Squarespace AI Crawler Settings: What Business Owners Should Know in 2026

Squarespace is one of the most popular website builders, powering millions of small business websites. In 2025, they added a notable feature: the ability to block AI crawlers directly from the settings panel.

What Squarespace Offers

Squarespace is currently the only major website builder that gives users a straightforward option to disallow AI crawlers via robots.txt. When enabled, this setting adds full restrictions on ten AI user agents, including:

• GPTBot (OpenAI/ChatGPT)
• anthropic-ai (Claude)
• Eight other AI crawler agents

The toggle is found in the site settings and applies site-wide.

The Trade-Off Business Owners Face

Here is the reality: blocking AI crawlers protects your content from being used for AI training, but it also prevents AI assistants from recommending your business to potential customers.

With 58% of consumers now asking AI instead of searching Google, this is not a small trade-off. For local Michigan businesses, being invisible to AI means missing potential customers who are asking questions like "Who is the best plumber near me?" or "What web designer should I use?"

What Squarespace Does Not Offer

While Squarespace deserves credit for providing this option, there are limitations:

• No selective control: It is all or nothing - block all AI crawlers or allow all
• No llms.txt support: No built-in way to provide AI-friendly structured content
• No schema markup builder: Limited structured data options for AI visibility
• No AI bot analytics: Cannot see which AI bots visit or what content they access

The Bigger Picture

The conversation about AI crawlers is part of a larger shift in how businesses get discovered online. The businesses that thrive in 2026 and beyond are those that understand the difference between AI training and AI discovery:

• AI Training Bots: Scrape content to build AI models. Blocking these is reasonable.
• AI Search Bots: Access content to answer user questions and recommend businesses. Blocking these costs you customers.

Recommendations for Squarespace Users

If your business is on Squarespace and you care about being recommended by AI assistants:

1. Keep AI crawlers enabled (do not activate the block toggle)
2. Ensure your site has clear, well-structured content
3. Consider whether Squarespace provides enough AI visibility tools for your needs
4. Explore platforms that offer more granular AI bot management

Every business has different needs. The right choice depends on whether you prioritize content protection or AI discoverability. Contact us if you need help evaluating your options.