alibaba.com: what it tells AI crawlers

On 28 October 2026, alibaba.com's robots.txt fully blocked GPTBot and Google-Extended.

Last verified 2026-10-29 03:59 UTC (daily run of 2026-10-28). Proof for that day.

Panel: top 1k (Tranco)
robots.txt: ok (HTTP 200) · https://www.alibaba.com/atlassitemapsitenet/static/www_alibaba_com/robots.txt
unchanged since 2026-10-26 · sha256 a4a98eee7f6330d3… · view as recorded
The * group: partial applies to every agent without its own group

Per AI bot, 2026-10-28

User agent	Verdict	How
GPTBot	blocks	named in its own group
OAI-SearchBot	partial	through the * group
ChatGPT-User	partial	through the * group
ClaudeBot	partial	through the * group
Claude-SearchBot	partial	through the * group
Claude-User	partial	through the * group
PerplexityBot	partial	through the * group
Perplexity-User	partial	through the * group
Googlebot	partial	named in its own group
Google-Extended	blocks	named in its own group
Applebot-Extended	partial	through the * group
CCBot	partial	through the * group
Bytespider	partial	through the * group
Meta-ExternalAgent	partial	through the * group
Amazonbot	partial	through the * group

Other signals

Publishes /llms.txt	no
Publishes /ai.txt	no
Publishes /.well-known/tdmrep.json	no
Reserves TDM rights (TDMRep file, header or meta)	no
Declares Content Signals (robots.txt or header)	no
Says ai-train=no in a Content Signal	no
Points to an RSL licence (robots.txt License line or Link header)	no
Answers with an x402 payment offer (lower bound: only the homepage is probed)	no
Answers HTTP 402 Payment Required (lower bound: only the homepage is probed)	no
Sends noai / noimageai directives	no
Refused our fetcher (403 / challenge)	no

robots.txt as recorded sha256 7ccbd54530617a3c…

User-agent: *
Allow: /*s=p
Allow: /*?_escaped_fragment_
Allow: *?src=sem_ggl
Allow: /catalog/*?
Allow: /catalogs/products/
Allow: /products/
Allow: *?spm=
Disallow: /*?
Disallow: /bin/
Disallow: /apps/
Disallow: /buy/
Disallow: /memberhome/
Disallow: /minisite/
Disallow: /corporations/
Disallow: /buyers/
Disallow: /trade/
Disallow: /product/
Disallow: /catalogs/corporations/
Disallow: /rss/*/*.rss
Disallow: /activities/
Disallow: /productshowimg/
Disallow: /member/*/contactinfo.html
Disallow: /member/*/company_profile.html
Disallow: /member/*/productlist.html
Disallow: /searchweb/*.html
Disallow: /magellan/*.html
Disallow: /newsuppliers/
Disallow: /wholesalecheckout/
Disallow: /buyofferdetail/
Disallow: /trends/
Disallow: /industry-promotion/
Disallow: /city/
Disallow: /countrysearch/*/*-importer.html
Disallow: /countrysearch/*/*/importers/*.html
Disallow: /search/buyeroffers/*.html 
Disallow: /search/buyeroffers/*/*.html 
Disallow: /buyeroffers/*/*.html
Disallow: /buyeroffers/*/*/*.html
Disallow: /detail/ajax/
Disallow: /ajax/seoRequest/

User-agent: bingbot
Allow: /*s=p
Allow: /*?_escaped_fragment_
Allow: *?src=sem_ggl
Allow: /catalog/*?
Disallow: /catalogs/products/
Disallow: /products/
Disallow: /*?
Disallow: /bin/
Disallow: /apps/
Disallow: /buy/
Disallow: /memberhome/
Disallow: /minisite/
Disallow: /corporations/
Disallow: /buyers/
Disallow: /trade/
Disallow: /product/
Disallow: /catalogs/corporations/
Disallow: /rss/*/*.rss
Disallow: /activities/
Disallow: /productshowimg/
Disallow: /member/*/contactinfo.html
Disallow: /member/*/company_profile.html
Disallow: /member/*/productlist.html
Disallow: /searchweb/*.html
Disallow: /magellan/*.html
Disallow: /newsuppliers/
Disallow: /wholesalecheckout/
Disallow: /buyofferdetail/
Disallow: /trends/
Disallow: /industry-promotion/
Disallow: /city/
Disallow: /countrysearch/*/*-importer.html
Disallow: /countrysearch/*/*/importers/*.html
Disallow: /search/buyeroffers/*.html 
Disallow: /search/buyeroffers/*/*.html 
Disallow: /buyeroffers/*/*.html
Disallow: /buyeroffers/*/*/*.html
Disallow: /detail/ajax/
Disallow: /ajax/seoRequest/

User-agent: Googlebot
Allow: /*s=p
Allow: /*?_escaped_fragment_
Allow: *?src=sem_ggl
Allow: /catalog/*?
Allow: /catalogs/products/
Allow: /products/
Allow: *?spm=
Disallow: /*?
Disallow: /bin/
Disallow: /apps/
Disallow: /buy/
Disallow: /memberhome/
Disallow: /minisite/
Disallow: /corporations/
Disallow: /buyers/
Disallow: /trade/
Disallow: /product/
Disallow: /catalogs/corporations/
Disallow: /rss/*/*.rss
Disallow: /activities/
Disallow: /productshowimg/
Disallow: /member/*/contactinfo.html
Disallow: /member/*/company_profile.html
Disallow: /member/*/productlist.html
Disallow: /searchweb/*.html
Disallow: /magellan/*.html
Disallow: /newsuppliers/
Disallow: /wholesalecheckout/
Disallow: /buyofferdetail/
Disallow: /trends/
Disallow: /industry-promotion/
Disallow: /city/
Disallow: /countrysearch/*/*-importer.html
Disallow: /countrysearch/*/*/importers/*.html
Disallow: /search/buyeroffers/*.html 
Disallow: /search/buyeroffers/*/*.html 
Disallow: /buyeroffers/*/*.html
Disallow: /buyeroffers/*/*/*.html
Disallow: /detail/ajax/
Disallow: /ajax/seoRequest/
Allow: /trade/search*?fsb=y&IndexArea=product_en&CatId=&SearchText=a*
Allow: /trade/search*?fsb=y&IndexArea=product_en&CatId=&SearchText=b*
Allow: /trade/search*?fsb=y&IndexArea=product_en&CatId=&SearchText=c*
Allow: /trade/search*?fsb=y&IndexArea=product_en&CatId=&SearchText=d*
Allow: /trade/search*?fsb=y&IndexArea=product_en&CatId=&SearchText=e*
Allow: /trade/search*?fsb=y&IndexArea=product_en&CatId=&SearchText=f*
Allow: /trade/search*?fsb=y&IndexArea=product_en&CatId=&SearchText=g*
Allow: /trade/search*?fsb=y&IndexArea=product_en&CatId=&SearchText=h*
Allow: /trade/search*?fsb=y&IndexArea=product_en&CatId=&SearchText=i*
Allow: /trade/search*?fsb=y&IndexArea=product_en&CatId=&SearchText=j*
Allow: /trade/search*?fsb=y&IndexArea=product_en&CatId=&SearchText=k*

robots.txt versions

From	Through	State	Version
2026-10-26	2026-10-28	ok 200	`a4a98eee7f63`

Timeline of changes

Date	What changed
No changes since the first observation (2026-10-26).

Reconstructed history (Common Crawl)

From Common Crawl's robots.txt captures: what CCBot was served, one crawl per quarter. A separate series from the daily observations above; a 403 here means Common Crawl was refused, not this ledger.

Crawl	Host	State	GPTBot	OAI-SearchBot	ChatGPT-User	ClaudeBot	Claude-SearchBot	Claude-User	PerplexityBot
2026-09-21 CC-MAIN-2026-39	www.alibaba.com	ok view	blocks	partial	unknown	partial	partial	unknown	partial
2025-09-15 CC-MAIN-2025-38	www.alibaba.com	ok view	blocks	partial	unknown	partial	partial	unknown	partial
2024-09-16 CC-MAIN-2024-38	www2.alibaba.com	ok view	blocks	blocks	unknown	blocks	blocks	unknown	blocks
2023-10-02 CC-MAIN-2023-40	www.alibaba.com	ok view	allows	allows	unknown	allows	allows	unknown	allows
2022-10-03 CC-MAIN-2022-40	www.alibaba.com	ok view	allows	allows	unknown	allows	allows	unknown	allows
2021-09-27 CC-MAIN-2021-39	www.alibaba.com	ok view	allows	allows	unknown	allows	allows	unknown	allows
2020-09-28 CC-MAIN-2020-40	www.alibaba.com	ok view	allows	allows	unknown	allows	allows	unknown	allows
2019-09-23 CC-MAIN-2019-39	www.alibaba.com	ok view	allows	allows	unknown	allows	allows	unknown	allows
2018-09-24 CC-MAIN-2018-39	www.alibaba.com	ok view	partial	partial	unknown	partial	partial	unknown	partial
2018-04-23 CC-MAIN-2018-17	www.alibaba.com	ok view	partial	partial	unknown	partial	partial	unknown	partial
2018-01-29 CC-MAIN-2018-05	www.alibaba.com	ok view	partial	partial	unknown	partial	partial	unknown	partial
2017-10-23 CC-MAIN-2017-43	www.alibaba.com	ok view	partial	partial	unknown	partial	partial	unknown	partial
2017-09-25 CC-MAIN-2017-39	www.alibaba.com	ok view	partial	partial	unknown	partial	partial	unknown	partial
2017-07-24 CC-MAIN-2017-30	www.alibaba.com	ok view	partial	partial	unknown	partial	partial	unknown	partial
2017-04-24 CC-MAIN-2017-17	www.alibaba.com	ok view	partial	partial	unknown	partial	partial	unknown	partial
2017-01-23 CC-MAIN-2017-04	www.alibaba.com	ok view	partial	partial	unknown	partial	partial	unknown	partial
2016-10-03 CC-MAIN-2016-40	www.alibaba.com	ok view	partial	partial	unknown	partial	partial	unknown	partial
2016-09-05 CC-MAIN-2016-36	www2.alibaba.com	ok view	blocks	blocks	unknown	blocks	blocks	unknown	blocks

Evidence

Every daily observation of alibaba.com is a leaf in that day's Merkle tree. Proof of the robots.txt line for 2026-10-28: audit path (JSON), day root and OpenTimestamps proof (complete (bitcoin block 973640)).

API: https://infrarabbit.com/crawlers/api/v1/policy/alibaba.com