--- title: "ChatGPT-User: User Agent and robots.txt Behavior" description: "ChatGPT-User is the agent ChatGPT uses to open a page when a person asks. See its user agent, IP list and why OpenAI says robots.txt may not apply." url: https://seenlens.com/bots/chatgpt-user last_updated: 2026-11-06 --- # What is ChatGPT-User? ChatGPT-User is the user agent OpenAI uses when ChatGPT visits a web page because a person asked. That includes questions to Custom GPTs and calls from GPT Actions. It is not an automatic crawler. OpenAI says robots.txt rules may not apply to it, because a user starts each request. Verified 2026-11-06. By SeenLens. Last updated: 2026-11-06 ## ChatGPT-User fact sheet This page covers the OpenAI fetcher named ChatGPT-User. It does not cover ChatGPT user accounts. | Fact | Value | | --- | --- | | Operator | OpenAI | | Purpose | User-triggered fetch. ChatGPT visits a page when a user asks ChatGPT or a Custom GPT a question, and for GPT Actions that call external apps. | | User agent string | `Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko); compatible; ChatGPT-User/1.0; +https://openai.com/bot` | | robots.txt token | `ChatGPT-User` is the user agent name. OpenAI does not list it as a search or training opt-out tag. | | Published IP list | [openai.com/chatgpt-user.json](https://openai.com/chatgpt-user.json) | | Obeys robots.txt | Not guaranteed. OpenAI: "Because these actions are initiated by a user, robots.txt rules may not apply." ([OpenAI](https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/bots)) | | Related bots | [OAI-SearchBot](https://seenlens.com/bots/oai-searchbot) (search), [GPTBot](https://seenlens.com/bots/gptbot) (training), OAI-AdsBot (ad landing page checks) | | Last verified | 2026-11-06 | ## What does ChatGPT-User do? ChatGPT-User loads a page because a person asked for it. A user asks ChatGPT or a Custom GPT a question, and the system may visit a web page with the ChatGPT-User agent. Users can also work with external apps through GPT Actions. OpenAI states that ChatGPT-User is not used for crawling the web in an automatic fashion. It is also not used to decide whether content may appear in search. For search opt-outs and automatic crawling, OpenAI points to [OAI-SearchBot](https://seenlens.com/bots/oai-searchbot). ## Can I allow or block ChatGPT-User in robots.txt? You can write a ChatGPT-User group. OpenAI says robots.txt rules may not apply to these user-started fetches, so treat the rule as a request that OpenAI does not promise to follow. ```text User-agent: ChatGPT-User Disallow: / ``` ```text User-agent: ChatGPT-User Allow: / ``` OpenAI documents no other opt-out for ChatGPT-User. If you need to stop the fetches, the control you have is on your own server: a firewall rule that matches the user agent and the IP prefixes in chatgpt-user.json. This is our reading of OpenAI's statement, not an OpenAI instruction. Test the rule, because the user agent alone is easy to fake. This group keeps your site in ChatGPT search, opts out of training and leaves ChatGPT-User open: ```text User-agent: OAI-SearchBot Allow: / User-agent: GPTBot Disallow: / User-agent: ChatGPT-User Allow: / ``` ## Does blocking ChatGPT-User affect ChatGPT search or citations? OpenAI says ChatGPT-User is not used to determine whether content may appear in search. Search placement follows OAI-SearchBot. OpenAI does not document what happens to a user's chat when ChatGPT-User cannot load a page. The direct effect is that ChatGPT cannot open your page when a person asks about it. Whether the answer then cites you depends on other sources, and OpenAI's page does not say. ## How do I check ChatGPT-User access to my site? Run the [AI crawler checker](https://seenlens.com/tools/ai-crawler-checker) above, preselected for ChatGPT-User. It reads your robots.txt and shows which group and rule match your page path for this user agent. The checker does not request your page as ChatGPT-User. It requests the page as a browser and with the GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, ClaudeBot and PerplexityBot user agents. A firewall rule that blocks AI user agents in general may cover ChatGPT-User too. Only your logs and firewall rules can confirm it. In your logs, search for `ChatGPT-User` and compare source IPs with chatgpt-user.json. ## What are the common ChatGPT-User mistakes? - **Expecting robots.txt to stop it.** OpenAI says robots.txt rules may not apply. Check your logs after you add a rule. - **Using ChatGPT-User to control search.** OpenAI says ChatGPT-User does not decide search presence. Use OAI-SearchBot. - **A firewall that denies unknown bots.** A rule that returns 403 to every AI user agent also stops people from asking ChatGPT about your page. See [AI crawlers blocked by a firewall](https://seenlens.com/fixes/ai-crawlers-blocked-by-waf). - **A `*` wildcard block.** `User-agent: *` with `Disallow: /` covers ChatGPT-User only if you wrote no ChatGPT-User group. See [robots.txt blocks AI crawlers](https://seenlens.com/fixes/robots-txt-blocks-ai-crawlers). - **Treating it as a training bot.** The OpenAI page assigns training to [GPTBot](https://seenlens.com/bots/gptbot). ## Which other AI bots should I know about? Each AI company runs several bots with separate robots.txt tokens. These pages cover the others. The [bots hub](https://seenlens.com/bots) lists all of them. - [GPTBot](https://seenlens.com/bots/gptbot): OpenAI's training crawler. - [OAI-SearchBot](https://seenlens.com/bots/oai-searchbot): OpenAI's crawler for ChatGPT search. - [ClaudeBot](https://seenlens.com/bots/claudebot): Anthropic's training crawler. - [Claude-SearchBot](https://seenlens.com/bots/claude-searchbot): Anthropic's search crawler, plus Claude-User. - [PerplexityBot](https://seenlens.com/bots/perplexitybot): Perplexity's search crawler, plus Perplexity-User. - [Google-Extended](https://seenlens.com/bots/google-extended): Google's robots.txt token for Gemini training and grounding. - [Applebot-Extended](https://seenlens.com/bots/applebot-extended): Apple's robots.txt token for AI training. - [CCBot](https://seenlens.com/bots/ccbot): Common Crawl's open dataset crawler. ## ChatGPT-User FAQ ### What is the ChatGPT-User user agent? OpenAI publishes `Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko); compatible; ChatGPT-User/1.0; +https://openai.com/bot`. ### Does ChatGPT-User obey robots.txt? OpenAI says robots.txt rules may not apply, because users start these actions. It does not promise that ChatGPT-User follows them. ### Is ChatGPT-User the same as GPTBot? No. GPTBot crawls for training. ChatGPT-User fetches pages when a person asks ChatGPT or a Custom GPT something. ### Does ChatGPT-User decide if my site appears in ChatGPT search? No. OpenAI says ChatGPT-User is not used to determine whether content may appear in search. OAI-SearchBot handles that. ## Sources - [OpenAI: Overview of OpenAI crawlers](https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/bots) (user agent string, purpose, robots.txt statement, IP list URL; checked 2026-11-06) - [OpenAI: chatgpt-user.json](https://openai.com/chatgpt-user.json) (published IP list; the URL returned HTTP 200 on 2026-11-06)