Does weather.com block AI crawlers?
weather.com blocks 4 of 17 AI crawlers (CCBot, Bytespider, Amazonbot and Diffbot), and allows 13 (checked 2026-10-01).
This is the deliberate split: training crawlers are opted out, while the retrieval crawlers that fetch pages to cite them in ChatGPT search, Claude and Perplexity answers can still reach it.
Every crawler we tested
| Crawler | Used for | Verdict | What we saw |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPTBot OpenAI | ChatGPT (training) | Allowed | Allowed: robots.txt permits it and the page loaded. |
| OAI-SearchBot OpenAI | ChatGPT search (retrieval) | Allowed | Allowed: robots.txt permits it and the page loaded. |
| ChatGPT-User OpenAI | ChatGPT (retrieval) | Allowed | Allowed: robots.txt permits it and the page loaded. |
| ClaudeBot Anthropic | Claude (training) | Allowed | Allowed: robots.txt permits it and the page loaded. |
| Claude-SearchBot Anthropic | Claude search (retrieval) | Allowed | Allowed: robots.txt permits it and the page loaded. |
| Claude-User Anthropic | Claude (retrieval) | Allowed | Allowed: robots.txt permits it and the page loaded. |
| Google-Extended Google | Gemini (training) | Allowed | Allowed: robots.txt permits it and the page loaded. |
| PerplexityBot Perplexity | Perplexity (retrieval) | Allowed | Allowed: robots.txt permits it and the page loaded. |
| Perplexity-User Perplexity | Perplexity (retrieval) | Allowed | Allowed: robots.txt permits it and the page loaded. |
| CCBot Common Crawl | Common Crawl (research) | Blocked | Blocked: robots.txt disallows it. |
| Bytespider ByteDance | ByteDance (training) | Blocked | Blocked: robots.txt disallows it. |
| Applebot-Extended Apple | Apple Intelligence (training) | Allowed | Allowed: robots.txt permits it and the page loaded. |
| Meta-ExternalAgent Meta | Meta AI (training) | Allowed | Allowed: robots.txt permits it and the page loaded. |
| Amazonbot Amazon | Alexa (training) | Blocked | Blocked: robots.txt disallows it. |
| cohere-ai Cohere | Cohere (retrieval) | Allowed | Allowed: robots.txt permits it and the page loaded. |
| Diffbot Diffbot | Diffbot (research) | Blocked | Blocked: robots.txt disallows it. |
| Timpibot Timpi | Timpi (research) | Allowed | Allowed: robots.txt permits it and the page loaded. |
How that compares
- CCBot is blocked by 37 of the 240 sites on these pages (15.4%).
- Bytespider is blocked by 44 of the 238 sites on these pages (18.5%).
- Amazonbot is blocked by 31 of the 237 sites on these pages (13.1%).
- Diffbot is blocked by 34 of the 243 sites on these pages (14%).
Homepage SEO snapshot
From the Crawlwise SEO Index run, checked 2026-10-05. One fetch of the homepage, so it describes that page and not the whole site.
| Homepage | https://weather.com/hi-IN/in/delhi/city/new-delhi/today?Goto=Redirected |
|---|---|
| HTTPS | yes |
| Title | 93 characters |
| Meta description | 132 characters |
| Canonical | another URL on the same host |
| Noindex | no |
| H1 elements | 2 |
| Language | hi-IN |
| JSON-LD types | WebPage, Organization, ImageObject, City, PostalAddress, GeoCoordinates |
| hreflang alternates | 214 |
| /sitemap.xml | valid XML sitemap |
| Response time | 91 ms |
How this was measured
We read weather.com’s robots.txt, resolved it with an RFC 9309 matcher for each crawler’s product token, then fetched the homepage once as each crawler. A 403 or a challenge page is a block even when robots.txt allows the crawler; a timeout or rate limit is “not established”, never a block. One probe, from one location, on 2026-10-01, so a rule changed since then is not reflected here. Full methodology.
Check your own site
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Other sites
- dynatrace.com — blocks none of 17
- disqus.com — blocks none of 17
- app-ads-services.com — blocks none of 17
- adroll.com — blocks 1 of 17
- trustedstack.com — blocks none of 17
- truste.com — blocks none of 17