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ChatGPT-User, the agent that fetches pages for ChatGPT users

ChatGPT-User is the agent ChatGPT uses to visit a page when a user's question calls for it. OpenAI says it doesn't crawl the web automatically and that, because a user starts each visit, robots.txt rules may not apply to it.

Check your site for ChatGPT-User

Checked against OpenAI's own documentation on October 13, 2026.

The crawler

What ChatGPT-User is for.

OpenAI says it uses ChatGPT-User for certain user actions in ChatGPT and Custom GPTs: when a user asks a question, ChatGPT may visit a web page with a ChatGPT-User agent. It is not used for crawling the web in an automatic fashion, and not used to determine whether content may appear in search.[1]

  • Run by

    OpenAI

  • Its job

    A person's request. It visits a page when someone asks the assistant about it, and doesn't crawl on its own.

  • Its name in robots.txt

    ChatGPT-User

  • Does it follow robots.txt?

    Not always, by its operator's account. OpenAI says that because ChatGPT-User's actions are initiated by a user, robots.txt rules may not apply.[1]

  • Its IP ranges

    OpenAI publishes ChatGPT-User's IP addresses as a JSON file.[1] openai.com/chatgpt-user.json

  • It also runs GPT Actions

    OpenAI says ChatGPT users may also interact with external applications through GPT Actions, under the same agent.[1]

  • It doesn't decide search

    OpenAI says ChatGPT-User is not used to determine whether content may appear in search, and points to OAI-SearchBot for that.[1]

User agent

The ChatGPT-User user agent string.

OpenAI gives this as the full user agent string.[1]

  • Full string

    Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko); compatible; ChatGPT-User/1.0; +https://openai.com/bot
robots.txt

The lines that allow and block ChatGPT-User.

Each pair of lines is a group of its own in robots.txt. The robots.txt generator writes the whole file, and the robots.txt checker reads what yours says to ChatGPT-User now.

  • Allow ChatGPT-User

    With no robots.txt, or one that doesn't disallow it, ChatGPT-User is allowed already. These lines say so by name: a crawler that finds a group with its own name follows that group, and follows the User-agent: * group only when it finds none.[2]

    User-agent: ChatGPT-User
Allow: /

  • Block ChatGPT-User

    A Disallow line may not stop it. OpenAI says that because a user starts these actions, robots.txt rules may not apply. To manage search opt outs and automatic crawling, OpenAI says to use OAI-SearchBot in robots.txt.[1]

    User-agent: ChatGPT-User
Disallow: /
Our data

How many cited sites block ChatGPT-User.

We read the robots.txt of the 1,605 sites our recorded AI answers cited, for the 13 crawlers the X-ray reads for.

1.3%

of cited sites close their homepage to ChatGPT-User in robots.txt: 20 of 1,529.

Cited sites whose robots.txt closes the homepage to each crawler
CCBot4.2%
GPTBot3.1%
ClaudeBot2.6%
Google-Extended2.0%
ChatGPT-User1.3%
PerplexityBot1.2%
Perplexity-User1.0%
Claude-User1.0%
OAI-SearchBot0.9%
Claude-SearchBot0.8%
Applebot0.7%
Googlebot0.1%
Bingbot0.1%

Blue: ChatGPT-User. Gray: the other 12 crawlers the X-ray reads for.

We took the 1,605 sites cited in 1,033 answers from ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini and Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode, recorded on October 6 and 7, 2026 for 54 questions about AI visibility tools and web analytics, and read each site's robots.txt as GEOFastBot with the X-ray's own rules on October 8, 2026. These are sites AI answers already cite, so sites that shut AI search crawlers out may be rarer here than on the web at large, and a site can serve other crawlers other rules than it served us. Shares are of the 1,529 of 1,605 sites whose robots.txt we could read, or that have none; 62 refused our request.
Same operator

OpenAI's other crawlers.

OpenAI gives each job its own name in robots.txt, so one can be allowed and another blocked.[1]

FAQ

Questions about ChatGPT-User.

  • What is ChatGPT-User?

    ChatGPT-User is the agent OpenAI uses for certain user actions in ChatGPT and Custom GPTs. When a user asks a question, ChatGPT may visit a web page with it. OpenAI says it is not used for crawling the web in an automatic fashion.

  • Does ChatGPT-User obey robots.txt?

    Not always. OpenAI says that because ChatGPT-User's actions are initiated by a user, robots.txt rules may not apply. Only a firewall rule stops an agent that doesn't follow robots.txt, and OpenAI publishes the IP addresses to match. Firewalls and AI crawlers

  • What is the ChatGPT-User user agent string?

    OpenAI gives the full string as: Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko); compatible; ChatGPT-User/1.0; +https://openai.com/bot.

  • Is ChatGPT-User the same as GPTBot?

    No. ChatGPT-User fetches a page when a ChatGPT user asks for it. GPTBot crawls content that may be used to train OpenAI's models, and OAI-SearchBot crawls for ChatGPT's search results. Each has its own name in robots.txt and its own published IP list.

  • How many sites block ChatGPT-User?

    In our study, 20 of 1,529 sites (1.3%) close their homepage to ChatGPT-User in robots.txt. The base is the sites cited in AI answers about AI visibility tools and web analytics whose robots.txt we could read, or that have none, so other fields may differ. What the cited sites allow

Sources

Where each fact comes from.

Each numbered source is the page a fact comes from, most of them OpenAI's own documentation, read on October 13, 2026. The answers above repeat facts marked on the page. Vendors change these pages, so check them before you act.

  1. 1OpenAI: Overview of OpenAI Crawlersdevelopers.openai.com/api/docs/bots
  2. 2IETF: RFC 9309: Robots Exclusion Protocolrfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9309.html

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