Does imdb.com block AI crawlers?
Blocks AI training and AI answers
imdb.com blocks both AI training crawlers and AI answer crawlers in its robots.txt.
Checked from imdb.com/robots.txt. Robots rules change; the live file is the source of truth.
- AI crawlers blocked
- 12 of 12
- AI bots named in robots.txt
- 0
- llms.txt
- Not found
- Popularity
- Tranco top 500 (#268)
Can AI assistants cite imdb.com?
- ChatGPT search: its search crawler is blocked
- Claude: its search crawler is blocked
- Perplexity: its search crawler is blocked
imdb.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 imdb.com |
|---|---|---|
| GPTBotOpenAI | AI training | Blocked |
| OAI-SearchBotOpenAI | AI answers | Blocked |
| ChatGPT-UserOpenAI | AI answers | Blocked |
| ClaudeBotAnthropic | AI training | Blocked |
| Claude-SearchBotAnthropic | AI answers | Blocked |
| Claude-UserAnthropic | AI answers | Blocked |
| 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 imdb.com compares
- 19% of the 1,278 popular sites we checked block GPTBot; imdb.com is one of them.
- 18% of the 1,278 popular sites we checked block ClaudeBot; imdb.com is one of them.
- 14% of the 1,278 popular sites we checked block PerplexityBot; imdb.com is one of them.
- Among 191 sites of similar popularity, 32% block at least one AI crawler.
The robots.txt rules that apply to AI crawlers
User-agent: * 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 imdb.com block GPTBot?
Yes. As of Oct 2, 2026, imdb.com's robots.txt disallows GPTBot, OpenAI's training crawler.
Can ChatGPT search show results from imdb.com?
Its robots.txt blocks a ChatGPT search crawler, so ChatGPT search is unlikely to read or cite those pages.
Does imdb.com have an llms.txt file?
We didn't find a valid llms.txt at imdb.com/llms.txt when we checked.
Data: imdb.com's public robots.txt and llms.txt, fetched by AskableHQ. Popularity rank from the Tranco list (ID Y83YG). Methodology.