Does merriam-webster.com block AI crawlers?
Open to AI crawlers
merriam-webster.com doesn't block any of the major AI crawlers we track in its robots.txt.
Checked from merriam-webster.com/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 (#721)
Can AI assistants cite merriam-webster.com?
- 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
merriam-webster.com 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 merriam-webster.com |
|---|---|---|
| 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 merriam-webster.com compares
- 19% of the 1,278 popular sites we checked block GPTBot; merriam-webster.com does not.
- 18% of the 1,278 popular sites we checked block ClaudeBot; merriam-webster.com does not.
- 14% of the 1,278 popular sites we checked block PerplexityBot; merriam-webster.com does not.
- Among 196 sites of similar popularity, 29% block at least one AI crawler.
The robots.txt rules that apply to AI crawlers
User-agent: * Disallow: /wotd-signup-message Disallow: /wotd-signup-result Disallow: /word-of-the-day/manage-subscription Disallow: /interstitial-ad Disallow: /my-saved-words/dictionary/starclick/ Disallow: /lapi Disallow: /assets/mw/static/old-games/
Excerpt: only groups for all user-agents (*) or named AI crawlers, up to 40 rules per group.
Sites with a similar AI policy
Does merriam-webster.com block GPTBot?
No. As of Oct 2, 2026, merriam-webster.com's robots.txt doesn't block GPTBot, though some paths are restricted for all crawlers.
Can ChatGPT search show results from merriam-webster.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 merriam-webster.com have an llms.txt file?
We didn't find a valid llms.txt at merriam-webster.com/llms.txt when we checked.
Data: merriam-webster.com's public robots.txt and llms.txt, fetched by AskableHQ. Popularity rank from the Tranco list (ID Y83YG). Methodology.