OAI-AdsBot: share of top websites blocking it

On 26 October 2026, 4.4% of the readable top 10k websites fully blocked OAI-AdsBot in robots.txt (bounds 3.5% to 23.7% over all 8,220 websites, 1,659 of them unreadable); 3.9% blocked it partly and 0.5% named it.

Last verified 2026-10-26 21:13 UTC (daily run of 2026-10-26). Proof for that day.

Operator
OpenAI
What it is
Validates and targets ads on ChatGPT.
Description
OAI-AdsBot visits the landing page of a page submitted as an ad on ChatGPT, to check it against OpenAI's policies and, per OpenAI, to "determine when it's most relevant to show the ad to users". OpenAI states it only visits pages submitted as ads and that the data is not used to train foundation models. Documented at https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/bots
robots.txt token
User-agent: OAI-AdsBot
Listed since
2026-10-26 (in this ledger's registry)

Fully blocks

4.4%

286 sites; bounds 3.5% to 23.7%

Partly blocks

3.9%

258 sites

Name it explicitly

0.5%

32 sites; unreadable: 3,439

Over time

Share of panel sites blocking OAI-AdsBot4 lines, 2016-09-05 to 2026-10-26; values between 2.39 and 5.53 %; latest 4.36 %.2.143.053.964.885.79Sep 2016Mar 2019Sep 2021Apr 2024Oct 2026blocks, reconstructed (Common Crawl): 2016-09-05 UTC: 3.14 %blocks, reconstructed (Common Crawl): 2017-09-25 UTC: 3.51 %blocks, reconstructed (Common Crawl): 2018-09-24 UTC: 3.61 %blocks, reconstructed (Common Crawl): 2019-09-23 UTC: 2.80 %blocks, reconstructed (Common Crawl): 2020-09-28 UTC: 2.52 %blocks, reconstructed (Common Crawl): 2021-09-27 UTC: 2.61 %blocks, reconstructed (Common Crawl): 2022-10-03 UTC: 2.55 %blocks, reconstructed (Common Crawl): 2024-09-16 UTC: 2.39 %blocks, reconstructed (Common Crawl): 2026-09-21 UTC: 2.74 %partly blocks, reconstructed (Common Crawl): 2016-09-05 UTC: 5.04 %partly blocks, reconstructed (Common Crawl): 2017-09-25 UTC: 4.91 %partly blocks, reconstructed (Common Crawl): 2018-09-24 UTC: 4.82 %partly blocks, reconstructed (Common Crawl): 2019-09-23 UTC: 4.76 %partly blocks, reconstructed (Common Crawl): 2020-09-28 UTC: 4.82 %partly blocks, reconstructed (Common Crawl): 2021-09-27 UTC: 4.98 %partly blocks, reconstructed (Common Crawl): 2022-10-03 UTC: 4.91 %partly blocks, reconstructed (Common Crawl): 2024-09-16 UTC: 5.10 %partly blocks, reconstructed (Common Crawl): 2026-09-21 UTC: 5.53 %blocks, daily observation: 2026-10-26 UTC: 4.36 %partly blocks, daily observation: 2026-10-26 UTC: 3.93 %

"Partly blocks" counts every robots.txt whose rules for OAI-AdsBot disallow some paths, including generic rules for all crawlers (for example /search); it is not a measure of targeted AI policy. Shares are of the readable websites (W − U: 8,220 websites, 1,659 unreadable); the bounds assume none / all of the unreadable sites block. Solid: daily first-party observations (top 10k of the Tranco list W3ZV9, one fixed cohort). Dashed: reconstructed from Common Crawl (top 10k, sites readable in every crawl), a separate series.

Reconstructed values per crawl
CrawlDateBlocksSites read
CC-MAIN-2016-362016-09-053.1%3,216
CC-MAIN-2017-392017-09-253.5%3,216
CC-MAIN-2018-392018-09-243.6%3,216
CC-MAIN-2019-392019-09-232.8%3,216
CC-MAIN-2020-402020-09-282.5%3,216
CC-MAIN-2021-392021-09-272.6%3,216
CC-MAIN-2022-402022-10-032.5%3,216
CC-MAIN-2024-382024-09-162.4%3,216
CC-MAIN-2026-392026-09-212.7%3,216

Recent blockers

Sites that started fully blocking OAI-AdsBot since 2026-07-28, highest-ranked first.

DateSiteWhat changed
No changes recorded yet. The first daily run is the baseline; changes appear from the second day on.

Recent unblockers

DateSiteWhat changed
No changes recorded yet. The first daily run is the baseline; changes appear from the second day on.

Sites blocking OAI-AdsBot now

facebook.com (*) · fbcdn.net (*) · instagram.com (*) · twitter.com (*) · googlevideo.com (*) · netflix.com (*) · x.com (*) · pinterest.com (*) · baidu.com (*) · reddit.com (*) · skybridge.click (*) · registrar-servers.com (*) · flickr.com (*) · ebay.com · meraki.com (*) · t.co (*) · linktr.ee (*) · imdb.com (*) · reuters.com (*) · demdex.net (*) · weibo.com (*) · naver.com (*) · trustpilot.com (*) · netflix.net (*) · nflxvideo.net (*) · wsj.com (*) · cookiedatabase.org (*) · gcdn.co (*) · kwai.net (*) · edgecdn.ru (*) · sohu.com (*) · threads.com (*) · netcraze.io (*) · sharethrough.com (*) · hstgr.net (*) · imgsmail.ru (*) · fb.com (*) · hihonorcloud.com (*) · pinimg.com (*) · quantserve.com (*) · creativecdn.com (*) · crwdcntrl.net (*) · vkontakte.ru (*) · disneyplus.com (*) · sentinelone.net (*) · adform.net (*) · academia.edu (*) · daum.net (*) · tiktokw.us (*) · xiaohongshu.com (*) · mailchi.mp (*) · btloader.com (*) · namecheaphosting.com (*) · jamfcloud.com (*) · rocketmoney.dev (*) · ouest-france.fr (*) · namu.wiki (*) · fmkorea.com (*) · amap.com (*) · stbid.ru (*)

(*) blocked through the * group, not by name. Full list in current.csv.

Cite this

InfraRabbit AI Crawl Ledger, "Share of top websites blocking OAI-AdsBot", https://infrarabbit.com/crawlers/bot/OAI-AdsBot, retrieved 2026-10-26. CC BY 4.0.