{
 "study": "agent-denial",
 "title": "Do AI-agent vendors block AI agents?",
 "scans": [
  "2026-10-01",
  "2026-10-06"
 ],
 "updated": "2026-10-06",
 "vantage": "TestedActually build machine, GET / with the crawler's exact user-agent, redirects followed",
 "crawlers": [
  "GPTBot",
  "OAI-SearchBot",
  "ChatGPT-User",
  "ClaudeBot",
  "Claude-SearchBot",
  "Claude-User",
  "Google-Extended",
  "PerplexityBot",
  "CCBot"
 ],
 "answerSurfaceCrawlers": [
  "OAI-SearchBot",
  "ChatGPT-User",
  "Claude-SearchBot",
  "Claude-User",
  "PerplexityBot"
 ],
 "trainingCrawlers": [
  "GPTBot",
  "ClaudeBot",
  "CCBot",
  "Google-Extended"
 ],
 "method": [
  "Fetch each vendor homepage with each crawler's exact user-agent string; record HTTP status.",
  "Parse each robots.txt for per-crawler groups; record allow/disallow verdicts.",
  "Fetch each homepage once with our own research user-agent as a control; a status equal to the control means the wall is not crawler-specific.",
  "Fetch plain 'Googlebot' as a second control; vendors that block it are running anti-spoofing bot-fighting, which we label separately from AI policy.",
  "Re-scan weekly; a verdict counts only after it holds across consecutive scans (2 so far)."
 ],
 "summary": {
  "vendors": 26,
  "marketsToAgents": 23,
  "deniesAnswerSurface": 0,
  "contradictions": 0,
  "trainingCrawlerBlocks": [
   [
    "Botpress",
    [
     "CCBot",
     "ClaudeBot",
     "GPTBot"
    ]
   ],
   [
    "Klaviyo",
    [
     "Google-Extended"
    ]
   ],
   [
    "Omnisend",
    [
     "Google-Extended"
    ]
   ],
   [
    "Pipedrive",
    [
     "Google-Extended"
    ]
   ],
   [
    "Zoho CRM",
    [
     "CCBot",
     "ClaudeBot",
     "GPTBot"
    ]
   ]
  ],
  "blanketChallengeWalls": [
   "Make"
  ],
  "impersonationWallSuspected": [
   "Klaviyo",
   "Omnisend",
   "Pipedrive"
  ],
  "robotsBlockAllAnyBot": [
   "Attio"
  ]
 },
 "rows": [
  {
   "vendor": "ActiveCampaign",
   "domain": "activecampaign.com",
   "markets_to_agents": true,
   "denies_answer_surface_edge": [],
   "blocks_training_crawlers_edge": [],
   "impersonation_wall_suspected": [],
   "blanket_challenge": false,
   "robots_block_all": [],
   "control": "200",
   "contradiction": false
  },
  {
   "vendor": "Attio",
   "domain": "attio.com",
   "markets_to_agents": true,
   "denies_answer_surface_edge": [],
   "blocks_training_crawlers_edge": [],
   "impersonation_wall_suspected": [],
   "blanket_challenge": false,
   "robots_block_all": [
    "CCBot"
   ],
   "control": "200",
   "contradiction": false
  },
  {
   "vendor": "Bland",
   "domain": "bland.ai",
   "markets_to_agents": true,
   "denies_answer_surface_edge": [],
   "blocks_training_crawlers_edge": [],
   "impersonation_wall_suspected": [],
   "blanket_challenge": false,
   "robots_block_all": [],
   "control": "200",
   "contradiction": false
  },
  {
   "vendor": "Botpress",
   "domain": "botpress.com",
   "markets_to_agents": true,
   "denies_answer_surface_edge": [],
   "blocks_training_crawlers_edge": [
    "CCBot",
    "ClaudeBot",
    "GPTBot"
   ],
   "impersonation_wall_suspected": [],
   "blanket_challenge": false,
   "robots_block_all": [],
   "control": "200",
   "contradiction": false
  },
  {
   "vendor": "Braze",
   "domain": "braze.com",
   "markets_to_agents": true,
   "denies_answer_surface_edge": [],
   "blocks_training_crawlers_edge": [],
   "impersonation_wall_suspected": [],
   "blanket_challenge": false,
   "robots_block_all": [],
   "control": "200",
   "contradiction": false
  },
  {
   "vendor": "Close",
   "domain": "close.com",
   "markets_to_agents": true,
   "denies_answer_surface_edge": [],
   "blocks_training_crawlers_edge": [],
   "impersonation_wall_suspected": [],
   "blanket_challenge": false,
   "robots_block_all": [],
   "control": "200",
   "contradiction": false
  },
  {
   "vendor": "Customer.io",
   "domain": "customer.io",
   "markets_to_agents": true,
   "denies_answer_surface_edge": [],
   "blocks_training_crawlers_edge": [],
   "impersonation_wall_suspected": [],
   "blanket_challenge": false,
   "robots_block_all": [],
   "control": "200",
   "contradiction": false
  },
  {
   "vendor": "Ellipsis",
   "domain": "ellipsis.dev",
   "markets_to_agents": true,
   "denies_answer_surface_edge": [],
   "blocks_training_crawlers_edge": [],
   "impersonation_wall_suspected": [],
   "blanket_challenge": false,
   "robots_block_all": [],
   "control": "200",
   "contradiction": false
  },
  {
   "vendor": "GMass",
   "domain": "gmass.co",
   "markets_to_agents": true,
   "denies_answer_surface_edge": [],
   "blocks_training_crawlers_edge": [],
   "impersonation_wall_suspected": [],
   "blanket_challenge": false,
   "robots_block_all": [],
   "control": "200",
   "contradiction": false
  },
  {
   "vendor": "HubSpot",
   "domain": "hubspot.com",
   "markets_to_agents": true,
   "denies_answer_surface_edge": [],
   "blocks_training_crawlers_edge": [],
   "impersonation_wall_suspected": [],
   "blanket_challenge": false,
   "robots_block_all": [],
   "control": "200",
   "contradiction": false
  },
  {
   "vendor": "Klaviyo",
   "domain": "klaviyo.com",
   "markets_to_agents": true,
   "denies_answer_surface_edge": [],
   "blocks_training_crawlers_edge": [
    "Google-Extended"
   ],
   "impersonation_wall_suspected": [
    "Google-Extended"
   ],
   "blanket_challenge": false,
   "robots_block_all": [],
   "control": "200",
   "contradiction": false
  },
  {
   "vendor": "Lindy",
   "domain": "lindy.ai",
   "markets_to_agents": true,
   "denies_answer_surface_edge": [],
   "blocks_training_crawlers_edge": [],
   "impersonation_wall_suspected": [],
   "blanket_challenge": false,
   "robots_block_all": [],
   "control": "200",
   "contradiction": false
  },
  {
   "vendor": "Mailchimp",
   "domain": "mailchimp.com",
   "markets_to_agents": true,
   "denies_answer_surface_edge": [],
   "blocks_training_crawlers_edge": [],
   "impersonation_wall_suspected": [],
   "blanket_challenge": false,
   "robots_block_all": [],
   "control": "200",
   "contradiction": false
  },
  {
   "vendor": "Make",
   "domain": "make.com",
   "markets_to_agents": true,
   "denies_answer_surface_edge": [],
   "blocks_training_crawlers_edge": [],
   "impersonation_wall_suspected": [],
   "blanket_challenge": true,
   "robots_block_all": [],
   "control": "403 (challenge)",
   "contradiction": false
  },
  {
   "vendor": "Mem",
   "domain": "mem.ai",
   "markets_to_agents": true,
   "denies_answer_surface_edge": [],
   "blocks_training_crawlers_edge": [],
   "impersonation_wall_suspected": [],
   "blanket_challenge": false,
   "robots_block_all": [],
   "control": "200",
   "contradiction": false
  },
  {
   "vendor": "Mixmax",
   "domain": "mixmax.com",
   "markets_to_agents": true,
   "denies_answer_surface_edge": [],
   "blocks_training_crawlers_edge": [],
   "impersonation_wall_suspected": [],
   "blanket_challenge": false,
   "robots_block_all": [],
   "control": "200",
   "contradiction": false
  },
  {
   "vendor": "Omnisend",
   "domain": "omnisend.com",
   "markets_to_agents": true,
   "denies_answer_surface_edge": [],
   "blocks_training_crawlers_edge": [
    "Google-Extended"
   ],
   "impersonation_wall_suspected": [
    "Google-Extended"
   ],
   "blanket_challenge": false,
   "robots_block_all": [],
   "control": "200",
   "contradiction": false
  },
  {
   "vendor": "Pipedrive",
   "domain": "pipedrive.com",
   "markets_to_agents": true,
   "denies_answer_surface_edge": [],
   "blocks_training_crawlers_edge": [
    "Google-Extended"
   ],
   "impersonation_wall_suspected": [
    "Google-Extended"
   ],
   "blanket_challenge": false,
   "robots_block_all": [],
   "control": "200",
   "contradiction": false
  },
  {
   "vendor": "Relevance AI",
   "domain": "relevance.ai",
   "markets_to_agents": true,
   "denies_answer_surface_edge": [],
   "blocks_training_crawlers_edge": [],
   "impersonation_wall_suspected": [],
   "blanket_challenge": false,
   "robots_block_all": [],
   "control": "200",
   "contradiction": false
  },
  {
   "vendor": "Zapier",
   "domain": "zapier.com",
   "markets_to_agents": true,
   "denies_answer_surface_edge": [],
   "blocks_training_crawlers_edge": [],
   "impersonation_wall_suspected": [],
   "blanket_challenge": false,
   "robots_block_all": [],
   "control": "200",
   "contradiction": false
  },
  {
   "vendor": "Zoho CRM",
   "domain": "zoho.com",
   "markets_to_agents": true,
   "denies_answer_surface_edge": [],
   "blocks_training_crawlers_edge": [
    "CCBot",
    "ClaudeBot",
    "GPTBot"
   ],
   "impersonation_wall_suspected": [],
   "blanket_challenge": false,
   "robots_block_all": [],
   "control": "200",
   "contradiction": false
  },
  {
   "vendor": "folk",
   "domain": "folk.app",
   "markets_to_agents": true,
   "denies_answer_surface_edge": [],
   "blocks_training_crawlers_edge": [],
   "impersonation_wall_suspected": [],
   "blanket_challenge": false,
   "robots_block_all": [],
   "control": "200",
   "contradiction": false
  },
  {
   "vendor": "n8n",
   "domain": "n8n.io",
   "markets_to_agents": true,
   "denies_answer_surface_edge": [],
   "blocks_training_crawlers_edge": [],
   "impersonation_wall_suspected": [],
   "blanket_challenge": false,
   "robots_block_all": [],
   "control": "200",
   "contradiction": false
  },
  {
   "vendor": "Mailmeteor",
   "domain": "mailmeteor.com",
   "markets_to_agents": false,
   "denies_answer_surface_edge": [],
   "blocks_training_crawlers_edge": [],
   "impersonation_wall_suspected": [],
   "blanket_challenge": false,
   "robots_block_all": [],
   "control": "200",
   "contradiction": false
  },
  {
   "vendor": "Motion (motion.app 301s to usemotion.com)",
   "domain": "motion.app",
   "markets_to_agents": false,
   "denies_answer_surface_edge": [],
   "blocks_training_crawlers_edge": [],
   "impersonation_wall_suspected": [],
   "blanket_challenge": false,
   "robots_block_all": [],
   "control": "200",
   "contradiction": false
  },
  {
   "vendor": "Yesware",
   "domain": "yesware.com",
   "markets_to_agents": false,
   "denies_answer_surface_edge": [],
   "blocks_training_crawlers_edge": [],
   "impersonation_wall_suspected": [],
   "blanket_challenge": false,
   "robots_block_all": [],
   "control": "200",
   "contradiction": false
  }
 ]
}