What is ChatGPT-User?
ChatGPT-User is the user agent OpenAI uses when a person's request in ChatGPT or a Custom GPT needs a web page. OpenAI says it is not used to crawl the web automatically and is not used to decide whether content appears in search.
Last verified 2026-09-30 against the operator's documentation. All bots
ChatGPT-User at a glance
- Operator
- OpenAI
- Type
- AI user-triggered fetchers
- Purpose
- Visits a page when a ChatGPT or Custom GPT user's request needs it.
- robots.txt token
ChatGPT-User- Example user agent
Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko); compatible; ChatGPT-User/1.0; +https://openai.com/bot- How to verify
- Check that the source IP is in the ranges OpenAI publishes for ChatGPT-User.
- IP ranges
- https://openai.com/chatgpt-user.json
- Operator documentation
- https://platform.openai.com/docs/bots
How often is ChatGPT-User impersonated?
For the median organisation, 11% of requests claiming to be ChatGPT-User failed verification.
Measured between 3 July 2026 and 28 September 2026 across organisations protected by Centinel. We only publish a share when at least five organisations each saw enough of these requests. Pooled across all of their requests, the share was 1%: a few large organisations carry most of the traffic, so the median organisation is the better guide to what yours will see.
This directory measures requests between 3 July 2026 and 28 September 2026. The fake crawler report covers its own, earlier window (late June to 21 September 2026), so its figures differ from the ones here. Read it for the method.
Have a request that claims to be ChatGPT-User? Check its IP address.
Should you block ChatGPT-User?
- Allow it if
- you want the assistant to be able to read and cite your pages when someone asks about them.
- Block it if
- your content is not meant to be fetched on demand by an assistant, and you enforce that at the edge rather than in robots.txt.
- What blocking changes
- OpenAI does not promise that a robots.txt rule stops these user-initiated visits. To stop them reliably, enforce the rule at your edge by verified IP.
To block it, add this group to your robots.txt. OpenAI says robots.txt rules may not apply, because a user initiates these requests.
User-agent: ChatGPT-User
Disallow: /robots.txt only asks. It does nothing against a client that ignores it or only pretends to be ChatGPT-User. Stopping those takes verification at your edge.
ChatGPT-User: common questions
See which bots reach your site, and which of them are who they claim to be.
What is ChatGPT-User?
ChatGPT-User is the user agent OpenAI uses when a person's request in ChatGPT or a Custom GPT needs a web page. OpenAI says it is not used to crawl the web automatically and is not used to decide whether content appears in search.
How do I verify that a request is really ChatGPT-User?
Check that the source IP is in the ranges OpenAI publishes for ChatGPT-User. The user agent alone proves nothing: any client can send it.
How do I block ChatGPT-User in robots.txt?
Add a group for User-agent: ChatGPT-User with Disallow: /. OpenAI says robots.txt rules may not apply, because a user initiates these requests. robots.txt only asks. A client that ignores it, or pretends to be ChatGPT-User, has to be stopped at your edge.
What happens if I block ChatGPT-User?
OpenAI does not promise that a robots.txt rule stops these user-initiated visits. To stop them reliably, enforce the rule at your edge by verified IP.
Related bots
- GPTBot (OpenAI): Crawls content that may be used to train OpenAI's foundation models.
- OAI-SearchBot (OpenAI): Surfaces websites in ChatGPT's search features.
- Claude-User (Anthropic): Fetches a page when a Claude user's question needs it.
- Perplexity-User (Perplexity): Fetches a page when a Perplexity user's request needs it.
- Meta-ExternalFetcher (Meta): Fetches individual links on behalf of Meta product users.
- MistralAI-User (Mistral AI): Fetches a page when a Mistral user's action needs it.