Does lemonde.fr block AI crawlers?
Blocks AI training and AI answers
lemonde.fr blocks both AI training crawlers and AI answer crawlers in its robots.txt.
Checked from lemonde.fr/robots.txt. Robots rules change; the live file is the source of truth.
- AI crawlers blocked
- 7 of 12
- AI bots named in robots.txt
- 8
- llms.txt
- Not found
- Popularity
- Tranco top 1,000 (#702)
Can AI assistants cite lemonde.fr?
- ChatGPT search: its search crawlers may read the site
- Claude: its search crawler is blocked
- Perplexity: its search crawlers may read the site
lemonde.fr opts out of AI training by Anthropic, Google, Apple, 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 lemonde.fr |
|---|---|---|
| GPTBotOpenAI | AI training | Some paths restricted |
| OAI-SearchBotOpenAI | AI answers | Some paths restricted |
| ChatGPT-UserOpenAI | AI answers | Some paths restricted |
| ClaudeBotAnthropic | AI training | Blocked |
| Claude-SearchBotAnthropic | AI answers | Blocked |
| Claude-UserAnthropic | AI answers | Blocked |
| PerplexityBotPerplexity | AI answers | Some paths restricted |
| Google-ExtendedGoogle | AI training | Blocked |
| Applebot-ExtendedApple | AI training | Blocked |
| CCBotCommon Crawl | AI training | Blocked |
| BytespiderByteDance | AI training | Blocked |
| Meta-ExternalAgentMeta | AI training | Some paths restricted |
How lemonde.fr compares
- 19% of the 1,278 popular sites we checked block GPTBot; lemonde.fr does not.
- 18% of the 1,278 popular sites we checked block ClaudeBot; lemonde.fr is one of them.
- 14% of the 1,278 popular sites we checked block PerplexityBot; lemonde.fr does not.
- Among 194 sites of similar popularity, 28% block at least one AI crawler.
The robots.txt rules that apply to AI crawlers
User-agent: * Allow: /ws/1/live/* Allow: /ws/1/related_content/* Disallow: /ajax/ Disallow: /ajah/ Disallow: /api/ Disallow: /beta Disallow: /element/commun/afficher/ Disallow: /petites-annonces/ Disallow: /qui-sommes-nous/ Disallow: /txt/ Disallow: /verification/source/* Disallow: /noscript/ Disallow: /ws/* Disallow: /lemonde-beta/* Disallow: /_rprt/* Disallow: /layout/* Disallow: /cgi-bin/* Disallow: /envoyer-par-email/* Disallow: /lmdgft/* Disallow: /article-offert/* Disallow: /*?s=43260* Disallow: /*?contributions Disallow: */reactions/ Disallow: */mmpub/ Disallow: /blog/*/wp-admin/ Disallow: /blog/*/wp-includes/ Disallow: /blog/*/wp-content/plugins/ Disallow: /blog/*/wp-content/themes/ Disallow: /blog/*/wp-login.php Disallow: /blog/*/wp-register.php Disallow: /blog/*/author/admin/ Disallow: /recherche/?*search_keywords=* User-agent: CCBot Disallow: / User-agent: Google-Extended Disallow: / User-agent: anthropic-ai Disallow: / User-agent: ClaudeBot Disallow: / User-agent: Applebot-Extended Disallow: / User-agent: Bytespider Disallow: / User-agent: Claude-SearchBot Disallow: / User-agent: Claude-User 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 lemonde.fr block GPTBot?
No. As of Oct 2, 2026, lemonde.fr's robots.txt doesn't block GPTBot, though some paths are restricted for all crawlers.
Can ChatGPT search show results from lemonde.fr?
Its robots.txt doesn't block OAI-SearchBot or ChatGPT-User, so ChatGPT's search crawlers may read it. Whether pages are actually shown depends on ChatGPT.
Does lemonde.fr have an llms.txt file?
We didn't find a valid llms.txt at lemonde.fr/llms.txt when we checked.
Data: lemonde.fr's public robots.txt and llms.txt, fetched by AskableHQ. Popularity rank from the Tranco list (ID Y83YG). Methodology.