OAI-SearchBot: share of top websites blocking it

On 26 October 2026, 7.3% of the readable top 10k websites fully blocked OAI-SearchBot in robots.txt (bounds 5.8% to 26.0% over all 8,220 websites, 1,659 of them unreadable); 4.0% blocked it partly and 9.1% 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
Search result generation.
Description
Crawls sites to surface as results in SearchGPT.
robots.txt token
User-agent: OAI-SearchBot
Listed since
2026-10-26 (in this ledger's registry)

Fully blocks

7.3%

480 sites; bounds 5.8% to 26.0%

Partly blocks

4.0%

261 sites

Name it explicitly

9.1%

598 sites; unreadable: 3,439

Over time

Share of panel sites blocking OAI-SearchBot4 lines, 2016-09-05 to 2026-10-26; values between 2.52 and 7.32 %; latest 7.32 %.2.133.534.926.317.70Sep 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: 3.11 %blocks, reconstructed (Common Crawl): 2026-09-21 UTC: 5.47 %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: 5.35 %blocks, daily observation: 2026-10-26 UTC: 7.32 %partly blocks, daily observation: 2026-10-26 UTC: 3.98 %

"Partly blocks" counts every robots.txt whose rules for OAI-SearchBot 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-2024-382024-09-163.1%3,216
CC-MAIN-2026-392026-09-215.5%3,216

Recent blockers

Sites that started fully blocking OAI-SearchBot 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-SearchBot now

facebook.com (*) · fbcdn.net (*) · instagram.com (*) · twitter.com (*) · googlevideo.com (*) · amazon.com · x.com (*) · pinterest.com (*) · tiktok.com · baidu.com (*) · msn.com · reddit.com (*) · skybridge.click (*) · registrar-servers.com (*) · nytimes.com · cnn.com · meraki.com (*) · bbc.com · bbc.co.uk · t.co (*) · imdb.com (*) · launchpad.net · demdex.net (*) · weibo.com · amazon.co.uk · naver.com (*) · bloomberg.com · amazon.de · cookiedatabase.org (*) · claude.ai · gcdn.co (*) · kwai.net (*) · quora.com · amazon.co.jp · edgecdn.ru (*) · threads.com (*) · netcraze.io (*) · usatoday.com · dailymail.com · telegraph.co.uk · amazon.fr · amazon.ca · sharethrough.com · amazon.in · hstgr.net (*) · imgsmail.ru (*) · fb.com (*) · hihonorcloud.com (*) · dailymail.co.uk · amazon.es · pinimg.com (*) · amazon.it · cnet.com · quantserve.com (*) · creativecdn.com (*) · nikkei.com · crwdcntrl.net (*) · amazon.co.za · vkontakte.ru (*) · sentinelone.net (*)

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

Cite this

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