Does msu.edu block AI crawlers?
Open to AI crawlers
msu.edu doesn't block any of the major AI crawlers we track in its robots.txt.
Checked from msu.edu/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
- Published
- Popularity
- Tranco top 5,000 (#2,323)
Can AI assistants cite msu.edu?
- 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
msu.edu 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 msu.edu |
|---|---|---|
| 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 msu.edu compares
- 19% of the 1,278 popular sites we checked block GPTBot; msu.edu does not.
- 18% of the 1,278 popular sites we checked block ClaudeBot; msu.edu does not.
- 14% of the 1,278 popular sites we checked block PerplexityBot; msu.edu does not.
- Among 189 sites of similar popularity, 21% block at least one AI crawler.
The robots.txt rules that apply to AI crawlers
User-agent: * Disallow: /about/leadership Disallow: /dtools-quizzler-proto Disallow: /errors Disallow: /errors/404 Disallow: /errors/500 Disallow: /researchforyou-chronic/hero Disallow: /researchforyou-chronic/hero-chronic Disallow: /researchforyou-farm/hero Disallow: /researchforyou-farm/hero-chronic Disallow: /researchforyou-farm/hero-gift Disallow: /researchforyou-farm/hero-post Disallow: /researchforyou-farm/hero-rollup Disallow: /researchforyou-postpartum/hero Disallow: /researchforyou-postpartum/hero-chronic Disallow: /researchforyou/hero Disallow: /researchforyou/hero-chronic Disallow: /site-map Disallow: /strongermichigan
Excerpt: only groups for all user-agents (*) or named AI crawlers, up to 40 rules per group.
Sites with a similar AI policy
Does msu.edu block GPTBot?
No. As of Oct 2, 2026, msu.edu's robots.txt doesn't block GPTBot, though some paths are restricted for all crawlers.
Can ChatGPT search show results from msu.edu?
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 msu.edu have an llms.txt file?
Yes — msu.edu/llms.txt was found when we checked.
Data: msu.edu's public robots.txt and llms.txt, fetched by AskableHQ. Popularity rank from the Tranco list (ID Y83YG). Methodology.