ChatGPT-User
ChatGPT-User fetches pages in response to users, according to the reference, and the community reference lists its operator as OpenAI. In October 2026, 541 sites block it, or 8.8% of readable robots.txt files.
Who runs ChatGPT-User?
| Fact | ChatGPT-User reference entry |
|---|---|
| Operator | “OpenAI” |
| Purpose | “AI Assistants” |
| Does ChatGPT-User obey robots.txt? | “Yes” |
| Frequency | “Only when prompted by a user.” |
| Cloudflare managed list for ChatGPT-User | No |
These facts quote the stored community ai.robots.txt reference.
“ChatGPT-User is OpenAI's web crawler that visits websites when ChatGPT users request information. This enables ChatGPT to include links in its responses.”
Here, the reference describes visits triggered by a user. Using a page as a search result can send people to it. Training models uses its contents for another purpose, which an owner may refuse.
How many sites block it?
Within 6,171 readable robots.txt files, the name appears in 728, or 11.8%. Instructions blocking every path, Disallow: /, appear in 541, a 8.8% share. No whole-site ban is recorded for 5,630 files.
Across Tranco’s top 1,000 ranks, there were 552 readable files. Among them, 101 files carry the name, or 18.3%, with 72 files blocking the whole site. Blocking is more common among the leading sites, at 13.0%. Farther down, 469 of 5,619 files record a block, 8.3% of that group.
| Readable files | Named by | Named share | Blocked by | Blocked share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT-User, all ranks | 728 | 11.8% | 541 | 8.8% |
| ChatGPT-User, top 1,000 | 101 | 18.3% | 72 | 13.0% |
| ChatGPT-User, remaining ranks | 627 | 11.2% | 469 | 8.3% |
Counts include a whole-site ban in a User-agent: * group if no named group overrides it. Of 541 blocks, 177 come only from that general rule, without naming this crawler. The overlap between naming and blocking is 364 files. Naming without a whole-site ban accounts for 364, and 5,443 files never name it. We ignore capitalization and repeated names.
Has that changed since August?
Between August and October, 40 sites that had blocked it stopped and 29 started, so 11 fewer of the same 5,889 sites block it. A further 479 blocked it in both months, and 5,341 did so in neither. Keeping the sites the same lets us count changes in their rules.
August’s full sample had 547 blocks among 6,236 readable files. October’s was 541 among 6,171. Those monthly totals also reflect which files we could read on each visit.
| August to October | Files |
|---|---|
| Started blocking | 29 |
| Stopped blocking | 40 |
| Blocked in both | 479 |
| Blocked in neither | 5,341 |
| Net change | -11 |
How to block or allow it
Use your site’s root file, robots.txt. Specific groups for ChatGPT-User take precedence over User-agent: *, according to the robots.txt standard.
Block the whole site
User-agent: ChatGPT-User
Disallow: /Allow access
User-agent: ChatGPT-User
Allow: /It's the 7th most-named crawler of the 171 we counted in the crawler index.
Which other crawlers does this operator run?
How we counted
For ChatGPT-User, we surveyed Tranco’s top 10,000 sites on 19 October 2026. Files had an 8-second timeout and a 262,144-byte limit. Missing, unreachable and oversized files do not contribute to these shares. Repeat readings are included, using scripts/robots_2026_08_06.py (robots.py at app commit 07104ff). See the full survey method.
Common questions
What does naming this crawler tell me?
The 728 files naming it include 364 files without a whole-site ban.
Are leading sites different?
Within readable robots.txt files near the top of the ranking, 18.3% name it and 13.0% block it. Overall, naming reaches 11.8% and blocking 8.8%.
How does the nearby crawler compare?
The nearby Meta-ExternalAgent entry reports 676 files that name it and 738 whole-site blocks, 12.0% of readable files. Here, 728 files mention the name and 541 block access, or 8.8%.