Does medscape.com block AI crawlers?
Blocks AI training and AI answers
medscape.com blocks both AI training crawlers and AI answer crawlers in its robots.txt.
Checked from medscape.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
- 5
- llms.txt
- Not found
- Popularity
- Tranco top 5,000 (#2,945)
Can AI assistants cite medscape.com?
- ChatGPT search: its search crawlers may read the site
- Claude: its search crawlers may read the site
- Perplexity: its search crawler is blocked
medscape.com opts out of AI training by OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Common Crawl. 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 medscape.com |
|---|---|---|
| GPTBotOpenAI | AI training | Blocked |
| OAI-SearchBotOpenAI | AI answers | Some paths restricted |
| ChatGPT-UserOpenAI | AI answers | Some paths restricted |
| 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 | Some paths restricted |
| CCBotCommon Crawl | AI training | Blocked |
| BytespiderByteDance | AI training | Some paths restricted |
| Meta-ExternalAgentMeta | AI training | Some paths restricted |
How medscape.com compares
- 19% of the 1,278 popular sites we checked block GPTBot; medscape.com is one of them.
- 18% of the 1,278 popular sites we checked block ClaudeBot; medscape.com is one of them.
- 14% of the 1,278 popular sites we checked block PerplexityBot; medscape.com is one of them.
- Among 168 sites of similar popularity, 26% block at least one AI crawler.
The robots.txt rules that apply to AI crawlers
User-agent: * Disallow: /viewprogram/*_pnt Disallow: /druginfo/monoinfobyid* Disallow: /cp/* Disallow: /memberprofile/* Disallow: /noscan/ Disallow: /*/noscan/ Disallow: /viewarticle*_print Disallow: /viewarticle*_reference Disallow: /s/ Disallow: /index/*&aspen Disallow: /index/*&d2Previous Disallow: /consult/ Disallow: /mtv/ Disallow: /marketresearch Disallow: /sites/public/marketresearch Disallow: /features/mktg/public/pmr Disallow: /register?* Disallow: /search/ Disallow: /px/* Disallow: /ai-search* User-agent: GPTBot Disallow: / User-agent: CCBot Disallow: / User-agent: PerplexityBot Disallow: / User-agent: ClaudeBot Disallow: / User-agent: Google-Extended 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 medscape.com block GPTBot?
Yes. As of Oct 2, 2026, medscape.com's robots.txt disallows GPTBot, OpenAI's training crawler.
Can ChatGPT search show results from medscape.com?
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 medscape.com have an llms.txt file?
We didn't find a valid llms.txt at medscape.com/llms.txt when we checked.
Data: medscape.com's public robots.txt and llms.txt, fetched by AskableHQ. Popularity rank from the Tranco list (ID Y83YG). Methodology.