Does bbc.com block AI crawlers?
Blocks AI training and AI answers
bbc.com blocks both AI training crawlers and AI answer crawlers in its robots.txt.
Checked from bbc.com/robots.txt. Robots rules change; the live file is the source of truth.
- AI crawlers blocked
- 10 of 12
- AI bots named in robots.txt
- 11
- llms.txt
- Not found
- Popularity
- Tranco top 500 (#223)
Can AI assistants cite bbc.com?
- ChatGPT search: its search crawler is blocked
- Claude: its search crawlers may read the site
- Perplexity: its search crawler is blocked
bbc.com opts out of AI training by OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Apple, Common Crawl, ByteDance, Meta. Training crawlers and answer crawlers are separate: blocking training doesn't by itself remove a site from AI answers.
AI crawler access, bot by bot
| Crawler | Used for | Status on bbc.com |
|---|---|---|
| GPTBotOpenAI | AI training | Blocked |
| OAI-SearchBotOpenAI | AI answers | Blocked |
| ChatGPT-UserOpenAI | AI answers | Blocked |
| ClaudeBotAnthropic | AI training | Blocked |
| Claude-SearchBotAnthropic | AI answers | Some paths restricted |
| Claude-UserAnthropic | AI answers | Some paths restricted |
| PerplexityBotPerplexity | AI answers | Blocked |
| Google-ExtendedGoogle | AI training | Blocked |
| Applebot-ExtendedApple | AI training | Blocked |
| CCBotCommon Crawl | AI training | Blocked |
| BytespiderByteDance | AI training | Blocked |
| Meta-ExternalAgentMeta | AI training | Blocked |
How bbc.com compares
- 19% of the 1,278 popular sites we checked block GPTBot; bbc.com is one of them.
- 18% of the 1,278 popular sites we checked block ClaudeBot; bbc.com is one of them.
- 14% of the 1,278 popular sites we checked block PerplexityBot; bbc.com is one of them.
- Among 184 sites of similar popularity, 34% block at least one AI crawler.
The robots.txt rules that apply to AI crawlers
User-agent: * Disallow: /asset/ Disallow: /backstage/bbc-login-help/ Disallow: /backstage/bbc-login-help$ Disallow: /bitesize/search$ Disallow: /bitesize/search/ Disallow: /bitesize/search? Disallow: /cbbc/search/ Disallow: /cbbc/search$ Disallow: /cbbc/search? Disallow: /cbeebies/search/ Disallow: /cbeebies/search$ Disallow: /cbeebies/search? Disallow: /chwilio/ Disallow: /chwilio$ Disallow: /chwilio? Disallow: /education/blocks$ Disallow: /education/blocks/ Disallow: /newsround Disallow: /search/ Disallow: /search$ Disallow: /search? Disallow: /food/favourites Disallow: /food/search*?* Disallow: /food/recipes/search*?* Disallow: /education/my$ Disallow: /education/my/ Disallow: /bitesize/my$ Disallow: /bitesize/my/ Disallow: /food/recipes/*/shopping-list Disallow: /food/menus/*/shopping-list Disallow: /news/0 Disallow: /sport/alpha/ Disallow: /ugc$ Disallow: /ugc/ Disallow: /ugcsupport$ Disallow: /ugcsupport/ Disallow: /userinfo/ Disallow: /userinfo Disallow: /u5llnop$ Disallow: /u5llnop/ User-agent: CCBot Disallow: / User-agent: ClaudeBot Disallow: / User-agent: anthropic-ai Disallow: / User-agent: Bytespider Disallow: / User-agent: Applebot-Extended Disallow: / User-agent: GPTBot Disallow: / Allow: /storyworks Allow: /storyworks/ User-agent: ChatGPT-User Disallow: / Allow: /storyworks Allow: /storyworks/ User-agent: Google-Extended Disallow: / Allow: /storyworks Allow: /storyworks/ User-agent: PerplexityBot Disallow: / User-agent: meta-externalagent Disallow: / User-agent: OAI-SearchBot Disallow: /
Excerpt: only groups for all user-agents (*) or named AI crawlers, up to 40 rules per group.
Sites with a similar AI policy
Does bbc.com block GPTBot?
Yes. As of Oct 2, 2026, bbc.com's robots.txt disallows GPTBot, OpenAI's training crawler.
Can ChatGPT search show results from bbc.com?
Its robots.txt blocks a ChatGPT search crawler, so ChatGPT search is unlikely to read or cite those pages.
Does bbc.com have an llms.txt file?
We didn't find a valid llms.txt at bbc.com/llms.txt when we checked.
Data: bbc.com's public robots.txt and llms.txt, fetched by AskableHQ. Popularity rank from the Tranco list (ID Y83YG). Methodology.