# IAB Australia sorts AI crawlers into four access verdicts

Published: 2026-08-01T18:31:12.643Z · Source: PPC Land (https://ppc.land/iab-australia-forces-every-crawler-into-one-of-four-verdicts/)
Source date: 2026-07-30
Entities: cloudflare

IAB Australia published version 1.0 of its Bots and Crawler Guidance and Decision Matrix on July 22, 2026, unveiling it at the Discovery: AI and Search summit in Sydney on July 28, per PPC Land. The guidance sorts crawlers — search indexers, AI training bots, live AI agents, ad infrastructure, and unverified traffic — into one of four verdicts: allow, allow with conditions, require licensing, or block. It cites Cloudflare data showing automated requests crossed 57.5% of web traffic in June 2026, with 52% of AI crawler requests serving model training versus 2.6% for live queries, and directs publishers to prepare ahead of Cloudflare's September 15 default block on training and agent crawlers.

Why it matters: A trade body has formalized what Cloudflare's default block will enforce in September, turning ad hoc robots.txt judgment calls into an industry-standard decision matrix.

## What this answers

**How should publishers classify AI crawlers under the new industry guidance?**

IAB Australia's Bots and Crawler Guidance and Decision Matrix (v1.0, published July 22, 2026) sorts every crawler into one of four verdicts — allow, allow with conditions, require licensing, or block — across categories including search indexers, AI training bots, and live AI agents.


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