AI crawler directory · OpenAI
ChatGPT-User
Fetches pages on behalf of a ChatGPT user; robots.txt rules may not apply and it does not affect search inclusion.
The verdict
A robots.txt rule for ChatGPT-User is mostly symbolic — the vendor documents that it may not honor robots.txt, and it does not affect search inclusion.
robots.txt
OpenAI documents that ChatGPT-User may not honor robots.txt — it fetches pages when a user explicitly asks, which vendors treat differently from crawling. A rule for it is documentation of intent, not enforcement.
Identifying it in your logs
User-agent headers can be spoofed. OpenAI publishes the bot's real IP ranges at https://openai.com/chatgpt-user.json — verify the requesting IP against that list.
Questions this page answers
What is ChatGPT-User?
ChatGPT-User is OpenAI's crawler token. Fetches pages on behalf of a ChatGPT user; robots.txt rules may not apply and it does not affect search inclusion. Source: the vendor's own crawler documentation (https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/bots), last re-verified 2026-08-27.
Does blocking ChatGPT-User in robots.txt hurt my store's AI visibility?
A robots.txt rule for ChatGPT-User is mostly symbolic — the vendor documents that it may not honor robots.txt, and it does not affect search inclusion.
How do I verify a request really came from ChatGPT-User?
OpenAI publishes the bot's IP ranges as JSON at https://openai.com/chatgpt-user.json — verify the requesting IP against that list rather than trusting the user-agent header, which anyone can spoof.
Does ChatGPT-User respect robots.txt?
OpenAI documents that ChatGPT-User may not honor robots.txt directives — it fetches pages on behalf of a user's explicit request, which vendors treat differently from crawling.
Primary source: https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/bots — every Shelfgrade rule links the vendor doc it derives from, re-verified weekly.
Other OpenAI crawlers: OAI-SearchBot · OAI-AdsBot · GPTBot