ChatGPT-User: user agent, IP ranges and robots.txt

ChatGPT-User fetches pages when someone using ChatGPT or a custom GPT asks about them. It isn't an automatic crawler and isn't used to decide what appears in ChatGPT search.

Operator
OpenAI
Type
User request · Fetches a page live because someone asked an assistant about it
robots.txt token
ChatGPT-User
Follows robots.txt
Not always (user-triggered)
IP list
https://openai.com/chatgpt-user.json
Official docs
developers.openai.com

ChatGPT-User user agent

User agent

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

How to block or allow ChatGPT-User in robots.txt

OpenAI: "Because these actions are initiated by a user, robots.txt rules may not apply."

Block ChatGPT-User

User-agent: ChatGPT-User
Disallow: /

Allow ChatGPT-User

User-agent: ChatGPT-User
Allow: /

Put the rules in /robots.txt at the root of each host. Check the result with our AI Crawler Checker, which also catches firewall and CDN blocks that robots.txt doesn't show.

Should you block ChatGPT-User?

Usually allow it: these visits are real people asking ChatGPT about your page, often right before they decide whether to click through. To stay out of ChatGPT search, control OAI-SearchBot instead.

How to verify real ChatGPT-User traffic

Check the request IP against OpenAI's published ChatGPT-User list.

Loading the current list…

To check every request in your server log at once, use the free AI Bot Log Analyzer. It runs in your browser and flags requests that use a bot's name from outside its official IP list.

Frequently asked questions

What is ChatGPT-User?

ChatGPT-User fetches pages when someone using ChatGPT or a custom GPT asks about them. It isn't an automatic crawler and isn't used to decide what appears in ChatGPT search.

How do I block ChatGPT-User?

Add "User-agent: ChatGPT-User" followed by "Disallow: /" to robots.txt, but it may not be respected: OpenAI: "Because these actions are initiated by a user, robots.txt rules may not apply." For a hard block, add a firewall or CDN rule that refuses requests whose user agent contains "ChatGPT-User".

Is a request claiming to be ChatGPT-User really from OpenAI?

Not necessarily: anyone can copy a user agent. Check the request IP against OpenAI's published ChatGPT-User list.

Checked against OpenAI's documentation on 2026-11-06. Vendors change user agents and policies, so confirm in the official docs before relying on them.

Related crawlers

Is ChatGPT-User allowed on your site?

The free AI Crawler Checker tests robots.txt and firewall rules for 14 AI crawlers in one run.

Check my site