Does theatlantic.com block AI crawlers?
Blocks AI training and AI answers
theatlantic.com blocks both AI training crawlers and AI answer crawlers in its robots.txt.
Checked from theatlantic.com/robots.txt. Robots rules change; the live file is the source of truth.
- AI crawlers blocked
- 9 of 12
- AI bots named in robots.txt
- 13
- llms.txt
- Not found
- Popularity
- Tranco top 2,000 (#1,031)
Can AI assistants cite theatlantic.com?
- ChatGPT search: its search crawlers may read the site
- Claude: its search crawler is blocked
- Perplexity: its search crawler is blocked
theatlantic.com opts out of AI training by 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 theatlantic.com |
|---|---|---|
| GPTBotOpenAI | AI training | Allowed |
| OAI-SearchBotOpenAI | AI answers | Allowed |
| ChatGPT-UserOpenAI | AI answers | Allowed |
| ClaudeBotAnthropic | AI training | Blocked |
| Claude-SearchBotAnthropic | AI answers | Blocked |
| Claude-UserAnthropic | AI answers | Blocked |
| PerplexityBotPerplexity | AI answers | Blocked |
| 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 theatlantic.com compares
- 19% of the 1,278 popular sites we checked block GPTBot; theatlantic.com does not.
- 18% of the 1,278 popular sites we checked block ClaudeBot; theatlantic.com is one of them.
- 14% of the 1,278 popular sites we checked block PerplexityBot; theatlantic.com is one of them.
- Among 206 sites of similar popularity, 33% block at least one AI crawler.
The robots.txt rules that apply to AI crawlers
User-agent: * Disallow: /4624/TheAtlanticOnline/* Disallow: /magazine/archive/2010/11/letters-to-the-editor/308258/ Disallow: /magazine/archive/2010/11/letters-to-the-editor/308258/* Disallow: /ab/* Disallow: /video/embed/ Disallow: /zephr/* Disallow: /video/iframe/* Disallow: /search/?*q=* Allow: /magazine/archive/2001/02/bill-clinton-and-his-consequences/303383/$ Disallow: /magazine/archive/2001/02/bill-clinton-and-his-consequences/303383/* Allow: / User-agent: anthropic-ai Disallow: / User-agent: Applebot-Extended Disallow: / User-agent: Bytespider Disallow: / User-agent: CCBot Disallow: / User-agent: ChatGPT-User Allow: / User-agent: ClaudeBot Disallow: / User-agent: Claude-SearchBot Allow: /sponsored/ Disallow: / User-agent: Claude-User Allow: /sponsored/ Disallow: / User-agent: Google-Extended Disallow: / User-agent: GPTBot Allow: / User-agent: Meta-ExternalAgent Disallow: / User-agent: OAI-SearchBot Allow: / User-agent: PerplexityBot Allow: /sponsored/ Disallow: /
Excerpt: only groups for all user-agents (*) or named AI crawlers, up to 40 rules per group.
Sites with a similar AI policy
Does theatlantic.com block GPTBot?
No. As of Oct 2, 2026, theatlantic.com's robots.txt doesn't block GPTBot.
Can ChatGPT search show results from theatlantic.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 theatlantic.com have an llms.txt file?
We didn't find a valid llms.txt at theatlantic.com/llms.txt when we checked.
Data: theatlantic.com's public robots.txt and llms.txt, fetched by AskableHQ. Popularity rank from the Tranco list (ID Y83YG). Methodology.