Do the top thousand sites charge AI crawlers, block them, or let AI agents buy?

Researchers analyzed the top 1000 websites and found that 16.4% require registration or subscription for AI crawlers, 35.6% block them outright, and 48% allow AI agents to purchase access. The study also found that major news and media websites are more likely to block or require registration for AI crawlers, while e-commerce and online shopping sites are more likely to allow access for purchase. The results suggest that developers and operators of AI agents should consider obtaining explicit permission or purchasing access to scrape data from high-traffic websites. This is especially relevant for applications that rely on web scraping, such as data aggregation and analysis tools, where access restrictions can significantly impact the quality and quantity of data collected.

HN Score 0 11/12/2026, 1:02:27 PM Original Source
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