How to Block AI Bots on Shopify

User-agent: GPTBot
Disallow: /

User-agent: ChatGPT-User
Disallow: /

User-agent: OAI-SearchBot
Disallow: /

User-agent: ClaudeBot
Disallow: /

User-agent: anthropic-ai
Disallow: /

User-agent: Google-Extended
Disallow: /

User-agent: Bytespider
Disallow: /

User-agent: CCBot
Disallow: /

User-agent: PerplexityBot
Disallow: /

User-agent: meta-externalagent
Disallow: /

User-agent: Amazonbot
Disallow: /

User-agent: Applebot-Extended
Disallow: /

User-agent: xAI-Bot
Disallow: /

User-agent: DeepSeekBot
Disallow: /

User-agent: MistralBot
Disallow: /

User-agent: Diffbot
Disallow: /

User-agent: cohere-ai
Disallow: /

User-agent: AI2Bot
Disallow: /

User-agent: Ai2Bot-Dolma
Disallow: /

User-agent: YouBot
Disallow: /

User-agent: DuckAssistBot
Disallow: /

User-agent: omgili
Disallow: /

User-agent: omgilibot
Disallow: /

User-agent: webzio-extended
Disallow: /

User-agent: gemini-deep-research
Disallow: /

4 Methods to Block AI Bots on Shopify

Method 1: Edit robots.txt.liquid

This is the correct and officially-supported way to customise your Shopify robots.txt. The template approach means your changes survive theme updates — the file lives in your theme, not Shopify's platform layer.

1. 1

   In your Shopify admin, go to Online Store → Themes.

   Make sure you're editing your live theme (or a duplicate if you want to test first).

2. 2

   Click the ⋮ (three dots) menu on your theme → Edit code.

3. 3

   In the left sidebar, look under Templates for robots.txt.liquid.

   If it doesn't exist, click Add a new template, select robots.txt from the dropdown, and click Create template.

4. 4

   The default template will already contain Shopify's built-in rules (blocking /admin, /cart, etc.) using Liquid tags. Keep all of those — scroll to the end of the file.

5. 5

   Paste the AI bot rules from the Quick Block section at the end of the file, after all existing rules.

6. 6

   Click Save. Verify by visiting yourdomain.com/robots.txt.

   You should see your GPTBot and ClaudeBot Disallow rules at the bottom of the file.

{% comment %}
  Shopify generates robots.txt from this template.
  Keep the default rules below — they block internal paths.
  Add your custom AI bot Disallow rules after this block.
{% endcomment %}
{% for group in robots.default_groups %}
  {% for rule in group.rules %}
User-agent: {{ rule.user_agent }}
    {% for directive in rule.directives %}
{{ directive.directive }}: {{ directive.value }}
    {% endfor %}
  {% endfor %}
{% endfor %}

{# ← Paste your AI bot rules here #}

Method 2: Add noai Meta Tags via theme.liquid

The noai and noimageai meta tags signal to AI crawlers not to use your page content for training — even if they visit. Add them globally via your theme's main layout file.

1. 1In the theme code editor, open Layout → theme.liquid.
2. 2Find the </head> closing tag.
3. 3Paste the meta tag immediately before </head>:

<meta name="robots" content="noai, noimageai">

To target only product pages (not your blog or homepage):

{% if template == 'product' or template == 'collection' %}
  <meta name="robots" content="noai, noimageai">
{% endif %}

Method 3: Cloudflare WAF (Stops robots.txt Violators)

robots.txt is a convention. Bytespider (ByteDance) has been documented ignoring it. If your Shopify store is proxied through Cloudflare, you can block AI bots at the network edge before they reach Shopify at all.

1. 1Go to your Cloudflare dashboard → your domain → Security → WAF → Custom Rules.
2. 2Click Create rule.
3. 3Set field: User Agent, operator: contains, then use OR to add each bot.
4. 4Or use the Expression Editor for the full rule:

(http.user_agent contains "GPTBot") or
(http.user_agent contains "ClaudeBot") or
(http.user_agent contains "anthropic-ai") or
(http.user_agent contains "Google-Extended") or
(http.user_agent contains "Bytespider") or
(http.user_agent contains "CCBot") or
(http.user_agent contains "PerplexityBot") or
(http.user_agent contains "meta-externalagent") or
(http.user_agent contains "DeepSeekBot") or
(http.user_agent contains "MistralBot") or
(http.user_agent contains "xAI-Bot") or
(http.user_agent contains "Diffbot") or
(http.user_agent contains "cohere-ai") or
(http.user_agent contains "AI2Bot") or
(http.user_agent contains "DuckAssistBot") or
(http.user_agent contains "omgilibot") or
(http.user_agent contains "webzio-extended")

Set action to Block. Deploy. AI bots will receive 403 Forbidden regardless of robots.txt.

Which AI Bots Matter for Shopify Stores

What each bot is actually doing to your store content:

Will This Affect My Google Shopping Rankings?

Shopify Plan Limitations

Verify Your Shopify Block Is Working

Frequently Asked Questions