{"id":181227,"date":"2024-03-13T00:17:07","date_gmt":"2024-03-13T00:17:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/block-ai-crawlers\/"},"modified":"2026-08-30T13:38:36","modified_gmt":"2026-08-30T13:38:36","slug":"block-ai-crawlers","status":"publish","type":"plugin","link":"https:\/\/fi.wordpress.org\/plugins\/block-ai-crawlers\/","author":20265871,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"version":"1.6.2","stable_tag":"1.6.2","tested":"7.1","requires":"6.9","requires_php":"8.2","requires_plugins":null,"header_name":"Block AI Crawlers","header_author":"Bob Matyas","header_description":"Blocks AI crawlers and bots including ChatGPT via robots.txt and meta tags.","assets_banners_color":"","last_updated":"2026-08-30 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rules.<\/p>\n\n<h3>Features<\/h3>\n\n<h3>Blocks AI Bots and Crawlers<\/h3>\n\n<p>The plugin blocks dozens of AI bots via your site's <code>robots.txt<\/code> file. You can toggle the blocks for each individual crawler.<\/p>\n\n<p>Blocked crawlers include:<\/p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><strong>OpenAI<\/strong> - Blocks crawlers used for ChatGPT<\/li>\n<li><strong>Google<\/strong> - Blocks crawlers used by Google's Gemini AI products<\/li>\n<li><strong>Meta<\/strong> - Blocks FacebookBot and Meta training crawlers<\/li>\n<li><strong>Anthropic<\/strong> - Blocks crawlers used by Claude<\/li>\n<li><strong>Perplexity<\/strong> - Blocks crawlers used by Perplexity<\/li>\n<li><strong>Apple<\/strong> - Blocks Applebot-Extended<\/li>\n<li><strong>Amazon<\/strong> - Blocks Amazonbot<\/li>\n<li>...and 150+ more via ai.robots.txt<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<p>The blocked crawler list is generated at build time from <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/ai-robots-txt\/ai.robots.txt\">ai.robots.txt<\/a> (<code>robots.json<\/code>, MIT). See the plugin's <code>README.md<\/code> for license attribution.<\/p>\n\n<h3>Experimental Meta Tags<\/h3>\n\n<p>The plugin adds the experimental \"noai, noimageai\" directive to your site's meta tags. You can toggle this on and off as needed.<\/p>\n\n<h3>Custom robots.txt Rules<\/h3>\n\n<p>Have custom entries for your robots.txt file? You can now add them directly through the plugin!<\/p>\n\n<h3>Usage<\/h3>\n\n<p>After activation, the plugin will automatically update your <code>robots.txt<\/code> and add the necessary meta tags. No further configuration is required, but you can check the settings page for a full list of blocked crawlers.<\/p>\n\n<h3>Limitations<\/h3>\n\n<p>While this plugin aims to block specified crawlers, it cannot guarantee complete protection against all forms of scraping, as some bots may disregard <code>robots.txt<\/code> directives.<\/p>\n\n<h3>Support<\/h3>\n\n<p>For questions or support, <a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/support\/plugin\/block-ai-crawlers\/\">please post on the forums<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n<!--section=installation-->\n<ol>\n<li>Download the plugin zip file.<\/li>\n<li>Go to your WordPress admin panel.<\/li>\n<li>Navigate to Plugins &gt; Add New &gt; Upload Plugin.<\/li>\n<li>Choose the zip file and click \"Install Now.\"<\/li>\n<li>Activate the plugin.1. Activate the plugin through the 'Plugins' menu in WordPress<\/li>\n<li>Once installed the plugin is automatically activated. There are no user configured settings<\/li>\n<li>You can view more about what crawlers are being blocked at \"Settings &gt; Block AI Crawlers\". You can also toggle blocking of individual crawlers.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n<!--section=faq-->\n<dl>\n<dt id=\"will%20this%20remove%20my%20site%20from%20existing%20data%20sets%3F\"><h3>Will this remove my site from existing data sets?<\/h3><\/dt>\n<dd><p>No. It tells bots and crawlers that your site shouldn't be used for future training and new datasets. However, it is up to the AI companies to resepect this.<\/p><\/dd>\n<dt id=\"how%20does%20this%20work%3F\"><h3>How does this work?<\/h3><\/dt>\n<dd><p>The plugin adds directives to the <code>robots.txt<\/code> file to tell AI crawlers that they shouldn't index your site. It also adds the <code>noai<\/code> meta tag to your site's header to do the same.<\/p><\/dd>\n<dt id=\"how%20often%20is%20this%20updated%3F\"><h3>How often is this updated?<\/h3><\/dt>\n<dd><p>The block list is generated from the <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/ai-robots-txt\/ai.robots.txt\">ai.robots.txt<\/a> project. When that upstream list changes, a GitHub Action opens an issue so the plugin can be rebuilt and released.<\/p><\/dd>\n<dt id=\"what%20if%20i%20already%20have%20a%20%60robots.txt%60%20file%20on%20my%20web%20server%3F\"><h3>What if I already have a `robots.txt` file on my web server?<\/h3><\/dt>\n<dd><p>If you have a physical <code>robots.txt<\/code> file on your web server, you won't be able to activate this plugin. The plugin only works when using WordPress' built-in virtual <code>robots.txt<\/code>.<\/p><\/dd>\n<dt id=\"will%20this%20work%20with%20other%20plugins%20that%20modify%20the%20virtual%20%60robots.txt%60%3F\"><h3>Will this work with other plugins that modify the virtual `robots.txt`?<\/h3><\/dt>\n<dd><p>It should in theory. It just appends the directives to the <code>robots.txt<\/code> file.<\/p><\/dd>\n<dt id=\"will%20this%20prevent%20my%20site%20from%20being%20indexed%20by%20search%20engines%3F\"><h3>Will this prevent my site from being indexed by search engines?<\/h3><\/dt>\n<dd><p>No. Search engines follow different <code>robots.txt<\/code> rules.<\/p><\/dd>\n<dt id=\"my%20%60robots.txt%60%20isn%27t%20updated%20after%20toggling%20blocks%21\"><h3>My `robots.txt` isn't updated after toggling blocks!<\/h3><\/dt>\n<dd><p>The <code>robots.txt<\/code> file can be cached via your web server, a plugin, or CDN (for example, Cloudflare). Once the cache period expires, the updated <code>robots.txt<\/code> will be served.<\/p>\n\n<p>You can test by running the following on the command line:<\/p>\n\n<pre><code>curl -sSL 'https:\/\/example.com\/robots.txt' &amp;&amp; echo\n<\/code><\/pre><\/dd>\n\n<\/dl>\n\n<!--section=changelog-->\n<h4>1.6.2<\/h4>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Tested up to WordPress 7.1.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<h4>1.6.1 - 08\/01\/2026<\/h4>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Add: Sync blocked crawler list from ai.robots.txt (remove IbouBot)<\/li>\n<li>Update: Replace screenshot<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<h4>1.6.0 - 07\/24\/2026<\/h4>\n\n<ul>\n<li>New: Per-crawler toggles to opt individual bots out of robots.txt blocking<\/li>\n<li>New: Optional toggle for the experimental <code>noai, noimageai<\/code> meta tag<\/li>\n<li>Enhancement: Sticky header on the blocked crawlers settings table<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<h4>1.5.8 - 07\/15\/2026<\/h4>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Enhancement: Generate blocked crawler list from ai.robots.txt robots.json at build time<\/li>\n<li>Enhancement: Sync admin settings crawler table with the same generated list<\/li>\n<li>New: Monitor upstream robots.json and open a GitHub issue when it changes<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<h4>1.5.7 - 07\/04\/2026<\/h4>\n\n<ul>\n<li>New: Indicate WordPress v7.0 compatibility<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<h4>1.5.6 - 02\/15\/2026<\/h4>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Fix: Update Claude blocking<\/li>\n<li>New: Block MistralAI-user<\/li>\n<li>New: Block LinerBot<\/li>\n<li>New: Block Google-CloudVertexBot<\/li>\n<li>New: Block VelenPublicWebCrawler<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<h4>1.5.5 - 11\/28\/2025<\/h4>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Indicate WordPress v6.9 compatibility<\/li>\n<li>Fix: Variable naming issues identified by Plugin Check<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<h4>1.5.4<\/h4>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Bump version number<\/li>\n<li>New: Block Brightbot<\/li>\n<li>New: Block DeepSeekBot<\/li>\n<li>New: Block TerraCotta<\/li>\n<li>Fix: Plugin check errors<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<h4>1.5.2<\/h4>\n\n<ul>\n<li>New: Block Yak<\/li>\n<li>New: Block Bigsur.ai<\/li>\n<li>New: Block AddSearchBot<\/li>\n<li>New: Block Google Agents<\/li>\n<li>New: Block Thinkbot<\/li>\n<li>New: Block Posideon Research Center<\/li>\n<li>New: Block EchoboxBot<\/li>\n<li>New: Block Bedrockbot<\/li>\n<li>New: Block Panscient<\/li>\n<li>New: Block SBIntuitionsBot<\/li>\n<li>New: Block PhindBot<\/li>\n<li>New: Block YandexAdditional<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<h4>1.5.1<\/h4>\n\n<ul>\n<li>New: Block aiHitBot<\/li>\n<li>New: Block Cotoyogi<\/li>\n<li>New: Block Factset<\/li>\n<li>New: Block Firecrawl<\/li>\n<li>New: Block TikTokSpider<\/li>\n<li>New: Block Perplexity\u2011User<\/li>\n<li>Update: Meta External Agent and Meta External Fetcher<\/li>\n<li>Update: New Claude Bots<\/li>\n<li>Update: Indicate WordPress v6.8 compatibility<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<h4>1.5.0<\/h4>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Enhancement: Adds ability for custom robots.txt rules<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<h4>1.4.3<\/h4>\n\n<ul>\n<li>New: Block SemrushBot<\/li>\n<li>New: Block Crawlspace<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<h4>1.4.2<\/h4>\n\n<ul>\n<li>New: Block PanguBot<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<h4>1.4.1<\/h4>\n\n<ul>\n<li>New: Block Turnitinbot<\/li>\n<li>New: Block Ai2Bot-Dolma<\/li>\n<li>Enhancement: WordPress 6.7 compatibility<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<h4>1.4.0<\/h4>\n\n<ul>\n<li>New: Block Kangaroo Bot<\/li>\n<li>New: Block sentibot<\/li>\n<li>New: Block FriendlyCrawler<\/li>\n<li>New: Block Scrapy<\/li>\n<li>Fix: Broken link to settings page from Plugins page<\/li>\n<li>Enhancement: Improve <code>readme.md<\/code> and <code>readme.txt<\/code><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<h4>1.3.9<\/h4>\n\n<ul>\n<li>New: Block PetalBot<\/li>\n<li>New: Block AI2Bot<\/li>\n<li>New: Block Webz.io<\/li>\n<li>New: Block OpenAI Search Bot (SearchGPT)<\/li>\n<li>Enhancement: Alphabetize list of blocked crawlers<\/li>\n<li>Enhancement: Indicate compatibility with WordPress v6.6<\/li>\n<li>Enhancement: Add quick link to settings and nudge for rating on plugins page<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<h4>1.3.8<\/h4>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Maintenance: Auto-deply from Github fixed \/ bumped version number<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<h4>1.3.7<\/h4>\n\n<ul>\n<li>New: Meta AI<\/li>\n<li>New: Block You.com Crawler<\/li>\n<li>New: Block AmazonBot<\/li>\n<li>New: Block Timpibot<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<h4>1.3.6<\/h4>\n\n<ul>\n<li>New: Block Perplexity<\/li>\n<li>New: Block Apple AI<\/li>\n<li>Update: FAQ based on submitted question<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<h4>1.3.5<\/h4>\n\n<ul>\n<li>New: Block additional Omgili bot<\/li>\n<li>New: Block Imagesift<\/li>\n<li>Fix: Fix settings page<\/li>\n<li>Add: <code>blueprint.json<\/code> for plugin preview<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<h4>1.3.3<\/h4>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Fix: Issue with fatal errors on activation<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<h4>1.3.1<\/h4>\n\n<ul>\n<li>New: Blocks Anthropic's Claude<\/li>\n<li>Fix: Missing external link icons<\/li>\n<li>Update: Bump tested to v6.5.3<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<h4>1.3.0<\/h4>\n\n<ul>\n<li>New: Adds settings page showing blocked crawlers<\/li>\n<li>Enhancement: Remove crawler description in 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