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Axios
axios.comBlocks some
Its robots.txt (the public rules file for bots) treats AI bots differently from each other. It blocks 3 of the 24 AI bots we track from the whole site, including CCBot, Bytespider and Amazonbot. GPTBot, ClaudeBot, Google-Extended, Applebot-Extended and 7 more can reach most of it. The homepage also showed our bot, which says who it is, a Cloudflare challenge page instead of the site.
Last checked 19 Oct 2026. Rules file read today. Everything we checked · History
Bots that train AI Some blocked
2 of 9 blocked
Blocking these keeps the site out of future AI training. It does not stop AI from reading the site to answer questions.
Bots for AI search Some blocked
1 of 8 blocked
Blocking these usually means the site stops showing up as a source in AI answers.
AI assistants Allowed
0 of 7 blocked
5 of these 7 companies say their assistants may ignore robots.txt.
Bot by bot
| AI bot | Allowed? | Where the rule is | Company says it follows robots.txt? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bots that train AI · Some blocked | |||
| GPTBotOpenAI | Allowed | Not named; the catch-all rule applies | Says yes |
| ClaudeBotAnthropic | Allowed | Not named; the catch-all rule applies | Says yes |
| Google-ExtendedGoogle · opt-out name, not a bot | Allowed | Named, line 8 | Says yes |
| Applebot-ExtendedApple · opt-out name, not a bot | Allowed | Not named; the catch-all rule applies | Says yes |
| CCBotCommon Crawl | Blocked | Named, line 25 | Says yes |
| Meta-ExternalAgentMeta | Allowed | Not named; the catch-all rule applies | Suggests yes |
| BytespiderByteDance | Blocked | Named, line 28 | No statement found |
| MistralAI-TrainingMistral AI | Allowed | Not named; the catch-all rule applies | Says yes |
| AI2BotAllen Institute for AI | Allowed | Not named; the catch-all rule applies | Does not say |
| anthropic-aiAnthropic (legacy) · old name | Allowed | Not named; the catch-all rule applies | Unknown |
| Bots for AI search · Some blocked | |||
| OAI-SearchBotOpenAI | Allowed | Not named; the catch-all rule applies | Says yes |
| Claude-SearchBotAnthropic | Allowed | Not named; the catch-all rule applies | Says yes |
| PerplexityBotPerplexity | Allowed | Not named; the catch-all rule applies | Suggests yes |
| AmazonbotAmazon | Blocked | Named, line 43 | Says yes |
| Amzn-SearchBotAmazon | Allowed | Not named; the catch-all rule applies | Says yes |
| DuckAssistBotDuckDuckGo | Allowed | Not named; the catch-all rule applies | Says yes |
| MistralAI-IndexMistral AI | Allowed | Not named; the catch-all rule applies | Suggests yes |
| Meta-WebIndexerMeta | Allowed | Not named; the catch-all rule applies | Suggests yes |
| AI assistants · Allowed | |||
| ChatGPT-UserOpenAI | Allowed | Not named; the catch-all rule applies | Says not always |
| Claude-UserAnthropic | Allowed | Not named; the catch-all rule applies | Says yes |
| Perplexity-UserPerplexity | Allowed | Not named; the catch-all rule applies | Says it mostly ignores it |
| Google-AgentGoogle | Allowed | Not named; the catch-all rule applies | Says it mostly ignores it |
| Meta-ExternalFetcherMeta | Allowed | Not named; the catch-all rule applies | Says not always |
| Amzn-UserAmazon | Allowed | Not named; the catch-all rule applies | Says not always |
| MistralAI-UserMistral AI | Allowed | Not named; the catch-all rule applies | Suggests yes |
| For comparison | |||
| GooglebotRegular search engine, for comparison | Allowed | Not named; the catch-all rule applies | |
| BingbotRegular search engine, for comparison | Allowed | Not named; the catch-all rule applies | |
Other AI names in this file
Names in this file that are not among the 24 bots we track. A rule for a name no real bot uses blocks nothing, but it shows which names the site has added.
| Diffbot | Blocked | line 31 | Documented by its operator |
| FacebookBot | Blocked | line 34 | Not in our verified list |
| ImagesiftBot | Blocked | line 37 | Not in our verified list |
We test two pages: the homepage, and a made-up page that stands in for the rest of the site. "Blocked" means both are off limits. "Some pages blocked" means only one is. Rules for search results, carts, checkout and accounts don't change these labels, because almost every site keeps all bots out of those pages.
The rules file (robots.txt)
# Disallow Rules User-agent: Twitterbot/*Disallow:Crawl-delay: 1 User-agent: Google-ExtendedAllow: /Disallow: /core/*Disallow: /admin/Disallow: /login/Disallow: /sso/Disallow: /api/ User-agent: *Disallow: /core/*Disallow: /admin/Disallow: /login/Disallow: /sso/Disallow: /api/ # Disallow Rules (bot-specific) User-agent: CCBotDisallow: / User-agent: BytespiderDisallow: / User-agent: DiffbotDisallow: / User-agent: FacebookBotDisallow: / User-agent: ImagesiftBotDisallow: / User-agent: ScrapyDisallow: / User-agent: AmazonbotDisallow: / # Sitemaps Sitemap: https://www.axios.com/sitemap.xml # 8fkux4mqab196bbs
Everything else we checked
| Front door | Human check The homepage showed our bot, which says who it is, a Cloudflare challenge page instead of the site (HTTP 403).GET https://www.axios.com/ as WalledWebBot, from a residential connection in the United States |
|---|---|
| Page tags | Homepage not read. |
| Anti-bot software | Served through Cloudflare. The homepage set a Cloudflare Bot Management cookie (__cf_bm), which anti-bot software uses.From response headers and cookie names only. A cookie shows the product is there, not how it is set up. |
| Readable by AI | Homepage not read.Homepage only. Useful for site owners; not part of the result. |
| Terms of Service | No Terms of Service page found. |
| Not found | No llms.txt, ai.txt, tdmrep.json, Content-Signal or Content-Usage lines or licensing signals (RSL License, HTTP 402). |
History
45 versions on record since 1 Jan 2023
One square per month, from Internet Archive copies and our own daily checks. Dark: blocked. Gray: some blocked. Light: allowed. Striped: no copy that month.
- May to Jul 2026Signals Named Google-Extended explicitly, without changing what it may reach.Found in the Internet Archive's copies: changed between 1 May 2026 and 8 Jul 2026. Evidence: before · after
Show exactly what changed
+ User-agent: Google-Extended+ Allow: /+ Disallow: /core/*+ Disallow: /admin/+ Disallow: /login/+ Disallow: /sso/+ Disallow: /api/+User-agent: * - Mar 2026Less blocking Now allowed: ClaudeBot and Google-Extended.Found in the Internet Archive's copies: changed between 1 Feb 2026 and 1 Mar 2026. Evidence: before · after
Show exactly what changed
- User-agent: Google-Extended- Disallow: /-User-agent: CCBot…- User-agent: ClaudeBot- Disallow: /-- User-agent: Claude-Web- Disallow: /-User-agent: Diffbot - Feb 2025Less blocking Now allowed: GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot and ChatGPT-User.Found in the Internet Archive's copies: changed between 1 Jan 2025 and 1 Feb 2025. Evidence: before · after
Show exactly what changed
Disallow: /sso/+ Disallow: /api/…- User-agent: GPTBot- Disallow: /-- User-agent: ChatGPT-User- Disallow: /-- User-agent: OAI-SearchBot- Disallow: /-User-agent: Google-Extended - Nov 2024
- May to Aug 2024More blocking Now blocked: ClaudeBot, Google-Extended, CCBot, Bytespider, Amazonbot and ChatGPT-User.Found in the Internet Archive's copies: changed between 1 May 2024 and 1 Aug 2024. Evidence: before · after
Show exactly what changed
++ # Disallow Rules+User-agent: Twitterbot/*…Disallow: /core/*+ Disallow: /admin/+ Disallow: /login/+ Disallow: /sso/+ # Disallow Rules (bot-specific)+User-agent: GPTBot…+ User-agent: ChatGPT-User+ Disallow: /++ User-agent: Google-Extended+ Disallow: /++ User-agent: CCBot+ Disallow: /++ User-agent: Bytespider+ Disallow: /++ User-agent: ClaudeBot+ Disallow: /++ User-agent: Claude-Web+ Disallow: /++ User-agent: Diffbot+ Disallow: /++ User-agent: FacebookBot+ Disallow: /++ User-agent: ImagesiftBot+ Disallow: /++ User-agent: Scrapy+ Disallow: /++ User-agent: Amazonbot+ Disallow: /++ # Sitemaps+Sitemap: https://www.axios.com/sitemap.xml - Sep 2023
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