What is ElevenlabsCrawler? ElevenLabs's AI crawler
ElevenlabsCrawler is the crawler ElevenLabs says it uses to collect content that may be used to train its generative AI models.
18 of the 379 major websites we measure block ElevenlabsCrawler in robots.txt (5%), making it number 28 of the 30 AI crawlers we track for how often it is blocked. 1 of those sites name it directly in their robots.txt; the rest are covered by a wildcard rule.
Key facts
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Operator | ElevenLabs |
| Used for | ElevenLabs' AI models |
| Type | Model training. Collects content that may be used to train AI models. Blocking it does not usually remove a site from AI search. |
| robots.txt token | ElevenlabsCrawler |
| Operator's documentation | Read it here |
What blocking ElevenlabsCrawler does
ElevenLabs says disallowing ElevenlabsCrawler indicates a site's content should not be used for training, and that robots.txt changes are reflected within about 24 hours. It is a separate setting from ElevenlabsBot.
How to allow or block ElevenlabsCrawler
Add one of these groups to the robots.txt file at the root of your domain. It is a stated preference that well-behaved crawlers read, not an enforcement mechanism.
User-agent: ElevenlabsCrawler Disallow: /
User-agent: ElevenlabsCrawler Allow: /
ElevenlabsCrawler user agent string
The string ElevenLabs documents. Version numbers can change, so match on the name.
Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; ElevenlabsCrawler/1.0; +https://elevenlabs.io/docs/bots)
How to verify a request is really ElevenlabsCrawler
Anyone can put a crawler's name in a user agent string, so the name alone proves nothing. We did not find a published IP list or reverse DNS rule from ElevenLabs.
How to whitelist ElevenlabsCrawler in a firewall or CDN
robots.txt only states a preference. A firewall, CDN or bot protection service can still refuse the request, and the crawler then gets an error even though robots.txt allows it.
- Check that no group in your robots.txt blocks it, using the rule above.
- Add an allow rule in your firewall or CDN that matches the name in the user agent. Keep the rule narrow, because anyone can copy a name.
- Check your server logs for a 200 response from ElevenlabsCrawler afterwards.
On Cloudflare, also check AI Crawler and Agent access policies, which can block search, agent and training traffic across a site.
Why ElevenlabsCrawler gets a 403 or 405 error
A 403 means the server refused the request, which usually points to a firewall or bot rule. A 405 means the server refused the request's method, so check any rule that only permits certain methods. A crawler that obeys robots.txt won't request a page it is told to avoid, so an error in your logs points to your server's configuration. To stop it deliberately at the server, this nginx rule returns a 403:
if ($http_user_agent ~* "ElevenlabsCrawler") {
return 403;
}Which sites recently changed their rules for ElevenlabsCrawler?
None that lasted since 17 August 2026. See the full change log.
Who blocks ElevenlabsCrawler, by sector
| Sector | Sites measured | Blocking | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Social and media platforms | 27 | 7 | 26% |
| News publishers | 44 | 4 | 9% |
| Technology media | 23 | 2 | 9% |
| Reference and research | 25 | 2 | 8% |
| Finance and business media | 29 | 2 | 7% |
| E-commerce and retail | 19 | 1 | 5% |
| AI companies | 26 | 0 | 0% |
| Developer references | 34 | 0 | 0% |
| Government and institutions | 17 | 0 | 0% |
| Health publishers | 16 | 0 | 0% |
| Hosting and infrastructure | 22 | 0 | 0% |
| SaaS platforms | 53 | 0 | 0% |
| SEO and marketing tools | 25 | 0 | 0% |
| Travel | 19 | 0 | 0% |
Sites blocking ElevenlabsCrawler
academia.edu, barrons.com, disneyplus.com, flickr.com, hackernoon.com, hulu.com, imdb.com, instacart.com, marketwatch.com, netflix.com, pinterest.com, reddit.com, reuters.com, sciencedirect.com, slate.com, theregister.com, thetimes.co.uk, wsj.com.
Other ElevenLabs crawlers
ElevenlabsBot (on-demand fetch).
See all 30 AI crawlers, the rule change log or the full study. Being reachable is only the first step: how AI search engines choose what to cite covers the rest.
Cite this data
You are welcome to quote or republish these figures. Please credit IndexHalo with a link to this page (CC BY 4.0). All our datasets are on the data page.
IndexHalo. "ElevenlabsCrawler block rate across major websites." Measured 3 November 2026. https://www.indexhalo.com/ai-crawlers/elevenlabscrawler/
<a href="https://www.indexhalo.com/ai-crawlers/elevenlabscrawler/">ElevenlabsCrawler block rate across major websites, IndexHalo</a>