic matching your rules Network or application enforcement Can block search, retrieval, or other traffic if rules are too broad

Cloudflare reported that, in June 2025, OpenAI crawled at a 1,700:1 crawl-to-referral ratio and Anthropic at 73,000:1. Those figures are a single provider’s measurement for that month, not a universal traffic benchmark, but they illustrate why a publisher may want to distinguish crawling for discovery from collection for training.

Know the crawler names before writing rules

Robots rules match the user-agent token that a provider documents. Blocking a generic string such as AI is not an adequate policy because it may miss the crawler you care about or block unrelated software.

OpenAI: GPTBot and OAI-SearchBot

OpenAI documents GPTBot for content that may be used to improve or train foundation models and OAI-SearchBot for search-related retrieval. The controls are independent of one another. You can therefore disallow GPTBot while allowing OAI-SearchBot if you want your pages available for search discovery without signaling permission for model-training collection.

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Google: Google-Extended

Google documents Google-Extended as a separate user-agent token for generative-AI use. A rule for this token signals that your content should not be used for the documented generative-AI training purpose while leaving ordinary Googlebot crawling as a separate decision. Blocking Googlebot itself would affect normal Google Search crawling, so do not substitute one token for the other.

Anthropic: ClaudeBot

Anthropic identifies ClaudeBot as the crawler that collects web content that could potentially contribute to model training. Anthropic describes it as helping enhance the utility and safety of its generative-AI models. A ClaudeBot group is the specific signal for that crawler.

Write a provider-specific robots.txt policy

Place the file at the top level of the exact host you want to govern, using the lowercase path /robots.txt. A policy for www does not automatically govern a separate subdomain or a different host. Keep each provider in its own group so that an allowance for one user agent is not accidentally interpreted as an allowance for another.

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1. Start with an inventory

  1. List the providers whose model-training collection you want to restrict.
  2. List search or retrieval crawlers you still want to serve.
  3. Decide whether the policy applies to the whole site or only selected paths.
  4. Record the date and owner of the policy so someone can review it when crawler names or provider policies change.

2. Add the OpenAI groups

# OpenAI: block model-training crawler, keep search crawler available
User-agent: GPTBot
Disallow: /

User-agent: OAI-SearchBot
Allow: /

The first group asks GPTBot not to fetch any path. The second explicitly allows OAI-SearchBot. The two groups are independent, as OpenAI states; changing one does not change the other.

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3. Add the Google generative-AI group

# Google: signal no generative-AI training while leaving Googlebot separate
User-agent: Google-Extended
Disallow: /

This does not disallow Googlebot. If you also add a broad rule for Googlebot, you are making a separate search-crawling decision and may reduce normal search visibility.

4. Add the Anthropic group

# Anthropic: signal that ClaudeBot should not collect content for training
User-agent: ClaudeBot
Disallow: /

Use the exact token ClaudeBot. A rule for another Anthropic product name is not a substitute for the crawler identity Anthropic documents.

5. Limit a rule to selected paths when appropriate

Replace Disallow: / with a path such as Disallow: /members/ when only a directory should be excluded. Keep public editorial pages and private areas in separate policy decisions. Test every path because a small syntax change can broaden or narrow the rule.

6. Publish and check the live response

  1. Save the file as plain text at the host’s root.
  2. Confirm that the server returns it at /robots.txt with a successful HTTP response, rather than a login page or an application error.
  3. Inspect the deployed file from outside your editing environment and verify that the user-agent spelling and path rules are unchanged.
  4. Check that a cache, redirect, CDN transform, or security product has not replaced the file.

Why a generic noai meta tag is not a universal opt-out

Many pages mention a noai or similarly named meta tag. The official documentation covered here specifies provider-specific robots user agents, noindex, and other provider controls; it does not establish one cross-provider noai directive that all AI crawlers must honor.

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Do not add a generic tag and assume the problem is solved. A provider could document a metadata directive for its own systems, but that would be a provider-specific feature. Before relying on any tag, confirm the provider’s current documentation, the exact syntax, and whether the tag affects training, search retrieval, or only another product.

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A metadata tag also cannot stop a request from reaching your server. If your requirement is to prevent collection requests technically, use an edge-control rule in addition to any documented preference signal.

Keep noindex separate from training controls

noindex is designed for indexing and search-result visibility. It can be delivered in a page’s robots meta element or an appropriate HTTP response header. OpenAI and Google document noindex-related behavior for preventing display or indexing, but it is not presented as a universal AI-training opt-out.

Use noindex when the goal is to keep a page out of a compliant search index. Use provider-specific robots groups when the goal is to signal that a named crawler should not fetch content for a stated purpose. A page can be indexable while disallowing a training crawler, or it can be noindexed while still reachable by a crawler unless access is otherwise blocked.

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If a page must not be accessible at all, use authentication, remove it, or return an appropriate access-denied response. Search directives are not a replacement for access control.

When robots.txt is too weak

Google describes robots.txt as primarily a way to manage crawler traffic, not a mechanism for keeping a web page out of Google. The same practical limitation applies to an AI-training signal: a compliant crawler can read and follow it, but the file is not a technical barrier for every client.

Use a CDN or WAF for request blocking

A CDN or WAF can deny requests that match a verified bot identity, rate pattern, network source, or other behavior. Bot-management products can combine several signals instead of relying only on a self-declared user-agent. This is the appropriate layer when your policy says the request must not be served.

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Understand the trade-offs

  • A broad deny rule can block legitimate search, monitoring, accessibility, or partner traffic.
  • User-agent strings can be copied, so identity-based rules are not perfect by themselves.
  • Challenge pages may still expose metadata or consume resources before a request is denied.
  • Edge rules require ongoing maintenance as provider infrastructure and crawler identities change.

Use robots.txt as the published preference, then add targeted edge enforcement for the traffic you genuinely need to reject. Monitor false positives before expanding a block to an entire provider or network.

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Practical policies for common goals

Block OpenAI training but remain discoverable in OpenAI search

Use the two OpenAI groups shown earlier: Disallow: / for GPTBot and Allow: / for OAI-SearchBot. Do not replace them with a single wildcard rule, because that would remove the distinction between training and search retrieval.

Keep Google Search crawling while signaling no generative-AI training

Disallow Google-Extended and leave your existing Googlebot policy unchanged. If your site already blocks Googlebot, fixing that search policy is a separate project; adding Google-Extended will not restore ordinary search crawling.

Signal an Anthropic training opt-out

Add a dedicated ClaudeBot group with the paths you want excluded. If you need enforcement rather than a signal, mirror the decision in your CDN or WAF and watch request logs for unexpected clients.

Block all three documented training crawlers

Use separate groups for GPTBot, Google-Extended, and ClaudeBot. Separating them makes later changes safer: you can allow one provider for a documented search function without opening the other two.

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Deployment and verification checklist

  • Confirm the file is served from the correct host and path.
  • Check each user-agent token character for character.
  • Check that every Disallow path begins with the intended scope.
  • Verify that an Allow for OAI-SearchBot is in its own group, not combined with GPTBot.
  • Review existing rules for a broad wildcard group that could override or confuse your intended policy.
  • Inspect server and CDN logs after deployment for requests identifying as the documented crawlers.
  • Confirm that search indexing behavior matches your separate noindex decisions.
  • Document which controls are advisory and which are enforced at the edge.
  • Review provider documentation periodically; crawler names, purposes, and defaults can change.
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What happens to content already collected?

A new robots.txt rule governs future compliant fetches. It does not recall a page that was downloaded before the rule, remove training data already incorporated into a model, or delete copies held in caches, archives, logs, or third-party systems. If previously published material is sensitive, combine the crawler policy with removal, authentication, contractual, or legal processes appropriate to the situation.

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Removing a page from search results is a separate task. Use noindex where the relevant search system supports it, remove the page, or require authentication. Do not claim that a robots rule has erased the historical copy merely because later crawling stopped.

Common mistakes and fixes

Blocking the wrong Google token

Symptom: Search traffic falls after an attempted AI opt-out. Cause: The policy disallowed Googlebot instead of, or in addition to, Google-Extended. Fix: Restore the intended Googlebot policy and keep the generative-AI signal in its own group.

Combining OpenAI crawlers

Symptom: You intended to allow search retrieval but blocked it. Cause: GPTBot and OAI-SearchBot were placed in one group with a shared Disallow. Fix: Separate the groups and verify the live file.

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Assuming noindex blocks training

Symptom: A page is absent from search but still receives automated requests. Cause: noindex controls indexing, not universal crawler access. Fix: Add the relevant provider-specific robots signal and, where necessary, an edge block.

Relying on a tag no provider documents

Symptom: A noai meta tag appears in source code but crawler activity continues. Cause: There is no established universal standard requiring all providers to honor it. Fix: Use the documented user-agent controls and verify the provider’s current policy.

Expecting robots.txt to be a security boundary

Symptom: An unidentified scraper continues downloading pages. Cause: robots.txt is advisory and applies only to clients that choose to follow it. Fix: Require authentication for private content and use WAF or bot-management enforcement for unwanted requests.

Maintenance matters as much as the first deployment

AI providers can introduce new crawler identities, split a crawler’s purposes, or change how a documented token is used. Schedule a periodic review of provider documentation, your robots file, edge rules, and access logs. Recheck the policy after a redesign, domain migration, CDN change, or new search integration.

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Keep a short internal record for each rule: provider, user-agent, purpose, paths covered, date added, and whether the control is advisory or enforced. That record prevents a future editor from deleting an apparently unused rule or broadening a deny rule without understanding its search implications.

Decision guide

Your objective Use first Add when needed
Stop a named training crawler from fetching public pages That provider’s robots.txt user-agent group CDN, WAF, or bot-management block for technical enforcement
Keep OpenAI search discovery but block model-training collection Disallow GPTBot; allow OAI-SearchBot Monitor logs and enforce at the edge if required
Keep Google Search while signaling no generative-AI training Disallow Google-Extended Leave Googlebot rules under separate review
Keep a page out of search results noindex, removal, or authentication Use access controls if the page must not be fetched
Block unknown or noncompliant scrapers WAF, CDN, authentication, or bot management Retain robots.txt as a public preference signal

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