Overview
Portuguese sites run JavaScript above the global rate as a secondary barrier
| Value | |
|---|---|
| WAF | 92.8% |
| Antibot | 21% |
| CAPTCHA | 22.3% |
| JavaScript | 43% |
| Rate Limiting | 13.2% |
| TLS | 19.2% |
WAF adoption stands at 92.8%, in line with the global benchmark of 93.1%. JavaScript (43.0%) and Antibot (21.0%) lead among secondary barriers, both above their global rates of 41.3% and 20.2%. TLS (19.2%) also exceeds its global rate of 17.7%.
Barrier Landscape
JavaScript tops Portugal's active secondary barriers
| Value | |
|---|---|
| WAF | 92.8% |
| Antibot | 21% |
| CAPTCHA | 22.3% |
| JavaScript | 43% |
| Rate Limiting | 13.2% |
| TLS | 19.2% |
| Has robots.txt | 80.1% |
| Blocks AI crawlers | 14.4% |
WAF is deployed by 92.8% of Portugal sites. Among secondary barriers, JavaScript ranks first at 43.0%, followed by CAPTCHA at 22.3% and Antibot at 21.0%. Rate Limiting (13.2%) and TLS (19.2%) round out the picture.
Most Portuguese sites carry two barriers
| % of sites | |
|---|---|
| 0 barriers | 4.7% |
| 1 barrier | 28.9% |
| 2 barriers | 34.7% |
| 3 barriers | 19.1% |
| 4 barriers | 7.7% |
| 5 barriers | 4.8% |
| 6 barriers | 0.3% |
4.7% of Portugal sites carry no detected barriers. The modal count is two barriers, accounting for 34.7% of sites. Sites deploying three or more barriers total 31.9%.
Most Portuguese sites need Easy-tier access to retrieve content
| Mean recommended tier | |
|---|---|
| All sites | 1.7 |
The browser-based median tier is 2, meaning fewer than half of sites are accessible via plain HTTP. The mean tier is 1.68 across 1,111 Portugal sites.
Nearly nine in ten Portuguese sites are Simple or Easy to access
| % of sites | |
|---|---|
| 1 - Simple | 48.3% |
| 2 - Easy | 38.6% |
| 3 - Moderate | 10.4% |
| 4 - Complex | 2.1% |
| 5 - Advanced | 0.6% |
Tier 1 and Tier 2 combined account for 86.9% of Portugal sites (48.3% and 38.6% respectively). Tier 3 holds 10.4%, Tier 4 holds 2.1%, and Tier 5 holds 0.6%.
robots.txt
AI crawlers top Portugal's robots.txt bot categories
| % of sites | |
|---|---|
| AI crawlers | 16.1% |
| SEO / search indexing | 12.6% |
| SEO audit tools | 14.5% |
| Commercial scrapers | 8.2% |
| Social / content scrapers | 6% |
| Archive / research crawlers | 5% |
| Monitoring / uptime bots | 0.6% |
Across all 1,111 Portugal sites, 16.1% name at least one AI crawler in a robots.txt rule. SEO audit tools appear on 14.5% of sites and SEO/search indexing bots on 12.6%. Commercial scrapers are referenced by 8.2% of sites.
Uniform rules are Portugal's most common robots.txt posture
| % of sites | |
|---|---|
| Uniform per-agent rules (no path mixing) | 42.1% |
| Path-level mixed rules for same agent | 32.9% |
| Allow-only (no disallow rules) | 2.3% |
| Mixed AI posture (block some, allow others) | 3% |
| Blanket Disallow: / | 2.5% |
19.9% of Portugal sites have no robots.txt. Among those that do, uniform per-agent rules account for 42.1% of all sites, path-level mixed rules for 32.9%, blanket Disallow: / for 2.5%, and mixed-AI posture for 3.0%.
GPTBot faces the most Disallow rules in Portugal's robots.txt
| Disallowed | Allowed (whitelisted) | |
|---|---|---|
| GPTBot | 12% | 2.6% |
| CCBot | 8.9% | 1.1% |
| ClaudeBot | 8.8% | 1.2% |
| Google-Extended | 8.2% | 1.4% |
| Bytespider | 6.8% | 0.3% |
| meta-externalagent | 3.1% | 0.3% |
| ChatGPT-User | 6.3% | 2.9% |
| PerplexityBot | 6.1% | 1.9% |
| Applebot-Extended | 4.9% | 0.4% |
| OAI-SearchBot | 4.2% | 2.2% |
| anthropic-ai | 5.1% | 0.8% |
GPTBot is named in a Disallow rule on 12.0% of all Portugal sites — the highest block rate of any AI agent. ChatGPT-User receives the most explicit Allow rules, appearing on 2.9% of all sites.
Eight Portuguese sectors all name at least one bot to restrict
| % of sites | |
|---|---|
| Automotive | 100% |
| Computer & Video Games | 100% |
| Design | 100% |
| Entertainment | 100% |
| Newspapers | 100% |
| Printing | 100% |
| Retail | 100% |
| Visual Art | 100% |
| Adult | 90% |
| Apparel & Fashion | 90% |
| Chemicals | 90% |
| Comics & Animation | 90% |
| Consulting | 90% |
| Crafts | 90% |
| Food & Beverages | 90% |
Eight sectors — including Automotive, Design, Entertainment, Newspapers, and Retail — reach 100%, meaning every site in those sectors names at least one bot to restrict in a Disallow rule. A further seven sectors reach 90%.
Portugal's Airlines and Automotive sites lead in explicitly allowing crawlers
| % of sites | |
|---|---|
| Airlines | 80% |
| Automotive | 80% |
| Architecture | 70% |
| Photography | 70% |
| Publishing | 70% |
| Retail | 70% |
| Science | 70% |
| Sporting Goods | 70% |
| Construction | 60% |
| Graphic Design | 60% |
| Hospitality | 60% |
| Non-Profit | 60% |
| Pharmaceuticals | 60% |
| Printing | 60% |
| Real Estate | 60% |
Airlines and Automotive top the allow chart, with 80% of sites in each sector naming at least one bot to allow in an Allow rule. A cluster of six further sectors each reach 70%.
Industry Patterns
Jewellery & Luxury is Portugal's hardest sector to access programmatically
| WAF | Antibot | CAPTCHA | JavaScript | Rate Limit | TLS | robots.txt | Blocks AI | Tier | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jewellery & Luxury | 100% | 20% | 10% | 20% | 50% | 50% | 60% | 0% | Tier 3 |
| Computer Hardware | 90% | 20% | 10% | 30% | 30% | 30% | 80% | 10% | Tier 3 |
| Consumer Electronics | 80% | 30% | 20% | 40% | 40% | 40% | 70% | 10% | Tier 3 |
| Hospitality | 90% | 20% | 0% | 50% | 30% | 50% | 70% | 30% | Tier 3 |
| Real Estate | 100% | 30% | 30% | 70% | 40% | 10% | 60% | 40% | Tier 3 |
| Equipment & Supplies | 90% | 40% | 20% | 50% | 30% | 0% | 60% | 0% | Tier 3 |
| Beauty & Cosmetics | 90% | 30% | 10% | 60% | 30% | 20% | 80% | 20% | Tier 2 |
| Customer Services | 100% | 20% | 30% | 50% | 30% | 30% | 70% | 0% | Tier 2 |
| Pharmaceuticals | 100% | 20% | 10% | 20% | 10% | 40% | 90% | 0% | Tier 2 |
| Medical Devices | 100% | 0% | 0% | 40% | 10% | 10% | 100% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Food & Beverages | 100% | 60% | 50% | 50% | 40% | 10% | 90% | 40% | Tier 2 |
| Apparel & Fashion | 90% | 10% | 20% | 50% | 20% | 30% | 90% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Human Resources | 100% | 60% | 50% | 40% | 30% | 20% | 80% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Textiles & Nonwovens | 100% | 0% | 20% | 50% | 10% | 20% | 80% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Automotive | 100% | 0% | 0% | 40% | 30% | 40% | 100% | 10% | Tier 2 |
Jewellery & Luxury records the highest mean tier at 3.00. Computer Hardware and Consumer Electronics follow at 2.60 each. Hospitality and Real Estate both sit at 2.50, forming a mid-table cluster.
Import & Export and Recruitment & Staffing are Portugal's most accessible sectors
| WAF | Antibot | CAPTCHA | JavaScript | Rate Limit | TLS | robots.txt | Blocks AI | Tier | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Furniture | 100% | 40% | 30% | 50% | 20% | 30% | 70% | 20% | Tier 2 |
| Maritime | 90% | 10% | 0% | 40% | 10% | 30% | 90% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Oil & Gas | 100% | 10% | 10% | 60% | 0% | 30% | 70% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Restaurants | 90% | 40% | 20% | 80% | 50% | 30% | 70% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Retail | 100% | 0% | 0% | 50% | 20% | 20% | 100% | 50% | Tier 2 |
| Design | 100% | 20% | 30% | 40% | 20% | 30% | 100% | 30% | Tier 2 |
| Mail & Delivery | 70% | 40% | 10% | 10% | 0% | 20% | 80% | 0% | Tier 2 |
| Manufacturing | 80% | 10% | 20% | 40% | 0% | 40% | 80% | 0% | Tier 2 |
| Public Safety | 100% | 20% | 40% | 60% | 10% | 30% | 90% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Renewable Energy | 100% | 10% | 10% | 60% | 10% | 30% | 80% | 0% | Tier 2 |
| Sporting Goods | 80% | 20% | 30% | 20% | 40% | 30% | 70% | 0% | Tier 2 |
| Transport & Logistics | 70% | 50% | 10% | 20% | 0% | 20% | 80% | 0% | Tier 2 |
| Veterinary | 100% | 30% | 20% | 40% | 20% | 10% | 90% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Import & Export | 100% | 30% | 40% | 50% | 0% | 30% | 80% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Recruitment & Staffing | 100% | 40% | 50% | 40% | 0% | 10% | 70% | 10% | Tier 2 |
Import & Export and Recruitment & Staffing share the lowest mean tier of 1.90, the accessibility floor across Portugal's bottom industries. Eight sectors cluster at a mean tier of 2.00.