IMDb
imdb.comBlocks AI
Its robots.txt (the public rules file for bots) tells all 12 major AI bots we track to stay out of the whole site, and 20 of the 24 bots in total. It does not name any of them. A catch-all rule (User-agent: *) keeps out every bot it does not list by name, AI or not. The same rules ask our bot to stay out, so we read only robots.txt.
Last checked 19 Oct 2026. Rules file read today. Everything we checked · History
Bots that train AI Blocked
9 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
5 of 8 blocked
Blocking these usually means the site stops showing up as a source in AI answers.
AI assistants Some blocked
6 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 · Blocked | |||
| GPTBotOpenAI | Blocked | Not named; the catch-all rule applies | Says yes |
| ClaudeBotAnthropic | Blocked | Not named; the catch-all rule applies | Says yes |
| Google-ExtendedGoogle · opt-out name, not a bot | Blocked | Not named; the catch-all rule applies | Says yes |
| Applebot-ExtendedApple · opt-out name, not a bot | Blocked | Not named; the catch-all rule applies | Says yes |
| CCBotCommon Crawl | Blocked | Not named; the catch-all rule applies | Says yes |
| Meta-ExternalAgentMeta | Blocked | Not named; the catch-all rule applies | Suggests yes |
| BytespiderByteDance | Blocked | Not named; the catch-all rule applies | No statement found |
| MistralAI-TrainingMistral AI | Blocked | Not named; the catch-all rule applies | Says yes |
| AI2BotAllen Institute for AI | Blocked | Not named; the catch-all rule applies | Does not say |
| anthropic-aiAnthropic (legacy) · old name | Blocked | Not named; the catch-all rule applies | Unknown |
| Bots for AI search · Some blocked | |||
| OAI-SearchBotOpenAI | Blocked | Not named; the catch-all rule applies | Says yes |
| Claude-SearchBotAnthropic | Blocked | Not named; the catch-all rule applies | Says yes |
| PerplexityBotPerplexity | Blocked | Not named; the catch-all rule applies | Suggests yes |
| AmazonbotAmazon | Allowed | Named, line 8 | Says yes |
| Amzn-SearchBotAmazon | Allowed | Named, line 8 | Says yes |
| DuckAssistBotDuckDuckGo | Allowed | Named, line 8 | Says yes |
| MistralAI-IndexMistral AI | Blocked | Not named; the catch-all rule applies | Suggests yes |
| Meta-WebIndexerMeta | Blocked | Not named; the catch-all rule applies | Suggests yes |
| AI assistants · Some blocked | |||
| ChatGPT-UserOpenAI | Blocked | Not named; the catch-all rule applies | Says not always |
| Claude-UserAnthropic | Blocked | Not named; the catch-all rule applies | Says yes |
| Perplexity-UserPerplexity | Blocked | Not named; the catch-all rule applies | Says it mostly ignores it |
| Google-AgentGoogle | Blocked | Not named; the catch-all rule applies | Says it mostly ignores it |
| Meta-ExternalFetcherMeta | Blocked | Not named; the catch-all rule applies | Says not always |
| Amzn-UserAmazon | Allowed | Named, line 8 | Says not always |
| MistralAI-UserMistral AI | Blocked | Not named; the catch-all rule applies | Suggests yes |
| For comparison | |||
| GooglebotRegular search engine, for comparison | Allowed | Named | |
| BingbotRegular search engine, for comparison | Allowed | Named | |
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.
| Applebot | Has rules | line 23 | Documented by its operator |
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)
# The content on this site is owned by IMDb.com, Inc., an Amazon.com company# and is made available for your personal, non-commercial use subject# to our Conditions of Use here: https://www.imdb.com/conditions/# Use of any device, tool, or process designed to data mine or scrape the content# using automated means is prohibited without prior written permission from IMDb.# For authorized data access and licensing inquiries, see: https://www.imdb.com/licensing/… 6 lines not about AI bots User-agent: GooglebotUser-agent: Googlebot-ImageUser-agent: Googlebot-VideoUser-agent: Google-PageRendererUser-agent: Google-InspectionToolUser-agent: Google-SafetyUser-agent: Google-Site-VerificationUser-agent: AdsBot-GoogleUser-agent: AdsBot-Google-MobileUser-agent: Chrome-LighthouseUser-agent: Storebot-GoogleUser-agent: Mediapartners-GoogleUser-agent: GoogleStructuredDataUser-agent: Google-Read-AloudUser-agent: bingbotUser-agent: ApplebotUser-agent: DuckDuckBotUser-agent: DuckAssistBotUser-agent: BaiduspiderUser-agent: SogouUser-agent: MojeekBotUser-agent: facebookexternalhitUser-agent: TwitterbotUser-agent: PinterestbotUser-agent: LinkedInBotUser-agent: WhatsAppUser-agent: TelegramBotUser-agent: DiscordbotUser-agent: SnapchatUser-agent: Slackbot-LinkExpandingUser-agent: AmazonbotUser-agent: Amzn-SearchBotUser-agent: Amzn-UserUser-agent: ClarityBotUser-agent: CitoidAllow: /Disallow: /registerDisallow: /*/registerDisallow: /registration/Disallow: /*/registration/Disallow: /search/title/*Disallow: /*/search/title/*Disallow: /search/name/*Disallow: /*/search/name/*Disallow: /findDisallow: /*/findDisallow: /find/Disallow: /*/find/Disallow: /contribute/*Disallow: /*/contribute/*Disallow: /title/*/review/*Disallow: /*/title/*/review/*Disallow: /title/*/reviewsDisallow: /*/title/*/reviewsDisallow: /user/ur*/reviewsDisallow: /*/user/ur*/reviews User-agent: AmazonAdBotAllow: / User-agent: *Disallow: / … 6 lines not about AI bots
Notes about AI written in the file: "Use of any device, tool, or process designed to data mine or scrape the content"
Everything else we checked
| Front door | We did not visit: the rules ask our bot to stay out. |
|---|---|
| llms.txt | Disallowed for AgentAccessIndexBot by robots.txt |
| ai.txt | Disallowed for AgentAccessIndexBot by robots.txt |
| TDMRep | Disallowed for AgentAccessIndexBot by robots.txt/.well-known/tdmrep.json (W3C Community Group report) |
| Page tags | Homepage not read. |
| Anti-bot software | Served through Amazon CloudFront.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 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 Sep 2026More blocking Now blocked: ClaudeBot, Applebot-Extended, Meta-ExternalAgent, Bytespider, MistralAI-Training, AI2Bot, OAI-SearchBot, Claude-SearchBot and 9 more.Found in the Internet Archive's copies: changed between 1 May 2026 and 1 Sep 2026. Evidence: before · after
Show exactly what changed
- # robots.txt for https://www.imdb.com properties- # See https://m.imdb.com/robots.txt for the mDot equivalent-- User-agent: *- Disallow: /OnThisDay- Disallow: /*/OnThisDay- Disallow: /ads/- Disallow: /*/ads/- Disallow: /ap/- Disallow: /*/ap/- Disallow: /mymovies/- Disallow: /*/mymovies/- Disallow: /r/- Disallow: /*/r/+ # The content on this site is owned by IMDb.com, Inc., an Amazon.com company+ # and is made available for your personal, non-commercial use subject+ # to our Conditions of Use here: https://www.imdb.com/conditions/+ # Use of any device, tool, or process designed to data mine or scrape the content+ # using automated means is prohibited without prior written permission from IMDb.+ # For authorized data access and licensing inquiries, see: https://www.imdb.com/licensing/++ User-agent: Googlebot+ User-agent: Googlebot-Image+ User-agent: Googlebot-Video+ User-agent: Google-PageRenderer+ User-agent: Google-InspectionTool+ User-agent: Google-Safety+ User-agent: Google-Site-Verification+ User-agent: AdsBot-Google+ User-agent: AdsBot-Google-Mobile+ User-agent: Chrome-Lighthouse+ User-agent: Storebot-Google+ User-agent: Mediapartners-Google+ User-agent: GoogleStructuredData+ User-agent: Google-Read-Aloud+ User-agent: bingbot+ User-agent: Applebot+ User-agent: DuckDuckBot+ User-agent: DuckAssistBot+ User-agent: Baiduspider+ User-agent: Sogou+ User-agent: MojeekBot+ User-agent: facebookexternalhit+ User-agent: Twitterbot+ User-agent: Pinterestbot+ User-agent: LinkedInBot+ User-agent: WhatsApp+ User-agent: TelegramBot+ User-agent: Discordbot+ User-agent: Snapchat+ User-agent: Slackbot-LinkExpanding+ User-agent: Amazonbot+ User-agent: Amzn-SearchBot+ User-agent: Amzn-User+ User-agent: ClarityBot+ User-agent: Citoid+ Allow: /Disallow: /register…Disallow: /*/registration/… 90 more lines - Jul 2025More blocking Now blocked: GPTBot, Google-Extended, CCBot and anthropic-ai.Found in the Internet Archive's copies: changed between 1 Jun 2025 and 1 Jul 2025. Evidence: before · after
Show exactly what changed
# robots.txt for https://www.imdb.com properties+ # See https://m.imdb.com/robots.txt for the mDot equivalent+User-agent: *Disallow: /OnThisDay+ Disallow: /*/OnThisDayDisallow: /ads/+ Disallow: /*/ads/Disallow: /ap/+ Disallow: /*/ap/Disallow: /mymovies/+ Disallow: /*/mymovies/Disallow: /r/+ Disallow: /*/r/Disallow: /register+ Disallow: /*/registerDisallow: /registration/+ Disallow: /*/registration/Disallow: /search/name-text+ Disallow: /*/search/name-textDisallow: /search/title-text+ Disallow: /*/search/title-textDisallow: /find+ Disallow: /*findDisallow: /find$+ Disallow: /*/find$Disallow: /find/+ Disallow: /*/find/Disallow: /tvschedule+ Disallow: /*/tvscheduleDisallow: /updates+ Disallow: /*/updatesDisallow: /watch/_ajax/option+ Disallow: /*/watch/_ajax/optionDisallow: /_json/video/mon+ Disallow: /*/_json/video/monDisallow: /_json/getAdsForMediaViewer/+ Disallow: /*/_json/getAdsForMediaViewer/Disallow: /list/ls*/_ajax+ Disallow: /*/list/ls*/_ajax+ Disallow: /list/ls*/export+ Disallow: /*/list/ls*/exportDisallow: /*/*/rg*/mediaviewer/rm*/tr…Disallow: /title/tt*/mediaviewer/rm*/tr+ Disallow: /*/title/tt*/mediaviewer/rm*/trDisallow: /name/nm*/mediaviewer/rm*/tr+ Disallow: /*/name/nm*/mediaviewer/rm*/trDisallow: /gallery/rg*/mediaviewer/rm*/tr+ Disallow: /*/gallery/rg*/mediaviewer/rm*/trDisallow: /tr/+ Disallow: /*/tr/Disallow: /title/tt*/watchoptions+ Disallow: /*/title/tt*/watchoptionsDisallow: /search/title/?title_type=feature,tv_movie,tv_miniseries,documentary,short,video,tv_short&release_date=,2020-12-31&lists=%21ls538187658,%21ls539867036,%21ls538186228&view=simple&sort=num_votes,asc&aft+ Disallow: /*/search/title/?title_type=feature,tv_movie,tv_miniseries,documentary,short,video,tv_short&release_date=,2020-12-31&lists=%21ls538187658,%21ls539867036,%21ls538186228&view=simple&sort=num_votes,asc&aftDisallow: /name/nm*/filmotype/*-+ Disallow: /*/name/nm*/filmotype/*+ Disallow: /user/ur*/ratings… 32 more lines
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