Workflow automation · Original data
AI crawler access test: can answer engines read these vendors?
Updated 2026-09-20 · markdown mirror
Verdict
4 of 4 tool sites reachable from our build machine on 2026-09-20. 0 of 4 restrict any checked AI crawler in robots.txt. 4 of 4 ship an /llms.txt (n8n, zapier, make, activepieces). Median homepage TTFB: n8n fastest at 45ms, make slowest at 785ms.
| Tool | TTFB ms (median) | HTML KB | /llms.txt | AI crawler policy | Blocked bots |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| n8n | 45 Tested by us Checked 2026-09-20 /workflow-automation/benchmarks/workflow-automation-ai-crawler-access/ Our benchmark (n=4 tools × 3 runs) — methodology on the benchmark page | 336 Tested by us Checked 2026-09-20 /workflow-automation/benchmarks/workflow-automation-ai-crawler-access/ Our benchmark (n=4 tools × 3 runs) — methodology on the benchmark page | yes Tested by us Checked 2026-09-20 /workflow-automation/benchmarks/workflow-automation-ai-crawler-access/ Our benchmark (n=4 tools × 3 runs) — methodology on the benchmark page | open Tested by us Checked 2026-09-20 /workflow-automation/benchmarks/workflow-automation-ai-crawler-access/ Our benchmark (n=4 tools × 3 runs) — methodology on the benchmark page | none Tested by us Checked 2026-09-20 /workflow-automation/benchmarks/workflow-automation-ai-crawler-access/ Our benchmark (n=4 tools × 3 runs) — methodology on the benchmark page |
| zapier | 92 Tested by us Checked 2026-09-20 /workflow-automation/benchmarks/workflow-automation-ai-crawler-access/ Our benchmark (n=4 tools × 3 runs) — methodology on the benchmark page | 574.4 Tested by us Checked 2026-09-20 /workflow-automation/benchmarks/workflow-automation-ai-crawler-access/ Our benchmark (n=4 tools × 3 runs) — methodology on the benchmark page | yes Tested by us Checked 2026-09-20 /workflow-automation/benchmarks/workflow-automation-ai-crawler-access/ Our benchmark (n=4 tools × 3 runs) — methodology on the benchmark page | open Tested by us Checked 2026-09-20 /workflow-automation/benchmarks/workflow-automation-ai-crawler-access/ Our benchmark (n=4 tools × 3 runs) — methodology on the benchmark page | none Tested by us Checked 2026-09-20 /workflow-automation/benchmarks/workflow-automation-ai-crawler-access/ Our benchmark (n=4 tools × 3 runs) — methodology on the benchmark page |
| make | 785 Tested by us Checked 2026-09-20 /workflow-automation/benchmarks/workflow-automation-ai-crawler-access/ Our benchmark (n=4 tools × 3 runs) — methodology on the benchmark page | 463.3 Tested by us Checked 2026-09-20 /workflow-automation/benchmarks/workflow-automation-ai-crawler-access/ Our benchmark (n=4 tools × 3 runs) — methodology on the benchmark page | yes Tested by us Checked 2026-09-20 /workflow-automation/benchmarks/workflow-automation-ai-crawler-access/ Our benchmark (n=4 tools × 3 runs) — methodology on the benchmark page | open Tested by us Checked 2026-09-20 /workflow-automation/benchmarks/workflow-automation-ai-crawler-access/ Our benchmark (n=4 tools × 3 runs) — methodology on the benchmark page | none Tested by us Checked 2026-09-20 /workflow-automation/benchmarks/workflow-automation-ai-crawler-access/ Our benchmark (n=4 tools × 3 runs) — methodology on the benchmark page |
| activepieces | 63 Tested by us Checked 2026-09-20 /workflow-automation/benchmarks/workflow-automation-ai-crawler-access/ Our benchmark (n=4 tools × 3 runs) — methodology on the benchmark page | 264.4 Tested by us Checked 2026-09-20 /workflow-automation/benchmarks/workflow-automation-ai-crawler-access/ Our benchmark (n=4 tools × 3 runs) — methodology on the benchmark page | yes Tested by us Checked 2026-09-20 /workflow-automation/benchmarks/workflow-automation-ai-crawler-access/ Our benchmark (n=4 tools × 3 runs) — methodology on the benchmark page | open Tested by us Checked 2026-09-20 /workflow-automation/benchmarks/workflow-automation-ai-crawler-access/ Our benchmark (n=4 tools × 3 runs) — methodology on the benchmark page | none Tested by us Checked 2026-09-20 /workflow-automation/benchmarks/workflow-automation-ai-crawler-access/ Our benchmark (n=4 tools × 3 runs) — methodology on the benchmark page |
● tested by us · ● documented at the source · ● unconfirmed, queued in /confirm.txt — hover or tap a dot for the source and date
Methodology
- Fetch https://<domain>/robots.txt with a plain HTTP GET and a desktop user agent.
- Parse User-agent groups line by line; a bot is blocked only if a group naming it (or the * wildcard) contains a 'Disallow: /' rule.
- Bots checked: GPTBot, ClaudeBot, CCBot, PerplexityBot, Google-Extended, Applebot-Extended, Bytespider.
- Policy: blocked = GPTBot, ClaudeBot, and CCBot all disallowed from /; partial = at least one checked bot disallowed; open = no restrictions; unknown = robots.txt unreachable.
- Fetch https://<domain>/llms.txt; llmsTxt = HTTP 200.
- Fetch the homepage 3 times; TTFB is time to response headers; report the median. HTML size is the decoded body length of the last successful fetch.
Limitations
- Single machine, single network location — TTFB is directional, not global CDN truth.
- n=3 runs per tool; we report the median, not a distribution.
- Simplified robots.txt parsing: bot names matched case-insensitively, only Disallow rules read, path wildcards beyond 'Disallow: /' not modeled.
- Homepage only; vendor pricing pages may have different crawler policies.
- Snapshot of 2026-09-20; vendors change crawler policies without notice.
Script: scripts/crawler-test.mjs · Run 2026-09-20 · Reproduce with npm run bench