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ChatGPT-User

OpenAI's real-time browsing agent when ChatGPT users request live web content.

Operated by OpenAIOfficial docs

What is ChatGPT-User?

ChatGPT-User is the user-agent string used when ChatGPT browses the web in real-time during a conversation. Unlike GPTBot which crawls for training data, ChatGPT-User visits pages only when a user explicitly asks ChatGPT to look something up or visit a URL.

This agent has one of the highest crawl rates among AI assistants, reflecting ChatGPT's massive user base. Each visit represents a real user asking ChatGPT about your content, making it a direct engagement channel. The content fetched is summarized and presented to the user with a citation link.

ChatGPT-User respects robots.txt separately from GPTBot, allowing site owners to permit real-time browsing while blocking training data collection. This granular control is important for businesses that want AI visibility without contributing to model training.

User-Agent Strings

These are the known user-agent patterns used by ChatGPT-User. Use them to identify this crawler in your server logs or configure robots.txt rules.

ChatGPT-User
chatgpt

robots.txt example:

User-agent: ChatGPT-User
Disallow: /private/
Allow: /

How to Manage ChatGPT-User

1

Allow ChatGPT-User to be reachable when ChatGPT users ask about your content.

2

Use Switch markdown journeys to serve well-formatted content for better summarization.

3

Track ChatGPT-User visits to understand what content users are asking AI about.

4

This is separate from GPTBot — allow browsing while blocking training if desired.

How to block ChatGPT-User

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