Does microsoft.com block AI crawlers?
Open to AI crawlers
microsoft.com doesn't block any of the major AI crawlers we track in its robots.txt.
Checked from microsoft.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 100 (#8)
Can AI assistants cite microsoft.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
microsoft.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 microsoft.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 microsoft.com compares
- 19% of the 1,278 popular sites we checked block GPTBot; microsoft.com does not.
- 18% of the 1,278 popular sites we checked block ClaudeBot; microsoft.com does not.
- 14% of the 1,278 popular sites we checked block PerplexityBot; microsoft.com does not.
- Among 91 sites of similar popularity, 38% block at least one AI crawler.
The robots.txt rules that apply to AI crawlers
User-agent: * Disallow: /*?*ep_* Disallow: /*&ep_* Disallow: /store/XboxComMsCom3PAdsOptOutCookieSync.html Disallow: /store/XboxComMsComCartMuidSync.html Disallow: /*/store/locations/store-locations-sitemap.xml Disallow: /en-us/windows/si/matrix.html Disallow: /en-us/windows/si/matrix.html Disallow: /*/security/search-results.aspx? Disallow: /*/music/*/search/ Disallow: /*/store/buynow? Disallow: /*/store/cart Disallow: /store/buy/cartcount Disallow: /*/search/ Disallow: /*/music/*/Search/ Disallow: /*/Search/ Disallow: /*/newsearch/ Disallow: *action=catalogsearch& Disallow: /*/store/d/groove-music-pass/cfq7ttc0k5dq/0001 Disallow: /*/store/best-rated/*?*&*&* Disallow: /*/store/best-selling/*?*&*&* Disallow: /*/store/coming-soon/*?*&*&* Disallow: /*/store/deals/*?*&*&* Disallow: /*/store/game-demos/*?*&*&* Disallow: /*/store/game-previews/*?*&*&* Disallow: /*/store/most-played/*?*&*&* Disallow: /*/store/most-popular/*?*&*&* Disallow: /*/store/new/*?*&*&* Disallow: /*/store/new-and-rising/*?*&*&* Disallow: /*/store/top-free/*?*&*&* Disallow: /*/store/top-paid/*?*&*&* Disallow: /*/store/collections/helpmechoosepc?*&*&* Disallow: /*/store/collections/helpmechoosepc/?*&*&* Disallow: /*/store/movies-and-tv/*?*&*&* Disallow: /cascadeauth/microsoft-365/account/silentauth Disallow: /*/microsoft-365/site-search Disallow: /news/search Disallow: /video/search Disallow: */qa-folder Allow: /*/store/*/search/ Allow: /*/store/*/layout/
Excerpt: only groups for all user-agents (*) or named AI crawlers, up to 40 rules per group.
Sites with a similar AI policy
Does microsoft.com block GPTBot?
No. As of Oct 2, 2026, microsoft.com's robots.txt doesn't block GPTBot, though some paths are restricted for all crawlers.
Can ChatGPT search show results from microsoft.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 microsoft.com have an llms.txt file?
We didn't find a valid llms.txt at microsoft.com/llms.txt when we checked.
Data: microsoft.com's public robots.txt and llms.txt, fetched by AskableHQ. Popularity rank from the Tranco list (ID Y83YG). Methodology.