cloudflare.net: what it tells AI crawlers

On 28 October 2026, cloudflare.net's robots.txt refused our fetcher (HTTP 403 or a bot challenge), so its policy could not be read.

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

Panel
top 1k (Tranco)
robots.txt
fetch-blocked (HTTP 403) · https://cloudflare.net/robots.txt
unchanged since 2026-10-28

Per AI bot, 2026-10-28

User agentVerdictHow
GPTBotunknownfetch-blocked
OAI-SearchBotunknownfetch-blocked
ChatGPT-Userunknownfetch-blocked
ClaudeBotunknownfetch-blocked
Claude-SearchBotunknownfetch-blocked
Claude-Userunknownfetch-blocked
PerplexityBotunknownfetch-blocked
Perplexity-Userunknownfetch-blocked
Googlebotunknownfetch-blocked
Google-Extendedunknownfetch-blocked
Applebot-Extendedunknownfetch-blocked
CCBotunknownfetch-blocked
Bytespiderunknownfetch-blocked
Meta-ExternalAgentunknownfetch-blocked
Amazonbotunknownfetch-blocked

Other signals

Publishes /llms.txtnot observed
Publishes /ai.txtnot observed
Publishes /.well-known/tdmrep.jsonnot observed
Reserves TDM rights (TDMRep file, header or meta)not observed
Declares Content Signals (robots.txt or header)not observed
Says ai-train=no in a Content Signalnot observed
Points to an RSL licence (robots.txt License line or Link header)not observed
Answers with an x402 payment offer (lower bound: only the homepage is probed)not observed
Answers HTTP 402 Payment Required (lower bound: only the homepage is probed)not observed
Sends noai / noimageai directivesnot observed
Refused our fetcher (403 / challenge)yes

robots.txt as recorded sha256 de73d32142f114b8…

User-agent: *
Crawl-delay: 10
Allow: /

User-agent: Eluta.ca
Crawl-delay: 60
Allow: /

User-agent: MS Search 6.0 Robot
Crawl-delay: 60
Allow: /

User-agent: gsa-crawler
Crawl-delay: 60
Allow: /

robots.txt versions

FromThroughStateVersion
2026-10-282026-10-28fetch-blocked 403–
2026-10-262026-10-27ok 200de73d32142f1

Timeline of changes

DateWhat changed
2026-10-28robots.txt fetch: ok → fetch-blocked

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.

CrawlHostStateGPTBotOAI-SearchBotChatGPT-UserClaudeBotClaude-SearchBotClaude-UserPerplexityBot
2026-09-21 CC-MAIN-2026-39cloudflare.netfetch-blockedunknownunknownunknownunknownunknownunknownunknown
2025-09-15 CC-MAIN-2025-38cloudflare.netfetch-blockedunknownunknownunknownunknownunknownunknownunknown
2024-09-16 CC-MAIN-2024-38cloudflare.netfetch-blockedunknownunknownunknownunknownunknownunknownunknown
2023-10-02 CC-MAIN-2023-40cloudflare.netok viewallowsallowsunknownallowsallowsunknownallows
2022-10-03 CC-MAIN-2022-40cloudflare.netok viewallowsallowsunknownallowsallowsunknownallows
2021-09-27 CC-MAIN-2021-39cloudflare.netok viewallowsallowsunknownallowsallowsunknownallows
2020-09-28 CC-MAIN-2020-40cloudflare.netok viewallowsallowsunknownallowsallowsunknownallows
2019-09-23 CC-MAIN-2019-39cloudflare.netok viewallowsallowsunknownallowsallowsunknownallows
2017-04-24 CC-MAIN-2017-17cloudflare.netfetch-blockedunknownunknownunknownunknownunknownunknownunknown
2017-01-23 CC-MAIN-2017-04cloudflare.netserver-errorunknownunknownunknownunknownunknownunknownunknown

Evidence

Every daily observation of cloudflare.net 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/cloudflare.net