Block AI Crawlers

Description

Protect Your Content from AI Scraping

This plugin helps you prevent AI crawlers from using your content as training data for their products. By updating your site’s robots.txt, it blocks common AI crawlers and scrapers, aiming to protect your content from being used in the training of Large Language Models (LLMs).

Features

Blocks AI Crawlers

Includes:

• OpenAI – Blocks crawlers used for ChatGPT
• Google – Blocks crawlers used by Google’s Gemini AI products
• Facebook / Meta – Used for Facebook’s AI training
• Anthropic AI – Blocks crawlers used by Anthropic
• Perplexity – Block crawlers used by Perplexity
• Applebot – Blocks crawlers used by Apple
• … and more!

Experimental Meta Tags

The plugin adds the “noai, noimageai” directive to your site’s meta tags, instructing AI bots not to use your content in their datasets. Please note that these tags are experimental and have not been standardized.

Usage

After activation, the plugin will automatically update your robots.txt and add the necessary meta tags. No further configuration is required, but you can check the settings page for a full list of blocked crawlers.

Limitations

While this plugin aims to block specified crawlers, it cannot guarantee complete protection against all forms of scraping, as some bots may disregard robots.txt directives.

Support

For questions or support, please post on the forums or on GitHub.

Screenshots

Installation

1. Download the plugin zip file.
2. Go to your WordPress admin panel.
3. Navigate to Plugins > Add New > Upload Plugin.
4. Choose the zip file and click “Install Now.”
5. Activate the plugin.1. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress
6. Once installed the plugin is automatically activated. There are no user configured settings
7. You can view more about what crawlers are being blocked at “Settings > Block AI Crawlers”

FAQ

Will this remove my site from existing data sets?

Unfortunately, no. However, it does tell bots that your site shouldn’t be used for future datasets.

How does this work?

The plugin adds directives to the robots.txt file to tell AI crawlers that they shouldn’t index your site. It also adds the noai meta tag to your site’s header to do the same.

How often is this updated?

I try to keep up with new crawlers and update the block list regularly.

Can I suggest crawlers for blocking?

Yes! please share suggestions on the forums or on GitHub.

What if I already have a `robots.txt` file on my web server?

If you have a physical robots.txt file on your web server, you won’t be able to activate this plugin. The plugin only works when using WordPress’ built-in virtual robots.txt.

Will this work with other plugins that modify the virtual `robots.txt`?

It should in theory. It just appends the directives to the robots.txt file.

Will this prevent my site from being indexed by search engines?

No. Search engines follow different robots.txt rules.

Reviews

Excellent, much needed and off to a good start

scbv November 13, 2024

Really appreciate this plugin. Have had it for about 1 month, great to see new updates getting pushed out. The one feature would love to see is how to append or edit to the virtual robots.txt file. Tried using “Block AI Crawlers” plugin in conjunction with the plugin “Virtual Robots.txt” and it’s one or the other, can’t use both. “Virtual Robots.txt” overrides “Block AI Crawlers”.

Very useful plugin; works well

gfields108 August 6, 2024

A simple plugin that asks (via the Wordpress robot.txt file) multiple AI crawlers to leave your site alone. Just works and saves much trouble manually updating the robots.txt file.

Useful plugin

sginsbe May 27, 2024

Does what it says on the tin. Very much appreciated, thank you!

Contributors & Developers

Changelog

1.4.1

= New: Block Turnitinbot
– New: Block Ai2Bot-Dolma
– Enhancement: WordPress 6.7 compatibility

1.4.0

• New: Block Kangaroo Bot
• New: Block sentibot
• New: Block FriendlyCrawler
• New: Block Scrapy
• Fix: Broken link to settings page from Plugins page
• Enhancement: Improve readme.md and readme.txt

1.3.9

• New: Block PetalBot
• New: Block AI2Bot
• New: Block Webz.io
• New: Block OpenAI Search Bot (SearchGPT)
• Enhancement: Alphabetize list of blocked crawlers
• Enhancement: Indicate compatibility with WordPress v6.6
• Enhancement: Add quick link to settings and nudge for rating on plugins page

1.3.8

• Maintenance: Auto-deply from Github fixed / bumped version number

1.3.7

• New: Meta AI
• New: Block You.com Crawler
• New: Block AmazonBot
• New: Block Timpibot

1.3.6

• New: Block Perplexity
• New: Block Apple AI
• Update: FAQ based on submitted question

1.3.5

• New: Block additional Omgili bot
• New: Block Imagesift
• Fix: Fix settings page
• Add: blueprint.json for plugin preview

1.3.3

• Fix: Issue with fatal errors on activation

1.3.1

• New: Blocks Anthropic’s Claude
• Fix: Missing external link icons
• Update: Bump tested to v6.5.3

1.3.0

• New: Adds settings page showing blocked crawlers
• Enhancement: Remove crawler description in robots.txt

1.2.2

• Update: Adds deploy from GitHub

1.2.1

• Maintenance: Adds deploy from GitHub

1.2.0

• Block Cohere crawler
• Block DiffBot crawler
• Block Anthropic AI crawler
• Indicate compatibility w/WordPress 6.5.2

1.1.0

• Blocks additional crawlers.

1.0.0

Initial Release.