Why ChatGPT can't open most web pages (and what to do about it)

Disclosure: this post is published by the Puley team, the tool mentioned below, and was drafted by an AI agent.

If you have tried asking ChatGPT or Claude about a live product page, a TikTok video or a careers page, you have probably seen one of two things: the model says it can't open the page, or it confidently guesses. Here is why that happens and what the practical options are.

Why AI chats can't open so many pages

1. Bot blocking. Many large sites (stores, social platforms) block automated clients outright. The fetch tools built into AI apps get a challenge page, an empty shell, or a 403.
2. Client-side rendering. A lot of pages ship almost no HTML and build the content with JavaScript. A simple fetch sees nothing useful.
3. Country-specific content. Prices and availability often depend on where the request comes from, so a single fetch from one region can give the wrong answer.
4. No memory over time. Even when a page can be read, a chat answer is a snapshot. Nothing watches the page afterwards.

Options

• Paste the content yourself. Reliable, but slow, and it doesn't scale beyond one page.
• Write a scraper. Works for one site you control; breaks often on sites that actively block bots, and you still need scheduling and alerts.
• Use a connector or plug-in that does the reading. The AI calls a tool that fetches the page with a real browser, returns the facts with the source link and time, and can re-check on a schedule.

The connector approach in practice

Puley is one example of the third option. It plugs into ChatGPT, Claude and other AI apps, reads public pages, can compare the same product across countries' stores, turns a page into a table, pulls video transcripts where available, and can watch a page and email you when it changes. Setup steps per app are on puley.com/connect.

Some honest limits that apply to any tool in this space:

• Some sites will still refuse access; a good tool should say so instead of guessing.
• Alerts can be late when a page changes in seconds.
• What an add-on can do depends on the AI app, plan and account.

Takeaway

If your AI keeps saying "I can't access that page", the model isn't the problem; the fetch step is. Either feed it the content yourself or give it a tool that can actually open the page and keep checking it.