AI crawlers / ChatGPT-User
ChatGPT-User
OpenAI · ChatGPT (user-initiated) · User-initiated fetcher
OpenAI's user-initiated fetcher. It visits a page only when a person asks ChatGPT about it, not an automatic crawler.
At a glance
Affects live AI answersIndirect
Affects search inclusion,
Used for model trainingNo
robots.txt tokenChatGPT-User
Source confidencedocumented · verified 2026-09-04
Usually allowed, it fetches only when a person asks the assistant about your page.
What ChatGPT-User is
ChatGPT-User is the agent OpenAI uses when a person asks ChatGPT (or a custom GPT) a question that requires visiting a specific web page. OpenAI states that "when users ask ChatGPT or a CustomGPT a question, it may visit a web page with a ChatGPT-User agent."
It is not an automatic crawler and does not gather training data or decide search-index eligibility. It fetches on demand, on behalf of a single user.
Allowing ChatGPT-User lets ChatGPT read a page a user explicitly points it at; blocking it prevents that on-demand fetch.
Controlling ChatGPT-User in robots.txt
ChatGPT-User acts on a direct user request and, per OpenAI, generally does not treat robots.txt as binding the way a background crawler does. The rules below express your intent, but a user-initiated fetch may still occur when a person explicitly points the assistant at your page.
Allow ChatGPT-User:
User-agent: ChatGPT-User
Allow: /Block ChatGPT-User:
User-agent: ChatGPT-User
Disallow: /Check what your live site actually allows with the Robots.txt + AI-Bot Tester.
Source
Verified on 2026-09-04 against OpenAI, Overview of OpenAI Crawlers. Confidence: documented, stated in the vendor’s own documentation.
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