Does unsplash.com block AI crawlers?
Blocks AI training and AI answers
unsplash.com blocks both AI training crawlers and AI answer crawlers in its robots.txt.
Checked from unsplash.com/robots.txt. Robots rules change; the live file is the source of truth.
- AI crawlers blocked
- 3 of 12
- AI bots named in robots.txt
- 3
- llms.txt
- Not found
- Popularity
- Tranco top 500 (#412)
Can AI assistants cite unsplash.com?
- ChatGPT search: its search crawlers may read the site
- Claude: its search crawler is blocked
- Perplexity: its search crawlers may read the site
unsplash.com opts out of AI training by Anthropic, 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 unsplash.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 | Blocked |
| 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 | Blocked |
| Meta-ExternalAgentMeta | AI training | Some paths restricted |
How unsplash.com compares
- 19% of the 1,278 popular sites we checked block GPTBot; unsplash.com does not.
- 18% of the 1,278 popular sites we checked block ClaudeBot; unsplash.com is one of them.
- 14% of the 1,278 popular sites we checked block PerplexityBot; unsplash.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: * Allow: /blog Allow: /de/backgrounds Allow: /backgrounds Allow: /es/backgrounds Allow: /fr/backgrounds Allow: /id/backgrounds Allow: /it/backgrounds Allow: /ja/backgrounds Allow: /ko/backgrounds Allow: /pt-br/backgrounds Disallow: /photos/*/download Disallow: /illustrations/*/download Disallow: /ngetty Disallow: /nautocomplete Disallow: /nabc Disallow: /de/account Disallow: /de/account/* Disallow: /de/b Disallow: /de/b/* Disallow: /de/community Disallow: /de/einstellung Disallow: /de/einstellung/job-posts/* Disallow: /de/kollektionen Disallow: /de/kollektionen/* Disallow: /de/lesezeichen Disallow: /de/login Disallow: /de/plus/r/* Disallow: /de/presse Disallow: /de/registrieren Disallow: /de/s/benutzer/* Disallow: /de/s/kollektionen/* Disallow: /de/s/visuell/* Disallow: /de/unsere-geschichte Disallow: /de/werben Disallow: /de/werben/produktplatzierung Disallow: /account Disallow: /account/* Disallow: /b Disallow: /b/* Disallow: /bookmarks User-agent: Claude-SearchBot User-agent: ClaudeBot Disallow: / User-agent: Bytespider 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 unsplash.com block GPTBot?
No. As of Oct 2, 2026, unsplash.com's robots.txt doesn't block GPTBot, though some paths are restricted for all crawlers.
Can ChatGPT search show results from unsplash.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 unsplash.com have an llms.txt file?
We didn't find a valid llms.txt at unsplash.com/llms.txt when we checked.
Data: unsplash.com's public robots.txt and llms.txt, fetched by AskableHQ. Popularity rank from the Tranco list (ID Y83YG). Methodology.