AI crawler access
for cnn.com
cnn.com blocks 6 of the 7 crawlers that can cite a source in an AI answer (OAI-SearchBot, ChatGPT-User, Claude-SearchBot, Claude-User, PerplexityBot, Perplexity-User). Content behind those rules is unlikely to appear as a cited source on those surfaces.
That is below the 100% median across the 87 sites in this dataset. Resolved from https://cnn.com/robots.txt on 12 August 2026.
Every crawler, and the rule that decided it
A crawler named directly in its own group is governed by that group. One not named falls back to the wildcard group. Where neither exists the crawler is reported as not listed — no policy has been expressed, and in practice most crawlers will proceed.
| User-agent | Operator | Purpose | Access | Decided by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
OAI-SearchBot | OpenAI | search indexing | Blocked | direct rule |
GPTBot | OpenAI | model training | Blocked | direct rule |
ChatGPT-User | OpenAI | on-demand fetch | Blocked | direct rule |
Claude-SearchBot | Anthropic | search indexing | Blocked | direct rule |
ClaudeBot | Anthropic | model training | Blocked | direct rule |
Claude-User | Anthropic | on-demand fetch | Blocked | direct rule |
PerplexityBot | Perplexity | search indexing | Blocked | direct rule |
Perplexity-User | Perplexity | on-demand fetch | Blocked | direct rule |
Google-Extended | Gemini training control | Blocked | direct rule | |
Bingbot | Microsoft | Copilot search index | Allowed | wildcard policy |
Applebot-Extended | Apple | Apple Intelligence control | Blocked | direct rule |
Meta-ExternalAgent | Meta | model training | Allowed | wildcard policy |
Amazonbot | Amazon | model training | Blocked | direct rule |
Bytespider | ByteDance | model training | Blocked | direct rule |
CCBot | Common Crawl | training dataset | Blocked | direct rule |
What this does and does not tell you
It tells you what cnn.com states in its robots.txt, which is the file every well-behaved AI crawler consults before fetching. It is a stated preference and a voluntary protocol — not an access control, and not evidence about what any crawler actually did.
It also says nothing about whether the content is useful to an answer engine once fetched. Access is the precondition; extractable passages, visible dates, named authorship and sourced claims decide whether a reachable page is actually cited. That second layer is what the free evidence-readiness report measures.
Finally, robots.txt changes. This page reflects cnn.com as it was on 12 August 2026. To see the position right now, run it through the live crawler access checker.
Check your own site
The same fifteen user-agents, resolved against your live robots.txt, in about five seconds and without an account: AI crawler access checker. If the result is not what you intended, the robots.txt policy builder composes a corrected block, and how to get cited by ChatGPT explains why blocking GPTBot alone does not remove you from ChatGPT answers.
Browse the full study of 87 measured domains to see how this compares across publishers, developer references and SaaS sites.