ChatGPT-User user agent: what it is and how it behaves
ChatGPT-User is the OpenAI user agent that fetches pages when a person using ChatGPT or a Custom GPT asks about them, and for GPT Actions. Its token is ChatGPT-User. OpenAI says it is not used for automatic crawling and that robots.txt rules may not apply, because a user initiates each request.
| Operator | OpenAI, for ChatGPT and Custom GPTs |
|---|---|
| Purpose | User-triggered |
| robots.txt token | ChatGPT-User |
| User agent | Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko); compatible; ChatGPT-User/1.0; +https://openai.com/bot |
| Follows robots.txt | Partly. OpenAI says robots.txt rules may not apply to ChatGPT-User because the requests are initiated by a user. |
| Runs JavaScript | No |
| IP ranges | Published list |
| Documentation | OpenAI |
What ChatGPT-User does
ChatGPT-User fetches pages for user-initiated actions in ChatGPT and Custom GPTs, such as visiting a page when a user asks a question, and for GPT Actions. OpenAI says it is not used for automatic web crawling.
Should you block ChatGPT-User?
Allow ChatGPT-User so ChatGPT can open your pages when a user asks about them, and do not rely on robots.txt to stop it. OpenAI says ChatGPT-User is not used to decide whether content appears in ChatGPT search, and points webmasters to OAI-SearchBot for search opt-outs. Because robots.txt rules may not apply, a robots.txt block may not stop its fetches.
User-agent: ChatGPT-User
Allow: /User-agent: ChatGPT-User
Disallow: /robots.txt is not a reliable control for ChatGPT-User. To keep content away from it, put the content behind a login or block the requests at your server or CDN.
Rules that apply
- Rule 11: Don't rely on robots.txt to stop ChatGPT-User or Perplexity-User; they fetch on a user's behalf
- Rule 01: Allow OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot and Claude-SearchBot in robots.txt if you want AI citations
- Rule 03: Audit your CDN and WAF bot settings; they can block AI crawlers that robots.txt allows
- Rule 04: Ship primary content in the initial HTML; most AI crawlers don't execute JavaScript
Questions
What is the ChatGPT-User user agent string?
OpenAI documents it as: Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko); compatible; ChatGPT-User/1.0; +https://openai.com/bot. OpenAI publishes its IP ranges at openai.com/chatgpt-user.json.
Does ChatGPT-User respect robots.txt?
Not reliably. OpenAI states that robots.txt rules may not apply to ChatGPT-User because its actions are initiated by users rather than by automatic crawling.
Is ChatGPT-User the same as GPTBot?
No. GPTBot crawls content that may be used for training. ChatGPT-User fetches a page on demand when a user asks. OpenAI says ChatGPT-User is not used to determine search inclusion.
How do I stop ChatGPT search from using my site?
OpenAI directs webmasters to OAI-SearchBot for search opt-outs, not ChatGPT-User.
Sources
- Overview of OpenAI Crawlers · OpenAI
- The rise of the AI crawler · Vercel, Dec 17, 2024
Checked against the operators' documentation every Monday. Last reviewed Nov 2, 2026.