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Los Angeles Times
latimes.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 GPTBot, ClaudeBot and Bytespider. Google-Extended, Applebot-Extended, CCBot, Meta-ExternalAgent and 6 more can reach most of it.
Last checked 19 Oct 2026. Rules file read today. Everything we checked · History
Bots that train AI Some blocked
3 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 Allowed
0 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 | Blocked | Named, line 80 | Says yes |
| ClaudeBotAnthropic | Blocked | Named, line 71 | Says yes |
| Google-ExtendedGoogle · opt-out name, not a bot | Allowed | Not named; the catch-all rule applies | Says yes |
| Applebot-ExtendedApple · opt-out name, not a bot | Allowed | Not named; the catch-all rule applies | Says yes |
| CCBotCommon Crawl | Allowed | Not named; the catch-all rule applies | Says yes |
| Meta-ExternalAgentMeta | Allowed | Not named; the catch-all rule applies | Suggests yes |
| BytespiderByteDance | Blocked | Named, line 68 | 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 · Allowed | |||
| 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 | Allowed | Not named; the catch-all rule applies | 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 74 | Documented by its operator |
| ImagesiftBot | Blocked | line 83 | Not in our verified list |
| omgili | Blocked | line 86 | Not in our verified list |
| omgilibot | Blocked | line 89 | 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)
User-agent: *Disallow: /searchDisallow: /recipes/searchDisallow: /changebrowserDisallow: /thirdpartyserviceDisallow: /*/thirdpartyserviceDisallow: /config/Disallow: /*/configDisallow: /dzcfgDisallow: /*/dzcfgDisallow: /*/test-templateDisallow: /test/Disallow: /includes/Disallow: /_comments/Disallow: /deeplinkid/Disallow: /searchsuggestDisallow: /*/searchsuggestDisallow: /svgimageprocDisallow: /hive/Disallow: /get-galleryfragment*Disallow: /gs-* User-agent: Googlebot-NewsDisallow: /*-ugc-*.htmlDisallow: /about/Disallow: /cbp-*.htmlDisallow: /*/cbp-*.htmlDisallow: /bp/*Disallow: /*-adstory.htmlDisallow: /*sns-apDisallow: /*photogalleryDisallow: /brandpublishing/Disallow: /*/brandpublishing/Disallow: /shopping/Disallow: /*/shopping/Disallow: /paid-posts/Disallow: /*/paid-posts/Disallow: /searchDisallow: /*/searchDisallow: /changebrowserDisallow: /thirdpartyserviceDisallow: /*/thirdpartyserviceDisallow: /config/Disallow: /*/configDisallow: /dzcfgDisallow: /*/dzcfgDisallow: /*/test-templateDisallow: /test/Disallow: /_comments/Disallow: /deeplinkid/Disallow: /searchsuggestDisallow: /*/searchsuggestDisallow: /svgimageprocDisallow: /hive/Disallow: /get-galleryfragment*Disallow: /sponsored/Disallow: /*/sponsored/ User-agent: TwitterbotAllow: / User-agent: Mediapartners-GoogleAllow: / User-agent: AmazonAdBotAllow: /… 66 lines not about AI bots User-agent: BytespiderDisallow: / User-agent: ClaudeBotDisallow: / User-agent: DiffbotDisallow: / User-agent: discobotDisallow: /… 2 lines not about AI bots User-agent: GPTBotDisallow: / User-agent: ImagesiftBotDisallow: / User-agent: omgiliDisallow: / User-agent: omgilibotDisallow: / Sitemap: https://www.latimes.com/sitemaps/sitemap.xmlSitemap: https://www.latimes.com/news-sitemap.xml… 2 lines not about AI bots
Everything else we checked
| Front door | Let in The homepage loaded normally for our bot, which says who it is (HTTP 200).GET https://www.latimes.com/ as WalledWebBot, from a residential connection in the United States |
|---|---|
| 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 | Structured data types: WebPage, Organization, ImageObject. Most of the page is script; an agent that does not run JavaScript sees little text.Homepage only. Useful for site owners; not part of the result. |
| Terms of Service | www.latimes.com/terms-of-service (found on the homepage) Sentences flagged by keyword. These are machine-selected excerpts, not a legal reading; open the source for context.
|
| Not found | No llms.txt, ai.txt, tdmrep.json, Content-Signal or Content-Usage lines, licensing signals (RSL License, HTTP 402) or robots meta tags. |
History
44 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.
- Aug 2025More blocking Now blocked: ClaudeBot and Bytespider.Found in the Internet Archive's copies: changed between 1 Jul 2025 and 1 Aug 2025. Evidence: before · after
Show exactly what changed
Disallow: /test/+ Disallow: /includes/+ Disallow: /_comments/Disallow: /topic/*?…Disallow: /test/+ Disallow: /_comments/Disallow: /topic/*?…+ User-agent: Bytespider+ Disallow: /++ User-agent: ClaudeBot+ Disallow: /++ User-agent: Diffbot+ Disallow: /+User-agent: discobot…- Sitemap: https://www.latimes.com/sitemap.xml+ User-agent: ImagesiftBot+ Disallow: /++ User-agent: omgili+ Disallow: /++ User-agent: omgilibot+ Disallow: /++ Sitemap: https://www.latimes.com/sitemaps/sitemap.xmlSitemap: https://www.latimes.com/news-sitemap.xml - Sep 2023More blocking Now blocked: GPTBot.Found in the Internet Archive's copies: changed between 1 Aug 2023 and 1 Sep 2023. Evidence: before · after
Show exactly what changed
Disallow: /recipes/search- Disallow: /*/searchDisallow: /changebrowser…+ User-agent: GPTBot+ Disallow: /+Sitemap: https://www.latimes.com/sitemap.xml
Reports from readers
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