AI crawler directory · OpenAI
GPTBot
Crawls content for OpenAI model training only — blocking it does not affect ChatGPT search or shopping visibility.
The verdict
Blocking GPTBot is safe for visibility — it affects model training only, not whether your store appears in answers.
robots.txt
To allow
User-agent: GPTBot Allow: /
To block
User-agent: GPTBot Disallow: /
Identifying it in your logs
User-agent headers can be spoofed. OpenAI publishes the bot's real IP ranges at https://openai.com/gptbot.json — verify the requesting IP against that list.
Questions this page answers
What is GPTBot?
GPTBot is OpenAI's crawler token. Crawls content for OpenAI model training only — blocking it does not affect ChatGPT search or shopping visibility. Source: the vendor's own crawler documentation (https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/bots), last re-verified 2026-08-27.
Does blocking GPTBot in robots.txt hurt my store's AI visibility?
Blocking GPTBot is safe for visibility — it affects model training only, not whether your store appears in answers.
How do I verify a request really came from GPTBot?
OpenAI publishes the bot's IP ranges as JSON at https://openai.com/gptbot.json — verify the requesting IP against that list rather than trusting the user-agent header, which anyone can spoof.
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 · ChatGPT-User