Websites are closing their doors to AI agents

Autonomous agents are the hottest thing in AI. OpenAI, Meta, Google, Instinct, and others promise their agents can scour the internet on your behalf, doing anything from booking a dinner reservation and cleaning out your inbox to buying new shoes. But what happens when the rest of the internet won’t play nice?

In recent weeks, users of services like Meta’s Muse, xAI’s Grok, OpenAI’s Dots, and Instinct have reported blocks preventing their AI agents from performing tasks across top websites. Yelp told TechCrunch that it only allows AI agents that pay for its data licensing program, while Delta Air Lines is preventing them from booking tickets on behalf of users. JPMorgan Chase and Charles Schwab have also confirmed that they’re blocking AI agents from accessing accounts due to security concerns. Some users say sites that previously worked with their AI agent are no longer accessible, including Cars.com and Amtrak, suggesting other companies could be quietly blocking them.

Amazon was already fighting off AI agents last year when it banned Perplexity’s agentic shopping feature and sued the AI startup, raising legal and practical questions about the future of agents on the web. At the time, Amazon claimed it “repeatedly requested” that Perplexity stop allowing its AI agents to shop on its website, adding that third-party companies that purchase items on behalf of customers “should operate openly and respect service provider decisions whether or not to participate.”

Perplexity responded by pointing out that Amazon doesn’t want AI agents roaming its platform because it won’t get as many human eyeballs in front of its ads — which is an actual issue for the ecommerce giant. The AI startup likened its AI agent to an extension of the user, arguing that Amazon “does not believe in your right to hire labor, to have an assistant or an employee acting on your behalf.” While a judge later ordered Perplexity to stop its AI agents from shopping on its website, an appeals court overturned this ruling in August. Amazon has since filed an amended complaint.

This ongoing legal battle didn’t stop OpenAI, Meta, and Google from rolling out agents of their own. But they’re dealing with the same problems as Perplexity. Muse, Meta’s deceptively cute AI assistant, most recently faced the wrath of Amazon, which said its “continued access” violates its site policies. There are reports of xAI’s Grok, Instinct’s AI agent, and OpenAI’s Dots being unable to use Amazon as well. xAI owner Elon Musk responded by saying that maybe he “should start a competitor to Amazon.” The more places bots struggle to access, the greater the questions about how useful they are.

“Does this impact the perceived value of the Anthropics and the OpenAIs? I would say absolutely,” Chris Canal, the CEO of the AI safety evaluator EquiStamp, tells The Verge. “One of the claims is that they’re going to permeate every aspect of our lives and be able to do anything that we could do online. If there are companies that are actively working to make that not happen, there are just fewer useful things the agents can do.”

Meta responded to instances of websites blocking Muse in a post earlier this month. “Turning away a personal agent means turning away the customer behind it,” the company says. “We’d rather work with businesses to address the underlying concerns than see them lose that customer.” Instead of trying to fight Amazon, the company has partnered with retailers like Walmart, Gap, Sephora, Best Buy, and others, allowing Muse to shop on their sites. At the same time, Shopify has also opened its network of storefronts to AI agents.

The Verge reached out to OpenAI and Google with requests for comments on the roadblocks their AI agents are facing but didn’t immediately hear back. Instinct declined to comment.

Even if websites aren’t banning AI agents outright, agents may still be clashing with anti-bot systems, which have become ubiquitous across the web. Reports on Reddit suggest that Google is blocking some accounts that use Muse due to “suspicious activity,” while others have reported issues checking out on Walmart despite its Meta partnership. “There are all kinds of things that are set up not even to block agents, but to block in general bots or programs that are trying to scam or hack,” Canal adds. “These AI agents trigger those same safeguards.”

The web architecture provider Cloudflare has also played a role in helping sites clamp down on unwanted AI visitors. After introducing a one-click block for AI crawlers in 2025, Cloudflare began blocking crawlers that simultaneously scrape websites for both search indexing and AI training. The move is part of Cloudflare’s efforts to save the web from an influx of AI bots, which is putting a strain on internet infrastructure and wreaking havoc on email inboxes, and which could eventually make it even harder than it already is to compete against bots when purchasing concert tickets, booking reservations, or trying to get ahold of certain products.

While these blocks may help keep some AI agents and bots out of a website, Canal says they will ultimately make the web more “annoying” to use as more sites roll out interfaces to confirm you’re not a robot. “We could see them on a simple grocery shopping website soon, where you’re having to jump through a bunch of hoops to prove that you’re a human using the computer or your phone.”