Websites are closing their doors to AI agents

Why it matters

Major websites are shutting out the autonomous AI agents that OpenAI, Meta, Google, xAI, and Instinct have released. Yelp says it admits only agents that pay for its data licensing program, Delta Air Lines bars them from booking tickets, and JPMorgan Chase and Charles Schwab cite security concerns for blocking account access. Users also report that Cars.com and Amtrak, which previously worked, are now inaccessible, hinting at quieter restrictions. The conflict is sharpest at Amazon, which banned Perplexity's agentic shopping feature and sued the startup; an appeals court overturned an injunction against Perplexity, and Amazon has since amended its complaint. The stakes are significant: agents are pitched as tools that can act anywhere online, but widespread blocking limits their usefulness. Some companies, including Meta through retail partnerships and Shopify through open storefronts, are instead choosing cooperation, while anti-bot systems and Cloudflare's crawler blocks add friction that may affect ordinary users too.