Does espn.com block AI crawlers?
Blocks AI training and AI answers
espn.com blocks both AI training crawlers and AI answer crawlers in its robots.txt.
Checked from espn.com/robots.txt. Robots rules change; the live file is the source of truth.
- AI crawlers blocked
- 5 of 12
- AI bots named in robots.txt
- 6
- llms.txt
- Not found
- Popularity
- Tranco top 500 (#403)
Can AI assistants cite espn.com?
- ChatGPT search: its search crawler is blocked
- Claude: its search crawlers may read the site
- Perplexity: its search crawlers may read the site
espn.com opts out of AI training by OpenAI, Google, Common Crawl, ByteDance. 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 espn.com |
|---|---|---|
| GPTBotOpenAI | AI training | Blocked |
| OAI-SearchBotOpenAI | AI answers | Some paths restricted |
| ChatGPT-UserOpenAI | AI answers | Blocked |
| ClaudeBotAnthropic | AI training | Some paths restricted |
| Claude-SearchBotAnthropic | AI answers | Some paths restricted |
| Claude-UserAnthropic | AI answers | Some paths restricted |
| PerplexityBotPerplexity | AI answers | Some paths restricted |
| Google-ExtendedGoogle | AI training | Blocked |
| Applebot-ExtendedApple | AI training | Some paths restricted |
| CCBotCommon Crawl | AI training | Blocked |
| BytespiderByteDance | AI training | Blocked |
| Meta-ExternalAgentMeta | AI training | Some paths restricted |
How espn.com compares
- 19% of the 1,278 popular sites we checked block GPTBot; espn.com is one of them.
- 18% of the 1,278 popular sites we checked block ClaudeBot; espn.com does not.
- 14% of the 1,278 popular sites we checked block PerplexityBot; espn.com does not.
- Among 193 sites of similar popularity, 30% block at least one AI crawler.
The robots.txt rules that apply to AI crawlers
User-agent: GPTBot Disallow: / User-agent: Google-Extended Disallow: / User-agent: CCBot Disallow: / User-agent: ChatGPT-User Disallow: / User-agent: anthropic-ai Disallow: / User-agent: Bytespider Disallow: / User-agent: * Disallow: */admin/ Disallow: */boxscore? Disallow: */calendar/ Disallow: */cat/ Disallow: */conversation? Disallow: */conversation/ Disallow: */conversations? Disallow: */conversations/ Disallow: */databaseresults/ Disallow: */date/ Disallow: */deportes/ Disallow: */flash/ Disallow: */login? Disallow: */login/ Disallow: */order/ Disallow: */photoId/ Disallow: */playbyplay? Disallow: /watch/*?*lang= Disallow: /watch/*?*rb= Disallow: /watch/*?*country= Disallow: /watch/*?*search= Disallow: /watch/*?*device= Disallow: /watch/*?*partner= Disallow: /watch/*?*redirected= Disallow: /watch/_/redirected/* Disallow: /watch/*?*om-navmethod= Disallow: */print?id Disallow: */printschedule/ Disallow: */season/200 Disallow: */split/ Disallow: */start/ Disallow: */swf/ Disallow: */util/ Disallow: */webslices/ Disallow: */year/200 Disallow: /*?ex_cid= Disallow: /*?innings= Disallow: /*?user= Disallow: /*&action=login Disallow: /*&full=
Excerpt: only groups for all user-agents (*) or named AI crawlers, up to 40 rules per group.
Sites with a similar AI policy
Does espn.com block GPTBot?
Yes. As of Oct 2, 2026, espn.com's robots.txt disallows GPTBot, OpenAI's training crawler.
Can ChatGPT search show results from espn.com?
Its robots.txt blocks a ChatGPT search crawler, so ChatGPT search is unlikely to read or cite those pages.
Does espn.com have an llms.txt file?
We didn't find a valid llms.txt at espn.com/llms.txt when we checked.
Data: espn.com's public robots.txt and llms.txt, fetched by AskableHQ. Popularity rank from the Tranco list (ID Y83YG). Methodology.