GenAI scraper bots target web applications with millions of requests daily
Barracuda Networks reported that generative AI scraper bots including ClaudeBot and Bytespider sent millions of requests to web applications between December 2024 and February 2025, overwhelming traffic and degrading performance. The bots extract large volumes of data, potentially including copyright-protected content used to train AI models.
What happened
Between December 2024 and the end of February 2025, Barracuda Networks detected millions of requests to web applications from generative AI scraper bots, including ClaudeBot and TikTok's Bytespider bot.
One tracked web application received 9.7 million GenAI scraper bot requests over 30 days. Another received over half a million requests in a single day. A third application received an average of 17,000 requests per hour with consistent traffic over 24 hours.
Reported impact
Gray bot activity can overwhelm web application traffic and disrupt operations. Frequent scraping increases server load, degrading application performance and user experience, and increases hosting costs due to elevated cloud CPU use.
Gray bots may remove data without permission and scrape copyright-protected data for AI training models, potentially violating owners' legal rights.
Index analysis
These scraper bots operate in the space between 'good bots' such as search engine crawlers and 'bad bots' designed for malicious purposes, blurring boundaries of legitimate activity. While not overtly malicious, their approach is questionable.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.