# AI Crawler Access Checker (robots.txt + llms.txt) (`thomson-digital/ai-crawler-access-checker`) Actor

Check which AI bots each website allows or blocks: GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, Google-Extended, CCBot and 25+ more, using RFC 9309 robots.txt matching. Also detects llms.txt and llms-full.txt, sitemaps, meta robots and noai tags. Bulk, fast, no browser.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/thomson-digital/ai-crawler-access-checker.md
- **Developed by:** [Matt](https://apify.com/thomson-digital) (community)
- **Categories:** SEO tools, AI, Developer tools
- **Security:** Limited permissions
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$1.00 / 1,000 websites

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## AI Crawler Access Checker (robots.txt + llms.txt)

Find out **which AI bots a website lets in**, for any number of sites. For each site you get a per-bot verdict for **32 AI and search crawlers**: GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, ChatGPT-User, ClaudeBot, Claude-SearchBot, PerplexityBot, Google-Extended, Applebot-Extended, CCBot, Bytespider, Meta-ExternalAgent, Amazonbot and more. Verdicts follow the official **RFC 9309** robots.txt rules: exact user-agent groups, longest match wins, `*` and `$` wildcards. The tool also detects **llms.txt / llms-full.txt**, sitemap directives, meta robots, `X-Robots-Tag` and `noai` tags.

You don't need a browser or proxies, and results come back in seconds.

### Why use it

- **GEO / AI SEO audits:** find out whether your content can show up in ChatGPT search, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI features
- **Publisher and competitor research:** see who blocks AI training while still allowing AI search, across hundreds of sites
- **Monitoring:** schedule it with `onlyBlocking` to catch a robots.txt change that suddenly blocks AI search bots
- **llms.txt adoption:** see which sites publish `llms.txt`, its title and how many links it has

### Output per site

| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
| `aiPolicy` | `allows-all`, `blocks-all`, `blocks-training-allows-search` or `partial` |
| `blockedBots` / `allowedBots` | Bot tokens blocked or allowed for the tested path |
| `trainingBotsBlocked`, `searchBotsBlocked` | Counts by purpose (training, search, user-fetch) |
| `bots[]` | Per bot: `operator`, `purpose`, `allowed`, `matchedGroup` (its own group or `*`), `matchedRule` (e.g. `Disallow: /`) |
| `explicitlyNamedBots` | Bots the site names in robots.txt |
| `llmsTxtFound`, `llmsTxtTitle`, `llmsTxtLinkCount`, `llmsFullTxtFound` | llms.txt details |
| `sitemaps`, `userAgentGroups`, `robotsStatusCode` | Other robots.txt details |
| `metaRobots`, `xRobotsTag`, `noAiDirective`, `noIndex` | Page-level directives |

Under RFC 9309, an unreachable or 5xx robots.txt counts as "disallow all" and a 4xx counts as "allow all".

### Input

```json
{
  "urls": ["nytimes.com", "github.com", "apify.com"],
  "path": "/",
  "bots": [],
  "checkHomepage": true,
  "onlyBlocking": false
}
```

Leave `bots` empty to check all 32, or list the tokens you care about.

### Example result

```json
{
  "domain": "reddit.com",
  "aiPolicy": "blocks-all",
  "blockedBots": ["GPTBot", "OAI-SearchBot", "ClaudeBot", "PerplexityBot", "..."],
  "trainingBotsBlocked": 16,
  "searchBotsBlocked": 10,
  "llmsTxtFound": false,
  "bots": [{"bot": "GPTBot", "operator": "OpenAI", "purpose": "training", "allowed": false, "matchedGroup": "*", "matchedRule": "Disallow: /"}]
}
```

### Pricing

**$1.00 per 1,000 websites** (pay-per-event, `site-checked`). There's no start fee and no charge for platform usage. Sites that can't be reached at all are free.

### Notes

- The tool reads only public files (`/robots.txt`, `/llms.txt`, `/llms-full.txt` and the tested page) and sends an honest user agent.
- robots.txt is a request, not an enforcement mechanism. This tool reports what a site *declares*.
- The bot list is kept up to date. Open an issue if you need a new crawler token added.

# Actor input Schema

## `urls` (type: `array`):

One per line. Bare domains or URLs; only the origin (scheme + host) is used for robots.txt and llms.txt.

## `path` (type: `string`):

URL path evaluated against each bot's robots.txt rules, e.g. / or /blog/.

## `bots` (type: `array`):

Optional subset of user-agent tokens, e.g. GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, Google-Extended, CCBot, Bytespider, Applebot-Extended, Meta-ExternalAgent, Amazonbot, OAI-SearchBot, ChatGPT-User, Claude-SearchBot, Googlebot, Bingbot.

## `checkHomepage` (type: `boolean`):

Also fetch the tested path to read meta robots, X-Robots-Tag and noai / noimageai directives.

## `onlyBlocking` (type: `boolean`):

Skip sites that allow every selected bot.

## `maxSites` (type: `integer`):

Hard cap on sites per run.

## `maxConcurrency` (type: `integer`):

Sites processed in parallel.

## `requestTimeoutSecs` (type: `integer`):

Timeout per request.

## `maxRetries` (type: `integer`):

Retries on network errors and 429/5xx.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "urls": [
    "nytimes.com",
    "github.com",
    "apify.com"
  ],
  "path": "/",
  "bots": [],
  "checkHomepage": true,
  "onlyBlocking": false,
  "maxSites": 5000,
  "maxConcurrency": 10,
  "requestTimeoutSecs": 15,
  "maxRetries": 1
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

Dataset with one row per website

## `summary` (type: `string`):

Totals for the run

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "urls": [
        "nytimes.com",
        "github.com",
        "apify.com"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("thomson-digital/ai-crawler-access-checker").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "urls": [
        "nytimes.com",
        "github.com",
        "apify.com",
    ] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("thomson-digital/ai-crawler-access-checker").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "urls": [
    "nytimes.com",
    "github.com",
    "apify.com"
  ]
}' |
apify call thomson-digital/ai-crawler-access-checker --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,thomson-digital/ai-crawler-access-checker"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/McPJ7zmXsA3euW9Cz/builds/5ZwrR8zhp4LMzjdAH/openapi.json