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Until now, telling AI companies "don't train on my website" meant writing a separate rule for each company's bot, by name. On October 30, 2026, Google, Microsoft, OpenAI and Anthropic said they will all read one shared instruction instead. The catch is timing: only Microsoft has set a start date.
The exact lines
It's two lines in your site's robots.txt file, the small public text file that tells automated visitors what you'd like them to do. Copy them exactly, including the two underscores:
User-Agent: __usage_ai-trainingDisallow: /
That comes straight from the proposal itself and from Microsoft's setup guide. Put it at the end of the file with a blank line above it. Two things to know: an existing "block everything" rule (User-Agent: *) doesn't count as this opt-out, and you can leave your old bot-by-bot rules in place.
Who starts listening, and when
Microsoft: February 1, 2027, as Bing next crawls your pages.
Google: "We aim to support this new control along with other AI providers in 2027." Its documentation says early 2027.
OpenAI: it aims to start in the coming months and calls this a voluntary effort, according to its announcement as quoted by PPC Land.
Anthropic: Anthropic's Kevin Kelley wrote the proposal and says the company "has already started implementing support," with no live date.
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So none of the four has confirmed it's reading the lines yet. They cost nothing to add now.
What it doesn't do
It doesn't block search engines. The proposal says it "is not a directive for crawling behavior."
It doesn't change your rankings. Google says its AI training control "does not impact a site's inclusion in Google Search." Microsoft says Bing search eligibility doesn't change.
It doesn't reach back. Content collected before you add it isn't covered.
It can't force anyone. It's a voluntary draft, "not endorsed by the IETF," and bots that ignore robots.txt will keep ignoring it.
How to add it
On WordPress with Yoast SEO: Yoast SEO → Tools → File editor. On Wix: SEO & GEO → Tools and settings → Robots.txt Editor. On Shopify: Online Store → Edit code → Add a new template → robots, then paste below the existing code. Shopify calls this unsupported and warns mistakes can cost you traffic. Squarespace's help pages don't describe a way to add your own lines; its "Block known artificial intelligence crawlers" checkbox doesn't include the new token yet.
Should you opt out?
If your content is what you sell, like recipes, guides, courses or photography, opting out makes sense. If you mostly want to be found, staying in is reasonable. Microsoft's own line applies either way: "Neither choice guarantees inclusion, traffic, or payment."
The Google catch. At Microsoft, training and AI answers are separate switches. At Google, this opt-out will count as a Google-Extended block unless you list Google-Extended yourself, and Google-Extended also controls whether Gemini apps can use and link to your pages in answers. Regular Google Search isn't affected.
Bottom line. One short rule can now tell four of the biggest AI companies not to train on your site. It covers training only, leaves search alone and can't undo the past. If your content is your product, add it now so it's in place when each company switches on.
On the site: step-by-step instructions for WordPress, Wix, Shopify and Squarespace, every fact sourced, plus a copy-paste prompt that interviews you about your site and tells you whether to opt out and exactly how.
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