AI crawler access report

smithsonianmag.com

https://www.smithsonianmag.com:443/ · checked 2026-11-04 09:30 UTC · served by Cloudflare

AI search crawlers are blocked

Every AI search crawler we tested was disallowed by robots.txt or rejected in our live requests. Open a row for the evidence and its confidence.

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Can they get inCAll 6 AI search crawlers blocked Can they read itSEvery official and common check passes Can they cite itB2 of 5 citation signals; missing Site name, Share card, Semantic tags

China search & AI engines (not graded): 2 of 7 can get in. Blocked: Bytespider, PetalBot, 360Spider, Kimi-SearchBot, Kimi-User

How we grade

Each layer is graded on its own; there’s no overall score. Only checks marked “Official docs” or “Common practice” count; hypotheses and notes don’t. Blocking training crawlers costs nothing: that’s your call.

Can they get in: S, every AI search crawler got in; A, all get in but some hit a challenge or a thinner page, or the live test didn’t finish and only robots.txt was checked; B, some AI search crawlers are blocked; C, all are blocked, a silent block was found, or the homepage is noindex. A robots.txt that returns 5xx or can’t be reached counts as “disallow everything” under RFC 9309.
Can they read it: S, nothing to improve; A, one item; B, two or three, or a non-critical problem; C, indexing or snippets are blocked, the text needs JavaScript, or four or more items need work.
Can they cite it: five signals (structured data, organization, site name, share card, semantic tags). S all five, A four, B two or three, C one or none; a JSON-LD parse error, or FAQ markup whose questions aren’t on the page, caps it at B.

Rules version 2026-11-02.2 · Full grading method

AI search crawlers reachable

0 / 6

Silent firewall blocks

Training crawlers blocked

2 / 2

Text without JavaScript

12,781 chars

Crawler by crawler Open Details for the evidence

Crawler	Purpose	robots.txt	Live request	Result
AI search & user-triggered
OAI-SearchBot OpenAI	AI search	Partly	403 challenge	Silent block
What we observed GET https://www.smithsonianmag.com:443/ with the OAI-SearchBot user agent returned `challenge`. Same URL as a browser: 200 · with a Googlebot user agent: 200 · as an unknown bot: 200. What it suggests The rejection follows the OAI-SearchBot user agent, not bots in general: most likely a rule aimed at AI crawlers. High confidence. How to confirm In your CDN or WAF logs, look for OAI-SearchBot requests coming from OpenAI’s published IP ranges (linked on the OAI-SearchBot page) and check which rule they hit.
ChatGPT-User OpenAI	User-triggered	Partly	403 challenge	Silent block
What we observed GET https://www.smithsonianmag.com:443/ with the ChatGPT-User user agent returned `challenge`. Same URL as a browser: 200 · with a Googlebot user agent: 200 · as an unknown bot: 200. What it suggests The rejection follows the ChatGPT-User user agent, not bots in general: most likely a rule aimed at AI crawlers. High confidence. How to confirm In your CDN or WAF logs, look for ChatGPT-User requests coming from OpenAI’s published IP ranges (linked on the ChatGPT-User page) and check which rule they hit.
PerplexityBot Perplexity	AI search	Partly	403 challenge	Silent block
What we observed GET https://www.smithsonianmag.com:443/ with the PerplexityBot user agent returned `challenge`. Same URL as a browser: 200 · with a Googlebot user agent: 200 · as an unknown bot: 200. What it suggests The rejection follows the PerplexityBot user agent, not bots in general: most likely a rule aimed at AI crawlers. High confidence. How to confirm In your CDN or WAF logs, look for PerplexityBot requests coming from Perplexity’s published IP ranges (linked on the PerplexityBot page) and check which rule they hit.
Perplexity-User Perplexity	User-triggered	Partly	403 challenge	Silent block
What we observed GET https://www.smithsonianmag.com:443/ with the Perplexity-User user agent returned `challenge`. Same URL as a browser: 200 · with a Googlebot user agent: 200 · as an unknown bot: 200. What it suggests The rejection follows the Perplexity-User user agent, not bots in general: most likely a rule aimed at AI crawlers. High confidence. How to confirm In your CDN or WAF logs, look for Perplexity-User requests coming from Perplexity’s published IP ranges (linked on the Perplexity-User page) and check which rule they hit.
Claude-SearchBot Anthropic	AI search	Partly	403 challenge	Silent block
What we observed GET https://www.smithsonianmag.com:443/ with the Claude-SearchBot user agent returned `challenge`. Same URL as a browser: 200 · with a Googlebot user agent: 200 · as an unknown bot: 200. What it suggests The rejection follows the Claude-SearchBot user agent, not bots in general: most likely a rule aimed at AI crawlers. High confidence. How to confirm In your CDN or WAF logs, look for Claude-SearchBot requests coming from Anthropic’s published IP ranges (linked on the Claude-SearchBot page) and check which rule they hit.
Claude-User Anthropic	User-triggered	Partly	403 challenge	Silent block
What we observed GET https://www.smithsonianmag.com:443/ with the Claude-User user agent returned `challenge`. Same URL as a browser: 200 · with a Googlebot user agent: 200 · as an unknown bot: 200. What it suggests The rejection follows the Claude-User user agent, not bots in general: most likely a rule aimed at AI crawlers. High confidence. How to confirm In your CDN or WAF logs, look for Claude-User requests coming from Anthropic’s published IP ranges (linked on the Claude-User page) and check which rule they hit.
China search & AI engines (not graded)
Bytespider ByteDance	AI search	Partly	403 challenge	Silent block
What we observed GET https://www.smithsonianmag.com:443/ with the Bytespider user agent returned `challenge`. Same URL as a browser: 200 · with a Googlebot user agent: 200 · as an unknown bot: 200. What it suggests The rejection follows the Bytespider user agent, not bots in general: most likely a rule aimed at AI crawlers. High confidence. How to confirm In your CDN or WAF logs, look for Bytespider requests coming from ByteDance’s published IP ranges (linked on the Bytespider page) and check which rule they hit.
PetalBot Huawei	AI search	Partly	403 challenge	Silent block
What we observed GET https://www.smithsonianmag.com:443/ with the PetalBot user agent returned `challenge`. Same URL as a browser: 200 · with a Googlebot user agent: 200 · as an unknown bot: 200. What it suggests The rejection follows the PetalBot user agent, not bots in general: most likely a rule aimed at AI crawlers. High confidence. How to confirm In your CDN or WAF logs, look for PetalBot requests coming from Huawei’s published IP ranges (linked on the PetalBot page) and check which rule they hit.
Sogou web spider 搜狗（腾讯）	AI search	Partly	200 OK	Reachable
What we observed GET https://www.smithsonianmag.com:443/ with the Sogou web spider user agent got the same page a browser gets. robots.txt: Partly. What it suggests No sign of a block for this crawler.
360Spider 360	AI search	Partly	403 challenge	Silent block
What we observed GET https://www.smithsonianmag.com:443/ with the 360Spider user agent returned `challenge`. Same URL as a browser: 200 · with a Googlebot user agent: 200 · as an unknown bot: 200. What it suggests The rejection follows the 360Spider user agent, not bots in general: most likely a rule aimed at AI crawlers. High confidence. How to confirm In your CDN or WAF logs, look for 360Spider requests coming from 360’s published IP ranges (linked on the 360Spider page) and check which rule they hit.
YisouSpider 神马搜索（阿里）	AI search	Partly	200 OK	Reachable
What we observed GET https://www.smithsonianmag.com:443/ with the YisouSpider user agent got the same page a browser gets. robots.txt: Partly. What it suggests No sign of a block for this crawler.
Kimi-SearchBot 月之暗面 Kimi	AI search	Partly	403 challenge	Silent block
What we observed GET https://www.smithsonianmag.com:443/ with the Kimi-SearchBot user agent returned `challenge`. Same URL as a browser: 200 · with a Googlebot user agent: 200 · as an unknown bot: 200. What it suggests The rejection follows the Kimi-SearchBot user agent, not bots in general: most likely a rule aimed at AI crawlers. High confidence. How to confirm In your CDN or WAF logs, look for Kimi-SearchBot requests coming from 月之暗面 Kimi’s published IP ranges (linked on the Kimi-SearchBot page) and check which rule they hit.
Kimi-User 月之暗面 Kimi	User-triggered	Partly	403 challenge	Silent block
What we observed GET https://www.smithsonianmag.com:443/ with the Kimi-User user agent returned `challenge`. Same URL as a browser: 200 · with a Googlebot user agent: 200 · as an unknown bot: 200. What it suggests The rejection follows the Kimi-User user agent, not bots in general: most likely a rule aimed at AI crawlers. High confidence. How to confirm In your CDN or WAF logs, look for Kimi-User requests coming from 月之暗面 Kimi’s published IP ranges (linked on the Kimi-User page) and check which rule they hit.
AI training
GPTBot OpenAI	Training	Partly	403 challenge	Silent block
What we observed GET https://www.smithsonianmag.com:443/ with the GPTBot user agent returned `challenge`. Same URL as a browser: 200 · with a Googlebot user agent: 200 · as an unknown bot: 200. What it suggests The rejection follows the GPTBot user agent, not bots in general: most likely a rule aimed at AI crawlers. High confidence. How to confirm In your CDN or WAF logs, look for GPTBot requests coming from OpenAI’s published IP ranges (linked on the GPTBot page) and check which rule they hit.
ClaudeBot Anthropic	Training	Partly	403 challenge	Silent block
What we observed GET https://www.smithsonianmag.com:443/ with the ClaudeBot user agent returned `challenge`. Same URL as a browser: 200 · with a Googlebot user agent: 200 · as an unknown bot: 200. What it suggests The rejection follows the ClaudeBot user agent, not bots in general: most likely a rule aimed at AI crawlers. High confidence. How to confirm In your CDN or WAF logs, look for ClaudeBot requests coming from Anthropic’s published IP ranges (linked on the ClaudeBot page) and check which rule they hit.

How to fix

Cloudflare is answering these requests. In Security → Settings, check the AI bot controls (since Sep 15, 2026):

Search: set to Allow.
Training: use Disallow AI Training, not Block. Block now also stops Googlebot, Bingbot and Applebot.
Agent: Block on pages with ads blocks ChatGPT-User and Claude-User on those pages.
Look for older custom WAF rules matching cf.verified_bot_category or AI user agents, and check Bot Fight Mode.

Crawlers to allow for AI search: OAI-SearchBot, ChatGPT-User, PerplexityBot, Perplexity-User, Claude-SearchBot, Claude-User, Bytespider, PetalBot, 360Spider, Kimi-SearchBot, Kimi-User.

Step-by-step Cloudflare guide →

Can they read it 10 pass · 0 to improve · 0 problems

Whether search engines and AI can parse and index your homepage

Pass
Page title
“Smithsonian Magazine: Explore History, Science, Arts & Culture”.
Official docs ↗
Pass
Meta description
“Discover the latest stories in history, archaeology, science, arts and culture from one of…”.
Official docs ↗
Pass
Indexing and snippets allowed
No noindex or nosnippet.
Official docs ↗
Pass
Canonical URL
Points to https://www.smithsonianmag.com/.
Official docs ↗
Pass
Text without JavaScript
12,781 characters are readable without JavaScript.
Official docs ↗
Pass
H1 heading
“From Hunting Hounds to Modernist Muses, Dachshunds Have Done It All. See the World’s First Art Exhib”.
Common practice
Pass
Sitemap
Declared in robots.txt: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/sitemap.xml.
Official docs ↗
Pass
Internal links
97 internal links on the homepage.
Official docs ↗
Pass
Image alt text
48 of 49 images have alt text.
Official docs ↗
Pass
Mobile viewport
Viewport is set.
Official docs ↗

Can they cite it 3 pass · 4 to improve · 0 problems

Signals that help AI recognize and quote you

Improve
Site name
No WebSite markup or og:site_name, so engines guess your site name.
Official docs ↗
Improve
Question-and-answer sections
5 question headings, 0 followed by a direct answer.
Hypothesis
Improve
Semantic tags
No <main> or <article>; content and navigation are mixed.
Common practice
Improve
Share card
Missing og:title og:image; shared links show an incomplete card.
Common practice
Pass
Structured data
1 block: Organization.
Official docs ↗
Pass
Organization
“Smithsonian Magazine”, with logo, 4 sameAs.
Official docs ↗
Pass
Author
“Smithsonian Magazine”.
Common practice
Note
Published and updated dates
No date signals. Homepages rarely need them; articles do.
Official docs ↗
Note
llms.txt
None. Google says it isn’t needed; other AI providers haven’t said whether they read it. Optional.
Hypothesis

Google says there are no extra requirements for AI Overviews and no special AI files or markup are needed: the page must be indexed and eligible for a snippet. So we list facts you can verify, and anything marked “Hypothesis” is only a suggestion.

How we test, and what it can’t tell you

We request your homepage from a data-center IP as a normal browser, with a Googlebot user agent, as an unknown bot, and with each AI crawler’s user agent. We don’t come from the crawlers’ own networks, so a site that verifies crawler IP addresses may treat the real crawler differently. The control groups separate a rule aimed at AI crawlers (high confidence) from a general bot rule (medium) or an IP-verification rule (low). To be certain, check your CDN or WAF logs for requests from the crawler’s published IP ranges. Methodology

Page checks

Page titlePresent
noindexNo
nosnippetNo
Content without JSOK
robots.txtFound
llms.txt (optional)None

smithsonianmag.com

AI search crawlers are blocked

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Can they read it 10 pass · 0 to improve · 0 problems

Can they cite it 3 pass · 4 to improve · 0 problems

How we test, and what it can’t tell you

Page checks

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