GeoPromptTracker

AI crawler profile

What is ChatGPT-User? How to allow or block OpenAI's crawler

User-agent string to match in robots.txt and server logs: ChatGPT-User

Operator

OpenAI

Purpose

AI search & live answers

robots.txt

Respects robots.txt

Official docs

OpenAI documentation ↗

ChatGPT-User is not a crawler in the traditional sense: it fetches a specific page only when a ChatGPT user asks about it or when a GPT action calls out to the web. Traffic from it means real people are reaching your content through ChatGPT conversations.

Does ChatGPT-User respect robots.txt?

OpenAI states ChatGPT-User honors robots.txt, though as a user-triggered fetcher it visits single pages rather than crawling.

Verify it's really ChatGPT-User

The user-agent string above is self-declared, so anything can send it. OpenAI publishes ChatGPT-User's IP ranges as JSON, which is what makes a rule verifiable: check the request's IP against the published prefixes instead of trusting the name. Requests claiming to be ChatGPT-User from outside those ranges are spoofed — useful to know whether you're allowing or blocking it.

Block ChatGPT-User with robots.txt

robots.txt — block
User-agent: ChatGPT-User
Disallow: /

Explicitly allow ChatGPT-User

robots.txt — allow
User-agent: ChatGPT-User
Allow: /

Block ChatGPT-User at the server or CDN

robots.txt is the right first step for ChatGPT-User, since OpenAI honors it. Use these only if you want the block enforced rather than requested — for example to stop agents spoofing the user agent. Matching on the user-agent string still trusts a self-declared header — pair it with an IP check against the published ranges above for a rule that can't be spoofed.

nginx
if ($http_user_agent ~* "ChatGPT-User") {
    return 403;
}
apache — .htaccess
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ChatGPT-User [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]
cloudflare — WAF expression
(http.user_agent contains "ChatGPT-User")

Find ChatGPT-User in your server logs

shell
grep -i "ChatGPT-User" /var/log/nginx/access.log | wc -l

Should you block ChatGPT-User?

For most sites, no. ChatGPT-User powers visibility: blocking it removes your pages from the cited answers OpenAI's assistant shows its users — the AI-era equivalent of de-indexing yourself from a search engine. Block it only if you deliberately don't want that audience. Our guide on blocking AI bots covers the trade-offs in detail.

Check and monitor ChatGPT-User on your site

Related reading

Frequently asked questions

What is ChatGPT-User?

ChatGPT-User is OpenAI's agent for AI search and live answers. Fetches pages a user asks ChatGPT to browse in real time.

Does ChatGPT-User respect robots.txt?

OpenAI states ChatGPT-User honors robots.txt, though as a user-triggered fetcher it visits single pages rather than crawling.

How do I block ChatGPT-User?

Add "User-agent: ChatGPT-User" followed by "Disallow: /" to your robots.txt file. The change takes effect the next time the bot fetches your robots.txt.

Does blocking ChatGPT-User hurt my Google rankings?

No. ChatGPT-User is separate from Googlebot, which handles Google Search indexing. Blocking ChatGPT-User has no effect on your traditional search rankings, but it does remove your pages from the AI answers OpenAI's assistant serves to its users.

How can I tell if ChatGPT-User is crawling my site?

Search your server access logs for the string "ChatGPT-User" — for example: grep -i "ChatGPT-User" /var/log/nginx/access.log | wc -l. Our free AI Bot Log Analyzer does this in your browser: paste a log file and it counts hits per AI crawler, including ChatGPT-User, with per-path breakdowns.

How do I use ChatGPT-User?

You don't — ChatGPT-User isn't a tool you run. It's OpenAI's own crawler, operated by OpenAI, that visits your site from their infrastructure. The only control you have over it is whether you allow or block it, via robots.txt or a server rule. If you're looking to crawl other sites yourself, you'd write your own crawler or use a crawling library; sending "ChatGPT-User" as your user agent would be impersonating OpenAI.

Where is the official OpenAI documentation for ChatGPT-User?

OpenAI publishes it at https://platform.openai.com/docs/bots. That page is the authoritative source for the user-agent string and OpenAI's stated crawling policy, and OpenAI also publishes ChatGPT-User's IP ranges as JSON at https://openai.com/chatgpt-user.json so you can verify requests rather than trusting the header.

More OpenAI agents

Part of our directory of every known AI crawler, refreshed monthly. Last verified: 2026-08-14.