US Cities (Top 1,000)
cities-1000
The 1,000 most populous US cities.
Median score
28
across 974 sites
Middle half
28–33
spread around the median
Full range
28–65
lowest to highest
Gated
926 of 974
block AI crawlers outright
Middle of 14 cohorts. All cohorts 50 · best cohort 58.
Where this list came from
The source, and how we filtered it
| Source | The 1,000 most populous US cities, Census Vintage 2025, US Census Bureau, with CISA and Wikidata (2025-vintage) |
|---|---|
| License | No restriction on the combined list. The roster is a work of the US federal government and carries no copyright, the CISA .gov registry is public domain, and Wikidata is CC0 1.0 Universal; the cohort goes out under the Census's CC BY-SA 4.0 like the rest. |
| How we filtered it | The roster is the Census Bureau's Vintage 2025 subcounty estimates (sub-est2025.csv) with SUMLEV 162, 19,483 incorporated places, sorted by POPESTIMATE2025 and cut at 1,000. The cutoff is a population of 41,319 (Friendswood, Texas), because the top thousand is not reproducible and a threshold is. Each city's address came from the CISA .gov registry, then Wikidata (P856, joined on the place FIPS code in P774), and 19 were resolved by hand and confirmed by loading the site. |
| Built | 2026-10-11 |
The filtering is ours and is disclosed as ours. The source published a list; the decision about which rows of it belong in a cohort was a judgment call, and it is written down so somebody can disagree with it.
Distribution
Where the 974 sites land
| Grade | Share of the cohort | Sites | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Not ready | 887 | 91.1% | |
| Weak | 80 | 8.2% | |
| Adequate | 7 | 0.7% |
By dimension
What the cohort earns, dimension by dimension
The mean share of each dimension’s available points that this cohort earned. Low here means the whole sector is weak on it, not that one site dragged an average down. The per-site spread is in the dataset.
| Dimension | Mean share earned | Mean |
|---|---|---|
| #1 · Reach
These parameters determine the fundamental ease of access that AI has to your site information. |
46% | |
| #2 · Read
AI generally turns off JavaScript. Does your site information survive without it? |
22% | |
| #3 · Understand
Does a machine know who and what you are? |
19% | |
| #4 · Act
Sitemaps, redirects, 404s, licensing terms, and not wasting the crawl budget. |
72% |
How much of each site we read
The cap is 32 URLs and it is a ceiling, not a promise. A portal whose every link points at a different host yields one page; a university yields the full sample. The median here is 1, the range 1–32, published so that "we sampled 32 URLs per site" cannot become a claim the data does not support.
4 sites in this cohort served a certificate we could not verify. They were read anyway and scored normally, because reporting no response for a site every browser loads would describe our TLS stack rather than the site, and each one carries the finding in its row.
Where this cohort fails
14 tests almost nobody in this cohort passes
Universal — nobody passes these
| Test | What it asks | Failing | Of | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EXT-11 | Have you marked the part of a page that answers a spoken question? | 974 | 0 | |
| EXT-12 | Do you tell search engines the moment a page changes? | 974 | 0 | |
| EXT-14 | Does your site offer its actions to AI browsers as tools? | 713 | 0 | |
| EXT-16 | Do you publish a card or a skills list for the agents you run? | 974 | 0 | |
| EXT-17 | Do you list your agents in your domain's DNS records? | 893 | 0 | |
| EXT-18 | Do you tell AI shoppers how they can pay? | 1 | 0 | |
| EXT-2 | Do you list your APIs and agent tools where agents look for them? | 5 | 0 | |
| EXT-7 | If you run real question-and-answer pages, are they marked as such? | 16 | 0 | |
| PST-2 | Have you posted a Content Signals statement about what AI may do with your content? | 974 | 0 | |
| RED-11 | Does each page tell machines where its Markdown copy is? | 1 | 1 | |
| RED-12 | If a machine asks for Markdown, does your site give it? | 974 | 2 | |
| UND-1 | Does your site say clearly who you are? | 974 | 2 | |
| UND-10 | Does your page code link to your official profiles elsewhere? | 974 | 2 | |
| UND-2 | Does your site use the page labels that search engines still read for what you publish? | 974 | 3 |
Near-universal — 95% and above
| Test | What it asks | Failing | Of | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EXT-1 | Do you publish an llms.txt file for coding assistants? | 974 | 0 | |
| EXT-13 | Can an assistant ask your site a question directly? | 974 | 0 | |
| PST-4 | Have you reserved your text and data mining rights in a form machines can read? | 974 | 0 | |
| EXT-4 | Can an AI assistant connect to your site as a tool? | 974 | 0 | |
| UND-6 | Are your published and updated dates honest and visible? | 974 | 6 | |
| EXT-5 | Is your page code one connected description of your organization? | 974 | 0 | |
| RCH-3 | Does each page say which web address is the real one? | 974 | 2 | |
| RED-10 | Do you offer a plain-text (Markdown) copy of your pages? | 76 | 2 | |
| RED-13 | Is the page built from real page parts, like header, main and navigation? | 974 | 1 | |
| MSR-7 | Are you set up in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools, and do you read their AI reports? | 974 | 0 | |
| RED-5 | Do your PDFs and images have their own rules for search and quoting? | 77 | 1 | |
| UND-5 | Does the author label in your page code point to that person? | 60 | 1 | |
| RED-3 | Can a crawler trust the 'last changed' dates in your sitemap? | 974 | 2 | |
| RED-8 | Do you have sitemaps for your images and videos? | 974 | 1 | |
| RCH-2 | Does your website let those crawlers in, or does your security turn them away? | 974 | 12 |
Common — 90 to 95%
Coral bars mark tests worth 2 points or more, the failures that actually move a score.
Every site
Every 1,000, named, with a report for each
Whether or not it has been scanned. Rows with no website on record, sites that were unreachable and sites that turned us away stay in the table with the reason on them, and none of them enters an average: dropping them would shrink the population to the part that was easy to measure. A few points between two neighbors is noise. The box filters every row in the cohort, not only the page you are on; click a header to sort the rows on this page by name or by score.
Showing 1–100 of 1,000 · page 1 of 10
| Site | Score | Gated | Pages read | Report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New York, New York nyc.govweb address from Wikidata (P856), not the .gov registry; the published address pointed at a page, not the site root; the root is scanned | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Los Angeles, California lacity.govregistered as City of Los Angeles in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Chicago, Illinois chicago.govregistered as City of Chicago in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Houston, Texas houstontx.govregistered as City of Houston in the .gov registry | 48 | No | 1 | |
| Phoenix, Arizona phoenix.govregistered as City Of Phoenix in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Philadelphia, Pennsylvania phila.govweb address from Wikidata (P856), not the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| San Antonio, Texas sanantonio.govregistered as City of San Antonio in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| San Diego, California sandiego.govregistered as The City of San Diego in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Dallas, Texas dallas.govregistered as City of Dallas in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Fort Worth, Texas fortworthtexasalerts.govregistered as City of Fort Worth in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Jacksonville, Florida jacksonville.govregistered as City of Jacksonville, FL in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Austin, Texas austin.govregistered as City of Austin in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| San Jose, California sanjoseca.govregistered as City of San Jose in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Charlotte, North Carolina charlottenc.govregistered as City of Charlotte in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Columbus, Ohio columbus.govregistered as City of Columbus in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Indianapolis, Indiana indy.govregistered as City of Indianapolis - Marion County in the .gov registry; a consolidated city-county government | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| San Francisco, California sanfrancisco.govregistered as City and County of San Francisco in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Seattle, Washington seattle.govregistered as City of Seattle in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Denver, Colorado denvergov.orgweb address from Wikidata (P856), not the .gov registry | 56 | Gated | 32 | |
| Nashville-Davidson, Tennessee nashville.govMetropolitan Government of Nashville & Davidson County, Tennessee (.gov registry); a consolidated city-county government | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Oklahoma City, Oklahoma okc.govregistered as City Of Oklahoma City in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Washington, District of Columbia dc.govweb address from Wikidata (P856), not the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| El Paso, Texas elpasotexas.govregistered as CITY OF EL PASO in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Las Vegas, Nevada lasvegasnevada.govregistered as City of Las Vegas NV in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Boston, Massachusetts boston.govregistered as City of Boston in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Detroit, Michigan detroit.govregistered as City of Detroit in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Louisville/Jefferson County, Kentucky louisvilleky.govLouisville Jefferson County Metro Government (.gov registry); a consolidated city-county government | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Portland, Oregon portland.govregistered as City of Portland in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Memphis, Tennessee memphistn.govregistered as City of Memphis, TN in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Baltimore, Maryland baltimorecity.govregistered as Baltimore City Office of Information and Technology in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Milwaukee, Wisconsin milwaukee.govregistered as City of Milwaukee in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Albuquerque, New Mexico albuquerque-nm.govregistered as City of Albuquerque in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Fresno, California fresno.govregistered as City of Fresno in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Tucson, Arizona tucsonaz.govregistered as City of Tucson in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Sacramento, California cityofsacramento.govregistered as City of Sacramento in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Atlanta, Georgia atlantaga.govregistered as City of Atlanta in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Kansas City, Missouri kansascitymo.govregistered as City of Kansas City, Mo. in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Mesa, Arizona mesaaz.govregistered as City Of Mesa in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Raleigh, North Carolina raleighnc.govregistered as City of Raleigh NC in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Colorado Springs, Colorado coloradosprings.govregistered as City of Colorado Springs in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Miami, Florida miami.govregistered as City of Miami in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Omaha, Nebraska cityofomaha.orgblockedweb address from Wikidata (P856), not the .gov registry; not measured: HTTP 403 (Akamai) | — | No | — | |
| Virginia Beach, Virginia virginiabeach.govregistered as City of Virginia Beach in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Long Beach, California longbeach.govregistered as City of Long Beach California in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Oakland, California oaklandca.govregistered as City of Oakland in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Minneapolis, Minnesota minneapolismn.govregistered as City of Minneapolis in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Bakersfield, California bakersfield.govregistered as City of Bakersfield in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Tulsa, Oklahoma cityoftulsa.govregistered as City of Tulsa in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Tampa, Florida tampa.govregistered as City of Tampa in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Aurora, Colorado auroraco.govregistered as City of Aurora in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Arlington, Texas arlingtontx.govregistered as City of Arlington, Texas in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Wichita, Kansas wichita.govregistered as City of Wichita in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Cleveland, Ohio clevelandohio.govregistered as City of Cleveland in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| New Orleans, Louisiana neworleansla.govregistered as City of New Orleans in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Henderson, Nevada hendersonnv.govregistered as City of Henderson in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Urban Honolulu, Hawaii honolulu.govCity and County of Honolulu (.gov registry); a census designated place, because Hawaii has no incorporated places; the site is the City and County of Honolulu's | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Anaheim, California anaheim.govregistered as City of Anaheim in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Orlando, Florida orlando.govregistered as City of Orlando in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Lexington-Fayette, Kentucky lexingtonky.govLexington-Fayette Urban County Government (.gov registry); a consolidated city-county government | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Stockton, California stocktonca.govregistered as City of Stockton in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Newark, New Jersey newarknj.govregistered as City of Newark in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Riverside, California riversideca.govregistered as City of Riverside, California in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Irvine, California cityofirvine.govregistered as City of Irvine in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Corpus Christi, Texas corpuschristitx.govregistered as City of Corpus Christi in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Santa Ana, California santa-ana.govregistered as City of Santa Ana in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Cincinnati, Ohio cincinnati.govregistered as City of Cincinnati in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Greensboro, North Carolina greensboro-nc.govregistered as City of Greensboro in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania pittsburghpa.govregistered as City of Pittsburgh in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| St. Paul, Minnesota stpaul.govregistered as City of St Paul in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Durham, North Carolina durhamnc.govregistered as City of Durham in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Jersey City, New Jersey jerseycitynj.govregistered as City of Jersey City in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Lincoln, Nebraska lincoln.ne.govweb address from Wikidata (P856), not the .gov registry; the published address pointed at a page, not the site root; the root is scanned | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| North Las Vegas, Nevada cityofnorthlasvegas.comblockedweb address from Wikidata (P856), not the .gov registry; not measured: HTTP 403 (Akamai) | — | No | — | |
| Plano, Texas plano.govregistered as City of Plano in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Gilbert, Arizona gilbertaz.govregistered as Town of Gilbert in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Anchorage, Alaska anchorageak.govregistered as Municipality of Anchorage in the .gov registry; a consolidated city-county government | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Madison, Wisconsin madison.govregistered as City of Madison in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Reno, Nevada reno.govregistered as City of Reno in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Chandler, Arizona chandleraz.govregistered as City of Chandler in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| St. Louis, Missouri stlouis-mo.govregistered as City of St. Louis in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Chula Vista, California chulavistaca.govregistered as City of Chula Vista in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Fort Wayne, Indiana cityoffortwayne.orgweb address from Wikidata (P856), not the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Buffalo, New York buffalony.govregistered as City of Buffalo in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Lubbock, Texas lubbocktx.govregistered as City of Lubbock, Texas in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Laredo, Texas laredo.govregistered as City of Laredo in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Port St. Lucie, Florida cityofpsl.govregistered as City of Port Saint Lucie in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| St. Petersburg, Florida stpetersburg.govregistered as City of Saint Petersburg in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Toledo, Ohio toledo.govregistered as City of Toledo in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Glendale, Arizona glendaleaz.govregistered as City of Glendale, Arizona in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Winston-Salem, North Carolina cityofws.govregistered as City of Winston-Salem in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Irving, Texas irvingtx.govregistered as City of Irving, TX in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Chesapeake, Virginia chesapeakeva.govregistered as City of Chesapeake in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Garland, Texas garlandtx.govregistered as City of Garland in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Scottsdale, Arizona scottsdaleaz.govregistered as City of Scottsdale in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Boise City, Idaho boiseidaho.govregistered as City of Boise in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Richmond, Virginia rva.govregistered as City of Richmond in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Frisco, Texas friscotx.govregistered as City of Frisco in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Cape Coral, Florida capecoralfl.govregistered as City of Cape Coral in the .gov registry | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| McKinney, Texas mckinneytexas.orgblockedweb address from Wikidata (P856), not the .gov registry; not measured: HTTP 403 (Cloudflare) | — | No | — | |
| Huntsville, Alabama huntsvilleal.govregistered as City of Huntsville in the .gov registry | 28 | Gated | 1 |
Scores are for the population, not for ranking two named sites against each other. A few points between neighbors is noise. See what these numbers can and cannot support. Data: sites.csv · checks.csv · summary.json