ChatGPT-User: what it is and how it differs from OAI-SearchBot
ChatGPT-User visits a page when a person in ChatGPT asks for it. It is not a search crawler, and OpenAI says robots.txt may not apply.
By Bruno Amorim · ·
What it does
OpenAI uses ChatGPT-User for some actions people take in ChatGPT and in Custom GPTs. When someone asks a question, ChatGPT may visit a page with this agent. GPT Actions use it too.
OpenAI says ChatGPT-User does not crawl the web on its own.
It also does not decide whether your site appears in ChatGPT search. OAI-SearchBot does.
User agent
Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko); compatible; ChatGPT-User/1.0; +https://openai.com/botOpenAI gives this as the full user-agent string.
robots.txt
- OpenAI says that because a person starts these visits, robots.txt rules may not apply.
- To manage ChatGPT search and automatic crawling, OpenAI says to use OAI-SearchBot in robots.txt.
User-agent: ChatGPT-User
Allow: /User-agent: ChatGPT-User
Disallow: /Allowed is the default. You only need an allow group if another rule blocks the crawler. A group that names a crawler replaces your User-agent: * rules for it, so copy into it any Disallow lines you still want, such as your admin pages.
What blocking it costs you
- When a person asks ChatGPT to read or check your page, it may fail. That person then gets an answer without your page.
- A robots.txt block may not stop it, per OpenAI. A firewall block will, and it costs you those visits.
How to verify real traffic
- Check the request's IP against OpenAI's published list for ChatGPT-User.
- ChatGPT-User IP ranges (JSON)
Firewalls and CDNs
robots.txt is only half of it. A firewall, CDN, or bot rule can turn a crawler away before it reads robots.txt.
- Bot protection often treats ChatGPT-User like a scraper. If you want people to be able to share your pages with ChatGPT, allow ChatGPT-User from OpenAI's IP ranges.
- If you use Cloudflare, open Security Settings > Configure AI bot policies. Set Search to Allow (do not block). Cloudflare's docs say that since September 15, 2026, blocking Training also blocks crawlers that do both search and training.
With CrawlCoach
CrawlCoach leaves ChatGPT-User out of its checks, because OpenAI says robots.txt may not apply to it. It checks OAI-SearchBot, the crawler that decides whether ChatGPT search can show your pages.
Questions
What is the ChatGPT-User user agent?
Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko); compatible; ChatGPT-User/1.0; +https://openai.com/bot, per OpenAI. It shows up when a person in ChatGPT asks it to visit a page.
OAI-SearchBot vs ChatGPT-User: which one matters for ChatGPT search?
OAI-SearchBot. OpenAI says ChatGPT-User is not used to decide whether content appears in search. Allow OAI-SearchBot in robots.txt to be eligible for ChatGPT search answers.
Does ChatGPT-User respect robots.txt?
OpenAI says robots.txt rules may not apply, because a person starts each visit. If you must stop it, a firewall rule on its user agent and IP ranges is the only sure way.
Related guides
- All AI crawlers compared
- OAI-SearchBot (ChatGPT search)
- GPTBot (Model training)
- Perplexity-User (Visits a page a person asked for)
- Claude-User (Visits a page a person asked for)
Sources
Checked on October 8, 2026. Vendors change their tools and docs, so check the source if something looks different.
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