Does merkur.de block AI crawlers?
Blocks AI training, allows AI answers
merkur.de blocks at least one AI training crawler but still lets AI answer engines read its pages.
Checked from merkur.de/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
- 5
- llms.txt
- Not found
- Popularity
- Tranco top 2,000 (#1,844)
Can AI assistants cite merkur.de?
- 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
merkur.de 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 merkur.de |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | 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 | Blocked |
How merkur.de compares
- 19% of the 1,278 popular sites we checked block GPTBot; merkur.de is one of them.
- 18% of the 1,278 popular sites we checked block ClaudeBot; merkur.de is one of them.
- 14% of the 1,278 popular sites we checked block PerplexityBot; merkur.de does not.
- Among 146 sites of similar popularity, 23% block at least one AI crawler.
The robots.txt rules that apply to AI crawlers
User-agent: * Allow: /ueber-uns/ Allow: /advertorials/ Disallow: / User-agent: Googlebot User-agent: Googlebot-Image User-agent: Googlebot-Video User-agent: Googlebot-News User-agent: Storebot-Google User-agent: Google-InspectionTool User-agent: Google-CloudVertexBot User-agent: APIs-Google User-agent: AdsBot-Google-Mobile User-agent: AdsBot-Google User-agent: Mediapartners-Google User-agent: iTMS User-agent: bingbot User-agent: AdIdxBot User-agent: BingPreview User-agent: DuckDuckBot User-agent: Qwantify User-agent: facebookexternalhit User-agent: Twitterbot User-agent: LinkedInBot User-agent: Pinterestbot User-agent: Slackbot User-agent: TelegramBot User-agent: WhatsApp User-agent: Discordbot User-agent: OAI-SearchBot User-agent: ChatGPT-User User-agent: Claude-SearchBot User-agent: Claude-User User-agent: PerplexityBot User-agent: Perplexity-User User-agent: AmazonAdBot User-agent: trendictionbot Allow: / Disallow: /sub/landing Disallow: /sub/paywall/js/ Disallow: /lightweight-ajax Disallow: /suche/ Disallow: /test/ Disallow: /fdn/bootstrap/ Disallow: /bi/bootstrap/ Disallow: /bi/doop/ Disallow: /bi/dev/ Disallow: /sso/ Disallow: /west/assets/common/js/fallback.js
Excerpt: only groups for all user-agents (*) or named AI crawlers, up to 40 rules per group.
Sites with a similar AI policy
- 1c.ru · 1 blocked
- ixl.com · 3 blocked
- vinted.fr · 4 blocked
- hostinger.com · 2 blocked
- mobcup.fm · 2 blocked
- oreilly.com · 4 blocked
- euronews.com · 3 blocked
- shutterstock.com · 4 blocked
All sites that are “blocks ai training, allows ai answers” →
Does merkur.de block GPTBot?
Yes. As of Oct 2, 2026, merkur.de's robots.txt disallows GPTBot, OpenAI's training crawler.
Can ChatGPT search show results from merkur.de?
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 merkur.de have an llms.txt file?
We didn't find a valid llms.txt at merkur.de/llms.txt when we checked.
Data: merkur.de's public robots.txt and llms.txt, fetched by AskableHQ. Popularity rank from the Tranco list (ID Y83YG). Methodology.