Does loc.gov block AI crawlers?
Open to AI crawlers
loc.gov doesn't block any of the major AI crawlers we track in its robots.txt.
Checked from loc.gov/robots.txt. Robots rules change; the live file is the source of truth.
- AI crawlers blocked
- 0 of 12
- AI bots named in robots.txt
- 0
- llms.txt
- Not found
- Popularity
- Tranco top 1,000 (#655)
Can AI assistants cite loc.gov?
- ChatGPT search: its search crawlers may read the site
- Claude: its search crawlers may read the site
- Perplexity: its search crawlers may read the site
loc.gov doesn't opt out of AI model training through robots.txt. 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 loc.gov |
|---|---|---|
| GPTBotOpenAI | AI training | Some paths restricted |
| OAI-SearchBotOpenAI | AI answers | Some paths restricted |
| ChatGPT-UserOpenAI | AI answers | Some paths restricted |
| 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 | Some paths restricted |
| Applebot-ExtendedApple | AI training | Some paths restricted |
| CCBotCommon Crawl | AI training | Some paths restricted |
| BytespiderByteDance | AI training | Some paths restricted |
| Meta-ExternalAgentMeta | AI training | Some paths restricted |
How loc.gov compares
- 19% of the 1,278 popular sites we checked block GPTBot; loc.gov does not.
- 18% of the 1,278 popular sites we checked block ClaudeBot; loc.gov does not.
- 14% of the 1,278 popular sites we checked block PerplexityBot; loc.gov does not.
- Among 194 sites of similar popularity, 29% block at least one AI crawler.
The robots.txt rules that apply to AI crawlers
User-agent: * Disallow: /cgi-bin/ Disallow: /web_arch/ Disallow: /rr/mopic/staff Disallow: /loc/volunteers Disallow: /ficmanagers Disallow: /preserv/extranet/ Disallow: /myloc Disallow: /nationalfilmregistry Disallow: /fedsearch Disallow: /search Disallow: /pictures/search Disallow: /pictures/related
Excerpt: only groups for all user-agents (*) or named AI crawlers, up to 40 rules per group.
Sites with a similar AI policy
Does loc.gov block GPTBot?
No. As of Oct 2, 2026, loc.gov's robots.txt doesn't block GPTBot, though some paths are restricted for all crawlers.
Can ChatGPT search show results from loc.gov?
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 loc.gov have an llms.txt file?
We didn't find a valid llms.txt at loc.gov/llms.txt when we checked.
Data: loc.gov's public robots.txt and llms.txt, fetched by AskableHQ. Popularity rank from the Tranco list (ID Y83YG). Methodology.