Can you block adblock on your website?
Not in the literal sense. An ad blocker is an extension, a browser feature or a DNS filter on the reader's side, and no script on your page can uninstall it or switch it off.
What your website can do comes down to three moves. It can detect that a page is being viewed with a blocker. It can ask, with a notice that explains the site runs on ads and asks the reader to allow it. And it can decide what happens next, which in practice means keeping the content covered until the site is allowed. Together, that is what publishers call an adblock wall, and it is what the rest of this guide sets up.
Out of your reach
- Uninstall the reader's blocker
- Switch it off for them
- Turn off a DNS filter on their network
In your hands
- Detect the blocker on each page
- Ask the reader to allow your site
- Keep the page covered until they do
AntiAdBlock Core does all three // from the Free plan
Five ways to deal with ad blockers on your site
Publishers end up in one of five places. They differ in what the reader sees, who keeps them working and how you pay for them.
| Option | What the reader sees | Who keeps it working | What it costs | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Do nothing | Your page without ads | Nobody | The ads on every page viewed with a blocker | You never learn how much traffic that is |
| Write or copy a free script | The message you build | You | Your time | Filter lists ship rules against well-known scripts; BlockAdblock has had no updates since 2017 |
| Google's ad blocking recovery | Google's message asking to allow ads | Google, inside your account | No separate fee in AdSense or Ad Manager | Google's Ad Manager help says the messages show in desktop browsers only |
| A recovery vendor | Acceptable Ads, restored ads or a request, depending on the vendor | The vendor | A share of recovered revenue (managed ad networks take a share of all your ad revenue instead) | The share grows with what comes back; most start with a contact form or a demo request |
| Our pick for most ad-funded sites A detection tool with a wall: AntiAdBlock Core | A wall with the steps to allow your site in their blocker | The provider, with an engine kept up to date daily | A flat price from $5 a month, with a Free plan | What you get Desktop and mobile, any ad network, the dashboard from the Free plan |
Facts about other providers come from our comparison pages, checked on . Recovery vendors are compared one by one in adblock recovery providers compared, and ad reinsertion explained covers ads delivered without asking.
Why a flat-price wall
- Flat price
- From $5 a month, no share of your revenue
- Your ad network stays
- AdSense, Ad Manager or any other
- Desktop and mobile
- The wall reaches readers on both
Which option fits your site
Start from your situation, not from the tool.
Most sites with ads: you want to ask readers, keep your ad network and pay a fixed price
A detection tool with a wall. This is what AntiAdBlock Core does, on desktop and mobile, starting on the Free plan.
You run AdSense and most of your readers are on a computer
Google's own message has no separate fee inside your account. Read AdSense ad blocking recovery compared first, and use one notice, not two.
You'd rather not ask readers anything
A recovery vendor that shows Acceptable Ads or restores ads, paid with a share of what it brings back.
You want to decide what happens in your own code
The Detection API (Max and Business) detects and counts, shows nothing and hands the result to your page.
See the Detection APIYou run a hobby site and accept a script that no one maintains
A free script may be enough. See BlockAdblock compared with a maintained script.
Not sure how much of your traffic blocks ads? The adblock statistics page collects what published studies find, and your own rate shows in the dashboard once the tag is live.
How to block adblock on your website in five steps
These steps use AntiAdBlock Core. Pasting the tag takes about 60 seconds; the rest depends on how you verify your domain. Instructions for each platform are on add anti-adblock to your website.
Create a free account.
Sign up with your email. The Free plan covers 5,000 detections a month on one site, with no payment method. A detection is a page view where a blocker is found; page views without a blocker never use your quota.
Add and verify your site.
Enter your domain. By default the script is served first-party, from a subdomain of your own site, for maximum detection: one DNS record sets it up and verifies the domain, usually within minutes and sometimes up to an hour. If you'd rather not touch DNS yet, serve it from antiadblockcore.com and verify with a meta tag or a file (or a DNS TXT record if you can't edit your HTML).
DNS record // minutes, up to an hour
Add the tag, or the plugin.
Copy your tag from the dashboard and paste it into the
<head>of every page, as high as you can. It loads asynchronously and never blocks your page. On WordPress, the WordPress plugin connects your site in one click and adds it for you.Pasting the tag // about 60 s
Your tag // example <script async src="https://antiadblockcore.com/s/SITE_ID.js" data-aabc-site="SITE_ID" crossorigin="anonymous"></script>Example only. Copy your own tag from the dashboard: with first-party delivery it points to your subdomain.
Set up the notice.
It works as a wall by default and appears from the first page viewed with a blocker. On Pro and above you can choose its color; on Max and Business, add your logo and a message of up to 30 words. For readers blocked only at network level, such as Pi-hole or another DNS filter, you can let them close it.
See it and watch your numbers.
Open the live demo with your blocker on to see the wall a reader gets. Your dashboard starts counting with the first visits: ad-block rate, detections and recoveries, on every plan.
Free plan: 5,000 detections a month, no payment method.
What your readers see when you block adblock
A reader without a blocker never sees anything. A reader with one gets a wall over the page from the first page they open, with a short explanation and the steps for the blocker they use: Brave, Firefox, Edge, a browser extension or a DNS filter. When they press the button to say they've allowed your site, the page reloads and the script checks again; if your site is allowed, the wall is gone. It also checks again when they come back to the tab.
The notice speaks English or Spanish, following the language of the reader's browser. It detects AdBlock, Adblock Plus, uBlock Origin, uBlock Origin Lite, AdGuard, Ghostery and Brave Shields on desktop and mobile, with a declared detection precision of 99.7%.
- Page opens
- Blocker found
- Steps for their blocker
- Checked again, page open
How to write the notice message
From the Max plan you can write the notice's message yourself, up to 30 words. The title can't be changed, and the steps for the reader's blocker come below your message. Readers who block with a browser extension see it exactly as you write it, whatever their browser's language; readers on Brave, on a DNS filter or with Firefox or Edge tracking protection get the notice's own text for their case, because the steps they need are different.
Use those words to explain the deal: ads pay for the site, and allowing them takes a few clicks. A message that blames the reader only gives them a reason to leave.
Using an ad blocker is stealing. Turn it off or leave.
This site is free because ads pay for it. If you find it useful, please allow ads on our site: the steps for your blocker are right below.
28 of 30 words
What to avoid when you block adblock on your website
- A notice that accuses. Say that ads pay for the site and ask plainly to allow it. Readers who feel blamed leave.
- A dead end. Every wall needs the exact steps for the reader's blocker and a way to check again. A wall with no way forward only loses readers.
- Two notices at once. If you add AntiAdBlock Core, leave Google's ad blocking message as a draft and switch off any other, so no one is asked twice.
- A copied script no one maintains. The classic method, checking whether a piece of ad-like markup gets hidden, is public, and filter lists ship rules against the well-known scripts by name. More in what to look for in anti-adblock that actually works.
- Tracking readers to catch them. You need to know that this page is viewed with a blocker, not who the reader is. AntiAdBlock Core uses no fingerprinting and no tracking cookies, and keeps daily totals per site.
Does an adblock wall hurt SEO?
What matters is whether Google still sees your content, and it does: Googlebot doesn't run an ad blocker, so it gets the full page, the same one a reader without a blocker sees, and the wall only appears in browsers where a blocker is found. Google's spam policies call it cloaking when a site shows search engines different content from what people see in order to manipulate rankings; a wall that covers the page only for readers with a blocker is not that.
A wall shown to everyone would be a detection bug, not part of the method. The script also loads asynchronously, so it never holds up your page.
What you see in your dashboard once it's live
On every plan your dashboard shows your site's ad-block rate, the activity of each day and the recoveries the script sees after the wall. Readers blocked at network level, such as Pi-hole or another DNS filter, get their own counter. On Max and Business you also get a breakdown by type of blocking and by device, browser and country.
- Ad-block rate
- 27.4%
- Page views with a blocker, this month
- 18,236
- Days live
- 23
To turn your rate into money, the adblock revenue calculator works it out from your page views and your CPM, and reading your adblock rate and recovered revenue covers tuning the message and watching your numbers over time.
Questions about blocking adblock on your website
Can I force visitors to disable their ad blocker?
No website can switch off a visitor's ad blocker: it runs in their browser or on their network. What you can do is keep the page covered until they allow your site. That is how AntiAdBlock Core works by default. It detects the blocker, shows a wall that explains how to allow your site and checks again once the reader says they've allowed the site.
Should I block adblock users from my website?
If your site runs on ads, readers with a blocker cost you revenue on every page they view, so asking them is reasonable. A wall works when it is fair: it explains why the site needs ads and is clear about what the reader has to do. Some readers will leave instead. The AntiAdBlock Core dashboard shows your ad-block rate, so you know how much traffic is at stake.
How do I block adblock on my website for free?
AntiAdBlock Core has a Free plan with 5,000 detections a month for one site, the same detection engine as the paid plans and no payment method. A detection is a page view where a blocker is found. Google's ad blocking recovery has no separate fee inside AdSense and Ad Manager, but Google's Ad Manager help says its messages show in desktop browsers only. Free copy-paste scripts such as BlockAdblock exist too, but BlockAdblock has had no updates since 2017.
Can I block adblock on WordPress or Blogger without writing code?
Yes. On WordPress, the official AntiAdBlock Core plugin connects your site in one click and adds the script to every page, with nothing to paste. On Blogger, you paste one tag before the closing </head> in Theme › Edit HTML. Any platform that lets you add code to the <head> works the same way. AMP pages are not supported.
Is it legal to block adblock users?
Asking readers to allow ads is a common practice, and Adblock Plus's own help says websites have the right to ask. In the EU, the ePrivacy rules cover reading or storing information on the visitor's device and GDPR covers personal data, so how the script works matters. AntiAdBlock Core is designed for GDPR: it leaves a few timestamps with no identifier in the reader's browser, for 30 days at most, which you can list in your cookie notice. See is anti-adblock detection legal?.
Put a wall on your site today
Start on the Free plan, add the tag or the plugin, and your ad-block rate shows from the first visits. Want to see the wall first? The live demo runs the full script on an example site.
Free plan: 5,000 detections a month, no payment method. Paid plans from $5 a month on pricing.