By Kavita Mistry 
Without mincing words, Wikipedia has sent out a clear message to the AI developer companies – to stop scraping its pages and start using its paid API service.
Wikipedia Urges AI Developers to Use Paid API, Stops Unauthorized Content Scraping
The Wikimedia Foundation, which operates the free online encyclopedia, has urged AI developers to access its content responsibly through its paid Wikimedia Enterprise platform to ensure continued support for the website in the evolving digital age.
Wikipedia has asked AI companies to stop scraping content and use its paid API for proper attribution.
Wikipedia released a blog post on Monday said that the AI developers should properly credit Wikipedia’s contributors and obtain data through official channels rather than automated scraping. The Wikimedia Enterprise product allows large-scale use of Wikipedia’s content without overloading its servers. The foundation added that the revenue from the paid product supports its non-profit operations, which help sustain the open knowledge platform that relies on volunteers and donations.
This comes after the free online encyclopedia discovered that the AI bots had been scraping its website while disguising themselves as human users. After strengthening its bot detection systems, the organisation found that much of its increased traffic in May and June came from such bots attempting to bypass detection. On the same time, the site saw an 8% decline in visits from human readers, which raises concerns about reduced engagement from actual users.
Wikipedia Tells AI Companies – Stop Scraping, Use Paid API and Credit Contributors
The foundation stated that it expects AI developers to give proper attribution to the human editors and contributors whose work forms the basis of AI-generated outputs. The blog read “For people to trust information shared online, platforms must make it clear where that information originates and highlight opportunities to visit and participate in those sources”.
Wikipedia warned that a drop in visitors could mean fewer volunteers and donors to support its work. Earlier this year, it launched an AI strategy to help editors with tasks like translation and workflow, designed to assist—not replace—humans.
These steps aim to balance open access to knowledge with responsible use of its content in the growing AI landscape.
Summary
The AI developers have been urged by Wikipedia to not scrape its content and use its paid Wikimedia Enterprise API for proper attribution. The foundation said that using its content responsibly helps support volunteers and donors, after it found bots pretending to be human users. Its AI strategy assists editors with tasks, aiming to balance open access to knowledge with fair, ethical use in the growing AI ecosystem.