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Robots.txt and AI Crawlers: Separate Search Discovery from Training

Robots.txt can express crawler preferences, but it is not a security measure. OpenAI documents separate controls for ChatGPT search and potential training; Google-Extended governs specified Gemini uses without affecting Google Search ranking or inclusion.
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Robots.txt is still a request about crawler access, not a security barrier. But some providers now document separate choices for different uses of crawled content: OpenAI lets site owners configure ChatGPT search crawling separately from crawling for possible model training, while Google’s Google-Extended token controls specified Gemini uses without changing Google Search inclusion or ranking. These are vendor-specific controls, not a universal pair of switches.

What robots.txt does—and what it does not

A robots.txt file tells compliant crawlers which URLs they may access. The Internet Engineering Task Force’s RFC 9309 defines this as a protocol for crawler instructions and warns that “These rules are not a form of access authorization.” A crawler may ignore the file, and the file itself is publicly discoverable. Use authentication or another application-layer security control when content must be private.

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Robots.txt also does not guarantee that a URL will stay out of search results. Google says a blocked URL may still appear in Search if other pages link to it, even though Google cannot fetch the page’s content. To keep a page out of Google Search, Google recommends allowing Googlebot to crawl it and using a supported noindex directive, password-protecting the page, or removing it. If robots.txt blocks Googlebot, it cannot read a page’s noindex instruction. See Google’s robots.txt introduction.

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Which decisions can you make?

Start with the use you want to permit or restrict, then consult that provider’s own documentation. The documented controls from OpenAI and Google work differently:

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Provider and control Documented purpose Effect on search
OpenAI: OAI-SearchBot Helps surface websites in ChatGPT search features. Relevant to ChatGPT search discovery.
OpenAI: GPTBot Crawls content that may be used to train OpenAI foundation models. Separate from OAI-SearchBot’s search setting.
Google: Google-Extended Controls whether content Google crawls may be used for specified Gemini training and grounding purposes. Google says it does not affect inclusion or ranking in Google Search.

OpenAI states that the OAI-SearchBot and GPTBot settings are independent. A site can therefore allow ChatGPT search crawling while disallowing GPTBot, or choose the reverse. OpenAI says a robots.txt change may take about 24 hours to adjust its search systems. These are OpenAI’s stated controls and timing, not a general rule for other providers. Details are in OpenAI’s crawler documentation.

Google-Extended is not a separate HTTP user-agent string. It is a robots.txt control token used for specified Gemini purposes while Google uses its existing user-agent strings to crawl. Google says: “Google-Extended does not impact a site’s inclusion in Google Search nor is it used as a ranking signal in Google Search.” Read Google’s crawler documentation for the token’s scope.

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How to set a policy that matches your goal

  1. Define the intended use. Decide whether the goal is search discovery, possible model training, grounding, keeping a page out of search results, or confidentiality. These goals require different controls.
  2. Choose the provider-specific rule. For OpenAI, review OAI-SearchBot and GPTBot independently. For Google’s specified Gemini training and grounding uses, review Google-Extended. Do not assume another provider uses the same tokens or offers the same separation.
  3. Check the file’s scope. Place robots.txt at the top-level /robots.txt path for the relevant site origin. Google says rules apply to the host, protocol, and port where the file is served; a policy at https://example.com/robots.txt does not automatically cover a subdomain or the HTTP version of the site. See Google’s robots.txt specification.
  4. Use the right control for exclusion or privacy. If the goal is Google Search exclusion, allow crawling so Google can see a noindex directive, or use password protection or remove the page. If the goal is confidentiality, require authentication; a Disallow rule is not an access control.
  5. Verify the served file and the intended result. Check the robots.txt file on each relevant origin and confirm that its directives match the provider token and paths you mean to control. Then use the provider’s documentation and available verification tools to assess crawler access. A robots.txt update communicates a preference; it does not establish that content already crawled has been removed or guarantee behavior beyond the provider’s documented commitments.

Rules, matching, and operational caveats

RFC 9309 specifies a UTF-8 plain-text file served as text/plain. Crawler groups use product tokens in User-agent fields. The standard says matching is case-insensitive, matching groups are combined, and a wildcard group applies when no specific group matches. Rules are requested behavior for crawlers that follow the protocol; enforcement and additional features vary by implementation.

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Keep the file available and check how each target crawler handles errors. RFC 9309 says crawlers should not use a cached robots.txt for more than 24 hours unless it is unreachable. It permits access when the file is unavailable with a 4xx status, while a server or network error that makes it unreachable requires crawlers to assume complete disallow. Google documents its own handling: it generally caches robots.txt for up to 24 hours and may cache it longer if it cannot refresh the file. Do not assume every crawler handles failures or caching the same way.

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Google’s path matching guidance supports * and $ wildcards and describes matching against URL path components. That is Google-specific implementation guidance, not a guarantee about all crawlers. For the exact syntax and behavior of another provider’s crawler, use that provider’s current documentation.

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What to record in a crawler policy review

  • The provider and its exact documented token or user-agent group.
  • The intended use: search, training, grounding, or another purpose explicitly described by the provider.
  • The paths affected and the host, protocol, and port serving the policy.
  • Whether the goal is crawler access preference, search-result exclusion, or actual confidentiality.
  • How the rule will be verified and what the provider says about update timing.

Google and OpenAI’s documentation describes particular controls; it is not a complete inventory of AI crawlers. Provider rules and products may change. The cited Google robots.txt introduction reports an update date of December 10, 2025; the IETF standard is from September 2022.

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