NotebookLM
Few readable files block NotebookLM in October 2026, at 8 sites or 0.1%. Its operator is unclear in the community reference.
Who runs NotebookLM?
| Fact | NotebookLM reference entry |
|---|---|
| Operator | “Unclear at this time.” |
| Purpose | “AI Assistants” |
| Does NotebookLM obey robots.txt? | “Unclear at this time.” |
| Frequency | “Unclear at this time.” |
| Cloudflare managed list for NotebookLM | No |
These facts quote the stored community ai.robots.txt reference.
“NotebookLM is an AI-powered research and note-taking assistant that helps users synthesize information from their own uploaded sources, such as documents, transcripts, or web content. It can generate summaries, answer questions, and highlight key themes from the materials you provide, acting like a personalized research companion built on Google's Gemini model. NotebookLM fetches source URLs when users add them to their notebooks, enabling the AI to access and analyze those pages for context and insights.”
The stated role here is an AI assistant. Reading a page to answer a user has a different purpose from building a model with it. Owners may allow the requested visit.
How many sites block it?
A User-agent line names it in 11 files, 0.2% of 6,171 readable files. Whole-site bans, written Disallow: /, total 8, or 0.1%. That leaves 6,163 without a recorded ban.
At the top 1,000 ranks, we could read 552 files. Naming covers 2, a 0.4% share, and blocking covers 1. Blocking is more common among the leading sites, at 0.2%. Elsewhere, 5,619 readable files give 7 blocks, or 0.1%.
| Readable files | Named by | Named share | Blocked by | Blocked share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NotebookLM, all ranks | 11 | 0.2% | 8 | 0.1% |
| NotebookLM, top 1,000 | 2 | 0.4% | 1 | 0.2% |
| NotebookLM, remaining ranks | 9 | 0.2% | 7 | 0.1% |
This is a count of blocks attached to the named crawler, covering the whole site. Blanket rules for every crawler do not enter it. Names and bans overlap in 8 files. We also found 3 files with a name and no whole-site ban, plus 6,160 files omitting the name. Case changes and repeated spellings are merged.
How to block or allow it
Place the group in your root robots.txt file. Per the robots.txt standard, a named group for NotebookLM overrides User-agent: *.
Block the whole site
User-agent: NotebookLM
Disallow: /Allow access
User-agent: NotebookLM
Allow: /It's the 171st most-named crawler of the 171 we counted in the crawler index.
How we counted
For NotebookLM, our 19 October 2026 collection used Tranco’s top 10,000 sites. A request timed out after 8 seconds, with files capped at 262,144 bytes. Only available files we could read enter the percentages. Repeat readings are included, using scripts/robots_2026_08_06.py (robots.py at app commit 07104ff). See the full survey method.
Common questions
Does a User-agent line mean it is blocked?
A name identifies the crawler addressed by a group. The survey found 3 files with that name and no recorded whole-site ban, out of 11.
What do the top-ranked sites show?
Its name appears in 0.4% of readable leading files and 0.2% overall. Blocking affects 0.2% in the leading group and 0.1% in all ranks.
Which nearby entry can I compare?
qodercli is named by 12 files and blocked by 11, or 0.2%. For this crawler, 11 files name it and 8 block it, a 0.1% share.