hbr.org: what it tells AI crawlers

On 26 October 2026, hbr.org's robots.txt fully blocked GPTBot, Google-Extended and CCBot.

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

Panel
top 1k (Tranco)
robots.txt
ok (HTTP 200) · https://hbr.org/robots.txt
unchanged since 2026-10-26 · sha256 793e323f3d6c3a72… · view as recorded
The * group
allows applies to every agent without its own group

Per AI bot, 2026-10-26

User agentVerdictHow
GPTBotblocksnamed in its own group
OAI-SearchBotallowsthrough the * group
ChatGPT-Userallowsthrough the * group
ClaudeBotallowsthrough the * group
Claude-SearchBotallowsthrough the * group
Claude-Userallowsthrough the * group
PerplexityBotallowsthrough the * group
Perplexity-Userallowsthrough the * group
Googlebotallowsthrough the * group
Google-Extendedblocksnamed in its own group
Applebot-Extendedallowsthrough the * group
CCBotblocksnamed in its own group
Bytespiderallowsthrough the * group
Meta-ExternalAgentallowsthrough the * group
Amazonbotallowsthrough the * group

Other signals

Publishes /llms.txtno
Publishes /ai.txtno
Publishes /.well-known/tdmrep.jsonnot observed
Reserves TDM rights (TDMRep file, header or meta)not observed
Declares Content Signals (robots.txt or header)no
Says ai-train=no in a Content Signalno
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 directivesno
Refused our fetcher (403 / challenge)no

robots.txt versions

FromThroughStateVersion
2026-10-262026-10-27ok 200793e323f3d6c

Timeline of changes

DateWhat 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.

CrawlHostStateGPTBotOAI-SearchBotChatGPT-UserClaudeBotClaude-SearchBotClaude-UserPerplexityBot
2026-09-21 CC-MAIN-2026-39hbr.orgok viewblocksallowsunknownallowsallowsunknownallows
2024-09-16 CC-MAIN-2024-38hbr.orgok viewblocksallowsunknownallowsallowsunknownallows
2023-10-02 CC-MAIN-2023-40hbr.orgok viewblocksallowsunknownallowsallowsunknownallows
2022-10-03 CC-MAIN-2022-40hbr.orgok viewallowsallowsunknownallowsallowsunknownallows
2021-09-27 CC-MAIN-2021-39hbr.orgok viewallowsallowsunknownallowsallowsunknownallows
2020-09-28 CC-MAIN-2020-40hbr.orgok viewallowsallowsunknownallowsallowsunknownallows
2019-09-23 CC-MAIN-2019-39hbr.orgok viewallowsallowsunknownallowsallowsunknownallows
2018-09-24 CC-MAIN-2018-39hbr.orgok viewallowsallowsunknownallowsallowsunknownallows
2017-09-25 CC-MAIN-2017-39hbr.orgok viewallowsallowsunknownallowsallowsunknownallows
2016-09-05 CC-MAIN-2016-36www4.hbr.orgsoft404unknownunknownunknownunknownunknownunknownunknown

Evidence

Every daily observation of hbr.org is a leaf in that day's Merkle tree. Proof of the robots.txt line for 2026-10-26: audit path (JSON), day root and OpenTimestamps proof (complete (bitcoin block 973294)).

API: https://infrarabbit.com/crawlers/api/v1/policy/hbr.org