Is Cloudflare blocking ChatGPT from my shop?
Quite possibly. Since 1 July 2025 Cloudflare blocks known AI crawlers on new domains unless the owner allows them. Many shop owners never chose this: it came with the default settings.
Why it matters
AI companies run separate crawlers for separate jobs. OpenAI's OAI-SearchBot finds pages for ChatGPT search; ChatGPT-User opens a page when someone asks about it; GPTBot collects training data. A blanket block stops all three, so ChatGPT can't find or open your shop when a shopper asks.
How to check
- Run the free check on this site: it reads your robots.txt and asks for your pages as each AI crawler, and says whether Cloudflare manages your robots.txt.
- In Cloudflare, open your domain and look under Security › Bots (or AI Crawl Control) for the AI crawler settings.
How to fix it without giving up your training choice
Allow the search and answer crawlers and keep the training crawlers blocked if you prefer. Blocking training is a legitimate choice and doesn't hide you from AI search.
| OAI-SearchBot | OpenAI | AI search and answers | docs |
| ChatGPT-User | OpenAI | Opens pages when a person asks | docs |
| Claude-SearchBot | Anthropic | AI search and answers | docs |
| Claude-User | Anthropic | Opens pages when a person asks | docs |
| PerplexityBot | Perplexity | AI search and answers | docs |
| Perplexity-User | Perplexity | Opens pages when a person asks | docs |
| Googlebot | AI search and answers | docs | |
| Applebot | Apple | AI search and answers | docs |
| bingbot | Microsoft | AI search and answers | docs |
| DuckAssistBot | DuckDuckGo | Opens pages when a person asks | docs |
| MistralAI-User | Mistral AI | Opens pages when a person asks | docs |
If Cloudflare manages your robots.txt, change the rules in Cloudflare: edits made in your shop can be overwritten.
Check your shop free. It takes about 20 seconds and tells you exactly what’s blocked and the lines that fix it.
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