OpenAI · user-triggered
ChatGPT-User: user agent and how to block it
Everything on this page is taken from OpenAI's own documentation, quoted and linked, and was checked on 4 October 2026. Where the documentation is silent the page says so instead of filling the gap.
What it is
Operator: OpenAI. Kind, as listed here: user-triggered.
“OpenAI also uses ChatGPT-User for certain user actions in ChatGPT and Custom GPTs.”
Source: OpenAI: crawlers and user agents, checked 4 October 2026.
User-agent string
Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko); compatible; ChatGPT-User/1.0; +https://openai.com/bot
Source: OpenAI: crawlers and user agents. The robots.txt token to match is ChatGPT-User.
Does it obey robots.txt?
“Because these actions are initiated by a user, robots.txt rules may not apply.”
Source: OpenAI: crawlers and user agents, checked 4 October 2026.
That is the vendor's own exception: a rule written for this agent may not stop it.
Does it affect search?
“ChatGPT-User is not used to determine whether content may appear in Search.”
Source: OpenAI: crawlers and user agents, checked 4 October 2026.
robots.txt snippets
Two snippets that show the syntax for this token. They are examples, not advice: whether to allow or refuse ChatGPT-User is your decision, and the effects above are the vendor's description of them.
Allow ChatGPT-User
User-agent: ChatGPT-User Allow: /
Disallow ChatGPT-User
User-agent: ChatGPT-User Disallow: /
How to verify requests
OpenAI publishes the IP addresses for ChatGPT-User as a JSON file.
https://openai.com/chatgpt-user.json
Source: OpenAI: crawlers and user agents.
Questions
What is ChatGPT-User?
OpenAI describes ChatGPT-User like this: “OpenAI also uses ChatGPT-User for certain user actions in ChatGPT and Custom GPTs.”
Does ChatGPT-User obey robots.txt?
The OpenAI documentation says: “Because these actions are initiated by a user, robots.txt rules may not apply.” So a Disallow rule may not stop it.
How do I block ChatGPT-User in robots.txt?
Add a group to robots.txt with the line “User-agent: ChatGPT-User” followed by “Disallow: /”. That is an example of the syntax, not a recommendation. On search, OpenAI says: “ChatGPT-User is not used to determine whether content may appear in Search.”
Also see the robots.txt tester for AI crawlers and the other entries in the AI crawler reference.
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