While most of the world’s websites have never answered the AI question at all, New Zealand quietly leads the planet in answering it: 15.3% of Kiwi sites have published a formal, machine-readable AI policy — the highest share of all 43 countries in the study, ahead of Australia, and double or triple most of Europe. That is the picture from an analysis of 41.8 million websites by data platform Piperic.
Piperic analysed the robots.txt files and AI directives of 76,371 live New Zealand websites. On blocking, the country is unremarkable: 4.1% (3,150 sites) exclude at least one known AI crawler — 23rd of 43 countries, mid-table, slightly more cautious than Australia (3.4%). ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini are free to learn from the content of the remaining 95.9%.
The record is elsewhere: 15.3% of Kiwi sites have consciously opted in, publishing an llms.txt policy file — roughly one in seven websites, the highest rate measured anywhere, ahead of Australia (14.7%) and far ahead of the UK (9.5%), Germany (4.6%) or France (6.2%). As a result, New Zealand’s “silent majority” — sites that never made any AI decision — is the smallest in the study: 80.6%, against global norms above 90%. It’s a small web that has done its homework.
The tourism paradox — and a cautious press
The sector table repeats a pattern seen across tourism economies: attractions block AI at 9.1% — more than twice the national average — precisely as travellers increasingly plan their trips with ChatGPT. In this market, hiding from AI means hiding from future visitors. The Kiwi press is cautious too: 15.7% of the 223 news sites analysed block AI crawlers — well below Australia’s barricades (25.1%), well above the relaxed British press (3.6%). Meanwhile, of 22,606 New Zealand online shops, only 2.9% block — the catalogues of more than 21,900 Kiwi shopsare already readable by AI shopping assistants. And Kiwi blocking is clean: only 4.7% of GPTBot-blockers accidentally exclude ChatGPT’s search robot (global average: 6%).
“New Zealand punches far above its size on AI awareness: fifteen percent of Kiwi sites have published an llms.txt — the highest rate of all 43 countries we analysed. Nowhere else has a larger share of the web actually sat down and decided what AI may do with its content. The one blind spot is ironic for a country that lives on visitors: attractions block AI at twice the national average, just as travellers hand their itineraries to ChatGPT,” — says Attila Rácz-Akácosi, founder of Piperic.com.
The full interactive New Zealand report — with sector comparison, world ranking and quarterly updates — is freely available: piperic.com/ai-report/nz
THE NUMBERS AT A GLANCE
76,371 live New Zealand websites analysed · 41.8 million worldwide
15.3% have consciously opted in (llms.txt) — the HIGHEST rate of all 43 countries (Australia: 14.7%, UK: 9.5%)
the “silent majority” is 80.6% — the smallest in the study (global norm: 90%+)
95.9% block no AI crawler · 4.1% (3,150 sites) block — 23rd of 43
attractions: 9.1% block (2.2x the average) — the tourism paradox · press: 15.7% (n=223)
more than 21,900 Kiwi online shops are already readable by AI shopping assistants
only 4.7% of NZ GPTBot-blockers accidentally lock themselves out of ChatGPT Search (global: 6%)
METHODOLOGY Piperic analyses the public web continuously; these figures come from a snapshot taken on 13 July 2026 covering 41,818,678 live websites, of which 76,371 are New Zealand sites. Live = reachable (HTTP 2xx) and not parked. AI blocking = robots.txt excludes at least one known AI crawler (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, Google-Extended, CCBot and others). Important: these figures cover the ENTIRE New Zealand web, not just the biggest sites — the 19–25% blocking rates often cited in international coverage refer to the global top 1,000 most-visited sites, where awareness (and legal exposure) is far higher. The two numbers don’t contradict each other: they describe different populations.
ABOUT PIPERIC Piperic (piperic.com) is a business-data platform that maps and makes searchable the technology, content and AI-access data of 41.8 million live websites. The AI Report is the platform’s free research series covering 43 countries, updated quarterly.