ChatGPT-User: what it does, and what blocking it means
The fetcher ChatGPT uses when someone asks it to look at a specific page. A robots.txt rule here is a request, not a control.
| Operator | OpenAI |
|---|---|
| What it does | Fetches when a user asks |
| Obeys robots.txt | May bypass, per its operator's docs |
| Governs | ChatGPT Search |
| Has a crawler | Yes |
| Last verified | 2 September 2026 |
| Next review | 2 December 2026. We re-check every entry against the operator’s documentation each quarter. |
What happens if you block ChatGPT-User?
Blocking it affects
- ChatGPT opening your page when someone asks it to (a request, not a control)
It does not affect
- ChatGPT search results
- OpenAI model training
Does ChatGPT-User obey robots.txt?
ChatGPT-User runs when a person pastes your URL into ChatGPT, or when a GPT Action reaches for your page. It is a live fetch on someone's behalf, not a crawl.
OpenAI's own documentation says robots.txt rules may not apply to user-initiated fetches, so a Disallow here records a preference rather than throwing a switch. If a page must not be readable by anyone holding the URL, robots.txt was never the right layer.
How do you spot ChatGPT-User in your logs?
To find ChatGPT-User in your logs, match the User-Agent shown on this page. The robots.txt token is what the crawler reads, not what appears in the request.
Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko); compatible; ChatGPT-User/1.0; +https://openai.com/botAnyone can send that User-Agent, so treat it as a claim. OpenAI's published IP ranges are the stronger way to verify the request.
Worth knowing about ChatGPT-User
We checked the User-Agent string above against OpenAI's own documentation on 2 September 2026.
How do you block or allow ChatGPT-User in robots.txt?
To block ChatGPT-User:
User-agent: ChatGPT-User
Disallow: /To allow it explicitly, use an Allow: / rule if your file has a blanket User-agent: * disallow:
User-agent: ChatGPT-User
Allow: /With neither rule, ChatGPT-User is allowed by default.
Not sure how ChatGPT-User fits with the others? Build the whole file, or see which AI crawlers to allow.
How many sites block ChatGPT-User?
In our scan of the Tranco top 1,000 (1 to 2 October 2026, 499 sites measured), 9.8% disallowed ChatGPT-User in robots.txt. We read the rules for ChatGPT-User but did not request pages as it, so how many servers would refuse it is not measured.
Is your site blocking ChatGPT-User?
A CDN or bot-management rule can still block ChatGPT-User even when robots.txt says it is welcome. You cannot see that mismatch from the front of the site.
We request your robots.txt and homepage. We read your sitemap only when robots.txt hides pages from a crawler and we need to measure how much is affected. No other page.
Guides about ChatGPT-User
- Why your site is not showing up in ChatGPT
The common failure modes, in order, with a check you can run for each one. - GPTBot vs OAI-SearchBot: which to block?
OpenAI's two crawlers do opposite jobs. One costs you nothing to block and the other takes you out of ChatGPT's answers.
Official sources
- OpenAI’s crawler documentation
- Published IP ranges is the only way to verify a request claiming this user agent really came from OpenAI
How is ChatGPT-User different from OpenAI’s other crawlers?
| ChatGPT-User | GPTBot | OAI-SearchBot | OAI-AdsBot | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Its job | Fetches when a user asks | Model training | Search & citations | Reference |
| Blocking it affects | ChatGPT opening your page when someone asks it to (a request, not a control) | OpenAI model training | ChatGPT search answers and citations | Review of the landing pages you submit as ChatGPT ads |
| Blocking it leaves alone | ChatGPT search results; OpenAI model training | ChatGPT search answers and citations | OpenAI model training | ChatGPT search answers and citations; OpenAI model training |
| Obeys robots.txt | May bypass, per its operator's docs | Yes, per its operator's docs | Yes, per its operator's docs | Yes, per its operator's docs |
| Verifiable by IP | Yes, ranges are published | Yes, ranges are published | Yes, ranges are published | Yes, ranges are published |
| Last verified | 2 September 2026 | 2 September 2026 | 2 September 2026 | 2 September 2026 |
Which other crawlers do the same job as ChatGPT-User?
- Claude-User: Fetches when a user asks, run by Anthropic
- Perplexity-User: Fetches when a user asks, run by Perplexity
- meta-externalfetcher: Fetches when a user asks, run by Meta
- MistralAI-User: Fetches when a user asks, run by Mistral