---
title: "Do noai and noimageai Meta Tags Stop AI Crawlers? What Each Vendor's Docs Say (2026)"
slug: noai-noimageai-meta-tag
published: 2026-11-12T13:12:55.083674+00:00
updated: 2026-11-12T13:12:55.083674+00:00
author: "M Asif Rahman"
author_url: https://ar.bd
category: "AI Readiness"
tags: check:B1, check:B2, noai, robots meta, AI training, robots.txt
description: "No crawler operator documents noai or noimageai. We read eight vendors' crawler docs on 12 Nov 2026: the table, a checker script and the robots.txt fix."
url: https://aiscan.site/blog/noai-noimageai-meta-tag
---
No. On 12 Nov 2026 we read the crawler documentation of eight AI operators (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Apple, Perplexity, Common Crawl, Amazon and Microsoft) and none of them documents `noai` or `noimageai`. The tag states a preference that no documented crawler acts on. Google's own robots meta page goes further: it supports two names in that tag, `googlebot` and `googlebot-news`, and "other values are ignored", so `` does nothing at Google.
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| **Does `noai` stop AI crawlers?** | No operator we checked documents it (8 of 8, read 12 Nov 2026) |
| **Does `noimageai`?** | Same: 0 of 8 |
| **``?** | Ignored. Google-Extended is a robots.txt token only |
| **What does work today** | A named `User-agent` group in robots.txt for each training crawler |
| **The one page-level AI tag with a vendor behind it** | Bing's `ai-training:disallow`, honoured from 1 Feb 2027 |
| **AIScan check** | None reads these tags. B1 (Content Signals) and B2 (named AI bot rules) read robots.txt |
| **Time to fix** | 10 minutes, plus a re-scan |
## Why the tag looks like it should work
`noai` borrows the shape of a real control. `` works because search engines wrote it into their documentation and their crawlers parse it. `noai` and `noimageai` were added to the same tag by artist portfolio sites in the image-model rush, then copied into themes, plugins and forum answers. Nobody who runs a crawler signed up to read them. Threads like the r/artstation one asking ["When you put NoAI on your online portfolio does it really..."](https://www.reddit.com/r/artstation/comments/14qyxx8/) keep asking the same question because the answer is in no vendor's docs.
The `google-extended` variant is a category error. Google's [common crawlers page](https://developers.google.com/crawling/docs/crawlers-fetchers/google-common-crawlers) says Google-Extended "doesn't have a separate HTTP request user agent string" and that "the robots.txt user-agent token is used in a control capacity". It lives in robots.txt, not in a meta tag. Google's [robots meta tag documentation](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/robots-meta-tag) names the two tokens it accepts in `name=` and ignores the rest.
## What each operator documents (read 12 Nov 2026)
We fetched each page with a browser user agent on 12 Nov 2026 and searched it for `noai`, `noimageai`, robots.txt and page-level tags.
| Operator | Documents `noai` / `noimageai`? | Documented AI control | Page-level option they do document |
|---|---|---|---|
| [OpenAI](https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/bots) | No | `User-agent: GPTBot` in robots.txt ("Disallowing GPTBot indicates a site's content should not be used in training") | None |
| [Anthropic](https://support.claude.com/en/articles/8896518-does-anthropic-crawl-data-from-the-web-and-how-can-site-owners-block-the-crawler) | No | `User-agent: ClaudeBot` in robots.txt | None |
| [Google](https://developers.google.com/crawling/docs/crawlers-fetchers/google-common-crawlers) | No | `User-agent: Google-Extended` in robots.txt | `nosnippet` keeps a page out of AI Overviews and AI Mode as direct input (Search, not training) |
| [Apple](https://support.apple.com/en-us/119829) | No | `User-agent: Applebot-Extended` in robots.txt for model training | `nosnippet` opts content out of Siri and Search "broad world knowledge answers" |
| [Perplexity](https://docs.perplexity.ai/guides/bots) | No | `User-agent: PerplexityBot` (search; Perplexity says it is not used for foundation models) | None |
| [Common Crawl](https://commoncrawl.org/ccbot) | No | `User-agent: CCBot` / `Disallow: /` | None |
| [Amazon](https://developer.amazon.com/amazonbot) | No | `User-agent: Amazonbot` in robots.txt | `noarchive`, which Amazon defines as "do not use the page for model training" |
| [Microsoft (Bing)](https://blogs.bing.com/search/2026/10/your-content-your-choice-clearer-preferences-for-training-and-grounding/) | No | `User-Agent: __usage_ai-training` group, from 1 Feb 2027 | `` and `ai-grounding:`, from 1 Feb 2027; `NoArchive` / `NoCache` until 1 Mar 2027 |
Two findings stand out. First, the page-level controls that do exist are spelled differently at every vendor: Amazon reuses `noarchive`, Apple and Google reuse `nosnippet`, and Bing is adding a new `Bingbot` vocabulary. Second, every one of the eight documents a robots.txt route. That is the only control they share.
Bing's post of 30 Oct 2026 also says its new preferences "will replace existing Microsoft preferences NoArchive and NoCache", and that after 1 March 2027 those two "will no longer be read as a preference for training or grounding". If you already use `noarchive` for Bing, plan that move now. Our [guide to the `__usage_ai-training` token](/blog/usage-ai-training-robots-txt-token) covers the robots.txt half.
## Find the tag on your own pages
This one line lists any `noai` tag in a page's served HTML:
```bash
curl -s https://yoursite.com/ | grep -ioE ']+content="[^"]*no(image)?ai[^"]*"'
```
Headers can carry it too, so check `curl -sI https://yoursite.com/ | grep -i x-robots-tag`.
For a fuller reading we wrote a 34-line Python checker. It reads meta tags and `X-Robots-Tag` headers and prints, for each AI-related rule, which operator documents it. We ran it on Python 3.11.18 on 12 Nov 2026 against a local test page carrying every variant, and against our own four sites. Save it as `ai-meta-check.py` and pass it one or more URLs:
```python
import re, sys, urllib.request
# Which operator documents each page-level rule (vendor docs read 12 Nov 2026)
DOCS = {
"ai-training": "Microsoft Bingbot, from 1 Feb 2027",
"ai-grounding": "Microsoft Bingbot, from 1 Feb 2027",
"noarchive": "Amazon (no model training); Bing until 1 Mar 2027",
"nocache": "Bing until 1 Mar 2027",
"nosnippet": "Apple (no world-knowledge answers); Google (no AI Overviews input)",
}
AGENTS = {"robots", "googlebot", "bingbot", "google-extended", "gptbot", "claudebot"}
def rules(url):
req = urllib.request.Request(url, headers={"User-Agent": "Mozilla/5.0"})
with urllib.request.urlopen(req, timeout=20) as r:
html = r.read().decode("utf8", "ignore")
for h in r.headers.get_all("X-Robots-Tag") or []:
m = re.match(r"\s*([\w-]+):\s*(.*)", h)
name, val = (m.groups() if m and m.group(1).lower() in AGENTS else ("robots", h))
yield "header", name.lower(), val
for tag in re.findall(r"]*>", html, re.I):
n = re.search(r'name=["\']?([\w-]+)', tag, re.I)
c = re.search(r'content=["\']([^"\']*)', tag, re.I)
if n and c and n.group(1).lower() in AGENTS:
yield "meta", n.group(1).lower(), c.group(1)
for url in sys.argv[1:]:
print(url)
for src, name, val in rules(url):
for rule in (v.strip().lower() for v in val.split(",")):
key = rule.split(":")[0]
if key in ("noai", "noimageai") or key in DOCS or name == "google-extended":
doc = None if name == "google-extended" else DOCS.get(key)
print(f" {src:6} {name}: {rule:22} -> {doc or 'no operator documents this'}")
```
The output:
```text
http://127.0.0.1:8765/test.html
header robots: noai -> no operator documents this
header robots: noimageai -> no operator documents this
header bingbot: ai-grounding:disallowextended -> Microsoft Bingbot, from 1 Feb 2027
meta robots: noai -> no operator documents this
meta robots: noimageai -> no operator documents this
meta google-extended: noai -> no operator documents this
meta bingbot: ai-training:disallow -> Microsoft Bingbot, from 1 Feb 2027
meta robots: noarchive -> Amazon (no model training); Bing until 1 Mar 2027
https://aiscan.site/
https://xspeedcache.com/
https://storeseo.com/
https://bettershield.ai/
```
None of our four sites carries a page-level AI tag. Their training preferences live in robots.txt, which is where the table above says they belong.
## The fix: say it where crawlers read it
1. **Decide which operators you want to keep out of training.** Leave search crawlers (Googlebot, Bingbot, OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot) open unless you want to leave those search products too.
2. **Add one named group per training crawler to robots.txt**, each with its own `User-agent` line and a blank line between groups:
```text
User-agent: GPTBot
Disallow: /
User-agent: ClaudeBot
Disallow: /
User-agent: Google-Extended
Disallow: /
User-agent: Applebot-Extended
Disallow: /
User-agent: CCBot
Disallow: /
User-Agent: __usage_ai-training
Disallow: /
```
3. **Check for a `Google-Extended` group with `Allow: /`** elsewhere in the file. It wins over the shared token at Google, as our [precedence table](/blog/google-extended-overrides-usage-ai-training) shows.
4. **For Bing from 1 Feb 2027**, add `` on pages that need a page-level rule, or rely on the token group above for the whole site.
5. **Declare a policy as well, if you like.** Cloudflare's `Content-Signal` line (what AIScan's B1 reads) and the other declaration formats are compared in our [content-use policy guide](/blog/declare-content-use-policy-to-ai). The [robots.txt starter for AI crawlers](/blog/robots-txt-starter-for-ai-crawlers) has a complete file.
**On WordPress**, edit robots.txt and robots meta from one place with [ThinkRank](https://thinkrank.ai). One plugin owns the file instead of three fighting over it, and it migrates settings from Rank Math, Yoast, AIOSEO and SEOPress. Yoast and Rank Math also have file editors if you already run one of them.
**Should you delete the `noai` tag?** No need. It costs nothing, breaks nothing, and some sites keep it as a public statement. Treat it as a stance, not a control, and do not let it stand in for the robots.txt groups.
## Verify it with AIScan, then by hand
Run `npx aiscan-cli yoursite.com` and open **B2, Explicit AI bot rules** on the [bot access check page](/docs/checks/bot-access). It should list GPTBot, ClaudeBot and the other names you added. B1 should show your `Content-Signal` line if you added one. AIScan does not score `noai` either way, because nothing reads it.
By hand: `curl -s https://yoursite.com/robots.txt` should print each group, and the file should return `200` with `text/plain`.
## Your next step
Scan your site at [aiscan.site](https://aiscan.site/), check B2, and move any `noai`-only opt-out into robots.txt this week. More short fixes are in the [guides](/guides).