How to Stop AI from Scraping Your Website

The value of original content is growing. Case in point: Google reportedly pays Reddit $60 million a year to license their user-generated content⁽¹⁾. But as you read this article, AI crawlers are silently scanning websites across the internet, harvesting their content to train large language models (LLMs) and power AI-driven services.

While some AI companies transparently identify their bots, others don’t, potentially monetizing your content without your permission or any compensation. The content of your websites, mobile apps, and APIs is valuable and should be protected from unauthorized AI harvesting. In this article, we will discuss what AI crawlers are, why you should block them, and how you can do so.

Key takeaways

• AI companies increasingly scrape web content without permission, using it to train models that they profit from without compensating content creators.
• Well-behaved AI crawlers identify themselves and respect robots.txt, but many disguise their activities to avoid detection.
• You have to protect yourself with multiple layers of protection: Start with robots.txt directives, add HTTP headers, use technical barriers, and consider advanced bot management for critical content.
• Regular monitoring, along with updating your blocking strategy, is essential, because AI crawling techniques constantly evolve.
• Beyond technical measures, consider updating your terms of service to explicitly prohibit unauthorized AI training on your content.

What are AI crawlers?

AI crawlers are specialized bots designed to systematically scan websites and collect data to train LLMs or power real-time artificial intelligence services. Unlike traditional web crawlers that index content for search engines, AI crawlers serve a different purpose: To gather vast amounts of text, images, and other data to develop and improve AI systems.

Common types of AI crawlers include:

• Training crawlers: Bots that gather data to train new versions of large language models
• RAG crawlers: Bots that power Retrieval Augmented Generation for real-time answers
• Inference crawlers: Bots that scrape content to improve AI responses with current information

The most active AI crawlers on the web

The most prolific AI crawlers currently operating include:

Why block AI bots?

While artificial intelligence is improving society in many good ways, business owners have legitimate concerns about letting it have unfettered access to their digital assets, including…

1. Content monetization without compensation

When AI companies scrape your content without permission, they’re essentially using your intellectual property to build products they profit from, without then sharing that revenue with you. This one-sided value extraction becomes particularly problematic when:

• Your business model relies on original content creation
• You’ve invested significant resources in developing proprietary information
• Your competitive advantage comes from unique digital assets

2. Competitive disadvantage

AI systems trained on your content can generate similar material that competes with your business. For example, an AI trained on your product descriptions can help competitors create nearly identical descriptions without the same investment in research and development.

3. Content misrepresentation and outdated information

AI systems can misrepresent your content or present outdated versions in their responses. Without direct attribution, users might receive inaccurate information tied to your business, potentially damaging your brand reputation.

4. Increased server load and costs

High-volume AI crawling can significantly increase your server load, potentially:

• Slowing down your website for actual users
• Increasing your infrastructure costs
• Consuming bandwidth without additional business benefit

5. Ethical and legal considerations

Many businesses have ethical or legal concerns about their content being used to train AI systems that might:

• Help create deepfakes or misinformation
• Generate content that conflicts with brand values
• Violate copyright laws by reproducing content without permission

How to identify AI crawlers

Before you can block AI crawlers, you need to identify them. Most legitimate AI crawlers identify themselves through their user agents, though some attempt to disguise their activities. Below are a few ways to identify AI crawlers.

Examine user agents

Legitimate AI crawlers typically declare themselves in their user agent strings:

• GPTBot: Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko); compatible; GPTBot/1.1; +https://openai.com/gptbot
• ClaudeBot: Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; ClaudeBot/1.0; +https://anthropic.com/claude-bot)
• CCBot: CCBot

Analyze traffic patterns

AI crawlers often have distinctive behavior patterns:

• High request volumes from the same source
• Systematic crawling through your entire site structure
• Emphasis on text-heavy web pages over interactive elements
• Unusual access patterns to older content

Use bot detection tools

Advanced bot detection platforms like DataDome identify AI crawlers by analyzing browser fingerprinting inconsistencies, network behavior patterns, TLS fingerprints, and request distribution and frequency. Additionally, as a way of fighting fire with fire, they often use AI tools to help detect AI. Even when crawlers spoof their user agents, these detection systems can identify bot behavior through advanced pattern analysis.

How to block AI crawlers

There are several ways in which you can block AI crawlers, ranging from simple to sophisticated. Let’s explore your options, from most basic to most comprehensive.

Method 1: Use robots.txt to block known AI crawlers

The robots.txt file is the simplest way to request that well-behaved bots stay away from your site. While it relies on bots to voluntarily comply, it’s still an essential first line of defense. Add these lines to your robots.txt file to block common AI crawlers:

Block OpenAI’s GPTBot

User-agent: GPTBot
Disallow: /

Block Anthropic’s Claude

User-agent: ClaudeBot
Disallow: /

Block Common Crawl Bot

User-agent: CCBot
Disallow: /

Block Google’s Gemini

User-agent: Google-Extended
Disallow: /

Block Bytespider

User-agent: Bytespider
Disallow: /

Block Perplexity

User-agent: PerplexityBot
Disallow: /

This method only works for honest bots that declare themselves and follow robots.txt directives. For those that don’t (of which there are many), you will need to rely on the following methods instead.

Method 2: Use HTTP headers to communicate AI training preferences

Several AI companies are beginning to respect HTTP headers that explicitly state whether content can be used for AI training. You can use the following response header to your site’s responses to tell AI not to index a particular URL(2)(3):

X-Robots-Tag: noindex

Like robots.txt, this relies on voluntary compliance by AI companies.

Method 3: Implement technical barriers

For stronger protection, you can implement technical barriers that actively prevent crawling. First, JavaScript-based content protection. This is where you render critical content using JavaScript, making it harder for basic crawlers to access. This involves:

1. Initially loading a minimal HTML structure
2. Using JavaScript to render the main content
3. Implementing event listeners to detect natural user interactions

Still, more sophisticated AI crawlers can execute JavaScript, limiting this approach’s effectiveness. That’s where rate limiting and IP blocking comes in handy. You essentially configure your server to limit requests from the same IP address and block known crawler IPs. Even so, many AI crawlers operate across distributed networks with constantly changing IPs, making this approach challenging to maintain.

Method 4: Use advanced bot management solutions

For complete protection from AI crawlers, professional bot management solutions provide the most comprehensive coverage. A platform like DataDome offers:

• Real-time bot detection: Identify and block AI crawlers as they evolve their techniques
• Behavioral analysis: Detect bots regardless of how they identify themselves
• Adaptive protection: Continuously update defenses as new AI crawlers emerge
• Selective blocking: Allow legitimate crawlers (like Google) while blocking AI training bots

These solutions use machine learning to distinguish between human visitors, beneficial bots, and potentially harmful AI crawlers, often detecting bots that disguise themselves. It is the most effective way to stop AI from scraping your content.

Best practices for AI crawler blocking

When implementing your AI crawler blocking strategy, consider these best practices:

1. Take a layered approach

Don’t rely on a single method. Combine multiple approaches for maximum effectiveness:

• Start with robots.txt for well-behaved bots
• Add HTTP headers for additional signaling
• Implement technical barriers where feasible
• Consider advanced solutions like DataDome

2. Monitor your traffic regularly

Stay watchful by regularly analyzing your traffic for signs of AI crawler activity:

• Sudden spikes in traffic from unusual sources
• Systematic requests for large amounts of content
• Requests that bypass your site’s normal navigation patterns

3. Keep your blocking strategy updated

AI crawlers continuously evolve their techniques. Regularly update your blocking methods by:

• Staying informed about new AI crawlers
• Updating your robots.txt with newly identified user agents
• Adjusting technical barriers as needed

4. Balance protection and accessibility

Not all bots are harmful. Ensure your strategy:

• Allows legitimate search engine crawlers
• Doesn’t block actual users
• Permits crawlers that benefit your business (like SEO bots or social media link previewers)

5. Consider legal protections

Beyond technical measures, consider legal approaches:

• Update your terms of service to explicitly prohibit unauthorized data scraping
• Include clear statements about AI training restrictions
• Consider copyright registration for particularly valuable content

The Future of Content Protection from AI

As AI functionality improves and becomes more sophisticated, the methods used to collect training data will also evolve. The future of content protection from AI will likely include:

• Digital watermarking: Embedding invisible markers in content that survive into AI training data
• Content authentication systems: Blockchain-based systems that verify original sources
• AI-detection feedback: Systems that can identify when AI has been trained on protected content
• Industry standards: Clearer rules about permissions and compensation for training data

Conclusion

Protecting your valuable content from unauthorized AI scraping and crawling is becoming increasingly important. From simple robots.txt directives to sophisticated bot management solutions, you have multiple options to maintain control over how your content is used in the AI ecosystem.

By implementing a strategic, layered approach to blocking AI crawlers, you can ensure that your digital assets remain protected while still maintaining a great experience for your human visitors. The battle between digital businesses and AI scrapers continues to evolve, but with vigilance and the right tools, you can stay one step ahead.

Ready to protect your content from unauthorized AI use? Explore DataDome’s advanced bot protection solutions designed specifically to identify and block AI crawlers, so your users have a great, secure experience while your content stays protected.

References

1. https://www.reuters.com/technology/reddit-ai-content-licensing-deal-with-google-sources-say-2024-02-22/
2. https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/robots-meta-tag
3. https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Reference/Headers/X-Robots-Tag