Does wsj.com block AI crawlers?
wsj.com blocked Claude-SearchBot and PerplexityBot in robots.txt; couldn't be firewall-tested for OAI-SearchBot because it refused an ordinary browser request too. Its robots.txt blocked 6 of 7 AI training crawlers. We tested it on 13 October 2026 as part of our study of the top 5,000 websites, where wsj.com ranked #392.
Can AI search engines cite it?
ChatGPT search · OAI-SearchBot
Firewall test inconclusive
The site answered our ordinary browser request with HTTP 401, so a crawler test can't tell bot blocking apart.
Claude · Claude-SearchBot
Blocked in robots.txt
Robots.txt disallows every crawler without its own group, including this one.
Perplexity · PerplexityBot
Blocked in robots.txt
Robots.txt disallows every crawler without its own group, including this one.
Firewall results come from requests that identified as each crawler from our own connection, not from the crawlers' IP addresses, so the real crawler may be treated differently.
This is a snapshot from 13 October 2026.
Run a live audit to see what AI crawlers get from wsj.com today, plus 50 more checks.
At a glance
- AI training crawlers blocked
- 6 of 7 (ClaudeBot, Google-Extended, Applebot-Extended, MistralAI-Training, Bytespider, CCBot)
- robots.txt
- Published, with rules
- CDN
- Amazon CloudFront
- Content-Signal
- None
- Home page to a browser
- HTTP 401
All 31 crawlers in wsj.com's robots.txt
| Crawler | Job | wsj.com | Sites blocking it |
|---|---|---|---|
| OAI-SearchBot | AI search index | Allowed (named rule) | 7.5% |
| Claude-SearchBot | AI search index | Blocked (rule for all crawlers) | 7.1% |
| PerplexityBot | AI search index | Blocked (rule for all crawlers) | 10% |
| MistralAI-Index | AI search index | Blocked (rule for all crawlers) | 4.1% |
| YouBot | AI search index | Blocked (rule for all crawlers) | 10% |
| ChatGPT-User | Fetches when a user asks | Allowed (named rule) | 9.5% |
| Claude-User | Fetches when a user asks | Blocked (rule for all crawlers) | 7.5% |
| Perplexity-User | Fetches when a user asks | Blocked (rule for all crawlers) | 7.6% |
| Google-GeminiNotebook | Fetches when a user asks | Blocked (rule for all crawlers) | 3.9% |
| Meta-ExternalFetcher | Fetches when a user asks | Blocked (rule for all crawlers) | 7.9% |
| Amzn-User | Fetches when a user asks | Blocked (rule for all crawlers) | 4.8% |
| DuckAssistBot | Fetches when a user asks | Blocked (rule for all crawlers) | 7.9% |
| MistralAI-User | Fetches when a user asks | Blocked (rule for all crawlers) | 7.1% |
| Googlebot | Search engine | Allowed (named rule) | 2.1% |
| Bingbot | Search engine | Allowed (named rule) | 2.3% |
| Meta-WebIndexer | Search engine | Blocked (rule for all crawlers) | 6.3% |
| Amzn-SearchBot | Search engine | Blocked (rule for all crawlers) | 5.1% |
| Applebot | Search and training under one name | Allowed (named rule) | 3.5% |
| Meta-ExternalAgent | Search and training under one name | Blocked (rule for all crawlers) | 12% |
| Amazonbot | Search and training under one name | Blocked (rule for all crawlers) | 9.8% |
| GPTBot | Model training | Allowed (named rule) | 14% |
| ClaudeBot | Model training | Blocked (rule for all crawlers) | 13% |
| Google-Extended | Model training | Blocked (rule for all crawlers) | 12% |
| Applebot-Extended | Model training | Blocked (rule for all crawlers) | 11% |
| MistralAI-Training | Model training | Blocked (rule for all crawlers) | 4.2% |
| Bytespider | Model training | Blocked (rule for all crawlers) | 15% |
| CCBot | Model training | Blocked (rule for all crawlers) | 15% |
| Google-Agent | Browses and acts for a user | Blocked (rule for all crawlers) | 4.2% |
| OAI-AdsBot | Ads checks and site-owner services | Blocked (rule for all crawlers) | 4.0% |
| Google-CloudVertexBot | Ads checks and site-owner services | Allowed (named rule) | 6.9% |
| Meta-ExternalAds | Ads checks and site-owner services | Blocked (rule for all crawlers) | 3.9% |
“Sites blocking it” is the share of the 2,332 live sites with readable robots.txt rules in the same study. Matching follows RFC 9309: a crawler obeys the group that names it, otherwise the rule for all crawlers.
Run wsj.com?
Blocking training crawlers doesn't remove you from AI answers; blocking the search crawlers does. To keep AI search and opt out of training, use the AI robots.txt generator, then check your CDN with a live audit. Every crawler's user agent is in the AI crawler list, and the full method and data are in the study.
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