What is ChatGPT-User?
ChatGPT-User is the user agent OpenAI uses when ChatGPT opens a web page because someone asked it to, for example to read a link they pasted or check a source. It fetches pages on demand rather than crawling the web on its own, which makes it a different bot from GPTBot and OAI-SearchBot.
At a glance
- Operator
- OpenAI
- Type
- User-triggered fetcher (not a crawler)
- User-agent token
- ChatGPT-User
- Follows robots.txt
- OpenAI says rules "may not apply"
- How to verify
- Source IP in OpenAI's published list, openai.com/chatgpt-user.json
- Blocking it means
- ChatGPT can't read your page when a user asks it to
How to spot it
- In your logs: the user agent contains
ChatGPT-User. Match the token, not the full string, because the version can change. - To verify it: the source IP must be in the ranges OpenAI publishes at
openai.com/chatgpt-user.json. A ChatGPT-User user agent from any other IP is user-agent spoofing. - What it is not: a visit from ChatGPT’s browser agent. That runs a full browser and proves itself with a cryptographic signature instead. See how to detect AI agents on your website.
ChatGPT-User vs GPTBot
Method: Requests to sites that opted in to this anonymous analysis, August, September, October and November 2026 (to 4 November). Each site is summarized separately, then figures are rounded. Counts are requests claiming each bot name.
OpenAI's other bots
Quick answers
Should I block ChatGPT-User?
Usually not, because each visit is someone asking ChatGPT about your page. OpenAI says robots.txt rules may not apply, so blocking it takes a firewall rule against its published IP ranges.
Does a ChatGPT-User visit mean someone clicked through to my site?
No. A click from a ChatGPT answer is a separate visit, from a person, and shows up as AI referral traffic.
Does Google Analytics show ChatGPT-User visits?
No. It fetches your page server-side and typically does not run JavaScript, so it appears in server or CDN logs only.