Does tomshardware.com block AI crawlers?
As of 2026-11-03, the robots.txt of tomshardware.com blocks 4 of 18 AI crawlers, including Applebot-Extended, Meta-ExternalAgent, Amazonbot, Bytespider.
AI crawler status of tomshardware.com
Based on the live robots.txt of tomshardware.com, checked on 2026-11-03. “Some paths restricted” means the bot may crawl the site but certain sections are excluded.
| User agent | Company | Purpose | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
GPTBot | OpenAI | Model training | Allowed (some paths restricted) |
OAI-SearchBot | OpenAI | ChatGPT search index | Allowed (some paths restricted) |
ChatGPT-User | OpenAI | Live browsing for ChatGPT users | Allowed (some paths restricted) |
ClaudeBot | Anthropic | Model training | Allowed (some paths restricted) |
Claude-SearchBot | Anthropic | Claude search index | Allowed (some paths restricted) |
Claude-User | Anthropic | Live browsing for Claude users | Allowed (some paths restricted) |
PerplexityBot | Perplexity | Perplexity search index | Allowed (some paths restricted) |
Perplexity-User | Perplexity | Live browsing for Perplexity users | Allowed (some paths restricted) |
Google-Extended | Gemini training & grounding | Allowed (some paths restricted) | |
Googlebot | Search and AI Overviews | Allowed (some paths restricted) | |
Bingbot | Microsoft | Bing search and Microsoft Copilot | Allowed (some paths restricted) |
Applebot-Extended | Apple | Apple Intelligence training | Blocked |
Meta-ExternalAgent | Meta | Meta AI training | Blocked |
Amazonbot | Amazon | Alexa and Amazon AI | Blocked |
DuckAssistBot | DuckDuckGo | DuckAssist answers | Allowed (some paths restricted) |
MistralAI-User | Mistral | Live browsing for Le Chat users | Allowed (some paths restricted) |
CCBot | Common Crawl | Open dataset used by many AI models | Allowed (some paths restricted) |
Bytespider | ByteDance | Model training | Blocked |
What this means
tomshardware.com follows a pattern many publishers now use: it keeps AI training crawlers like Meta-ExternalAgent, Applebot-Extended, Bytespider out, but still lets AI search and live-browsing agents in. That way it can still be cited and linked in ChatGPT or Perplexity answers.
Among the 381 news & media sites in our AI crawler report, 59% block GPTBot completely. tomshardware.com is not one of them.
Blocking AI bots is one side. The other: is AI actually sending you visitors? Citelytic shows how much traffic ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Copilot send to your own site.
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FAQ
Does tomshardware.com block ChatGPT?
No. As of 2026-11-03, OAI-SearchBot is allowed with some restricted paths and ChatGPT-User is allowed with some restricted paths in the robots.txt of tomshardware.com. GPTBot (OpenAI's training crawler) is allowed with some restricted paths.
Can Perplexity access tomshardware.com?
PerplexityBot is allowed with some restricted paths and Perplexity-User is allowed with some restricted paths on tomshardware.com according to its robots.txt checked on 2026-11-03.
Does tomshardware.com have an llms.txt file?
No, we did not find an llms.txt file on tomshardware.com when we checked on 2026-11-03.
How is this data collected?
We fetch the public robots.txt file of each site and evaluate the rules for 18 AI user agents for the site root. robots.txt is a request, not a technical barrier, and sites may also block bots at the firewall level, which this check does not see.
Blocking AI bots is one side. The other: is AI actually sending you visitors? Citelytic shows how much traffic ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Copilot send to your own site.
Start free – no credit card