Does sfgate.com block AI crawlers?
Blocks AI training and AI answers
sfgate.com blocks both AI training crawlers and AI answer crawlers in its robots.txt.
Checked from sfgate.com/robots.txt. Robots rules change; the live file is the source of truth.
- AI crawlers blocked
- 6 of 12
- AI bots named in robots.txt
- 7
- llms.txt
- Not found
- Popularity
- Tranco top 5,000 (#2,647)
Can AI assistants cite sfgate.com?
- ChatGPT search: its search crawlers may read the site
- Claude: its search crawler is blocked
- Perplexity: its search crawler is blocked
sfgate.com opts out of AI training by Anthropic, Apple, Common Crawl, ByteDance. 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 sfgate.com |
|---|---|---|
| GPTBotOpenAI | AI training | Some paths restricted |
| 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 | Blocked |
| PerplexityBotPerplexity | AI answers | Blocked |
| Google-ExtendedGoogle | AI training | Some paths restricted |
| Applebot-ExtendedApple | AI training | Blocked |
| CCBotCommon Crawl | AI training | Blocked |
| BytespiderByteDance | AI training | Blocked |
| Meta-ExternalAgentMeta | AI training | Some paths restricted |
How sfgate.com compares
- 19% of the 1,278 popular sites we checked block GPTBot; sfgate.com does not.
- 18% of the 1,278 popular sites we checked block ClaudeBot; sfgate.com is one of them.
- 14% of the 1,278 popular sites we checked block PerplexityBot; sfgate.com is one of them.
- Among 186 sites of similar popularity, 23% block at least one AI crawler.
The robots.txt rules that apply to AI crawlers
User-agent: ai2bot-dolma User-agent: anthropic-ai User-agent: applebot-extended User-agent: bytespider User-agent: ccbot User-agent: claude-user User-agent: claude-web User-agent: claudebot User-agent: cohere-ai User-agent: diffbot User-agent: duckassistbot User-agent: Friendlycrawler User-agent: omgili User-agent: omgilibot User-agent: perplexity-user User-agent: perplexitybot User-agent: scrapy User-agent: timpibot User-agent: youbot User-agent: webzio-extended User-agent: kangaroo-bot Disallow: / User-agent: * Disallow: /api Disallow: /business/press-releases/ Disallow: /style/beauty/hearstmagazines/ Disallow: /style/fashion/hearstmagazines/ Disallow: /living/relationships/hearstmagazines/ Disallow: /homeandgarden/home/hearstmagazines/ Disallow: /living/wellness/hearstmagazines/ Disallow: /movies/templates/listings Disallow: /food/dbapps/restaurants Disallow: /sso/action/logout Disallow: /general/dbapps/404 Disallow: /coupons/visit Disallow: /search Disallow: /413gkwMT/
Excerpt: only groups for all user-agents (*) or named AI crawlers, up to 40 rules per group.
Sites with a similar AI policy
Does sfgate.com block GPTBot?
No. As of Oct 2, 2026, sfgate.com's robots.txt doesn't block GPTBot, though some paths are restricted for all crawlers.
Can ChatGPT search show results from sfgate.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 sfgate.com have an llms.txt file?
We didn't find a valid llms.txt at sfgate.com/llms.txt when we checked.
Data: sfgate.com's public robots.txt and llms.txt, fetched by AskableHQ. Popularity rank from the Tranco list (ID Y83YG). Methodology.