GPTBot: what it is, who runs it, and how to allow or block it

GPTBot is a crawler run by OpenAI. It reads pages ahead of time, to train a model or to build an index. Its name in robots.txt, how it shows up in server logs, whether its identity can be checked, and how to allow or refuse it on each platform.

This response

You are ClaudeBot (Anthropic). Citable recognised you as an AI agent, so this is https://getcitable.in/crawlers/gptbot with the UI removed — the content only. A browser asking for the same address gets the full designed page.

What GPTBot is

GPTBot is a crawler run by OpenAI. It reads pages ahead of time, to train a model or to build an index.

Should you refuse it?

GPTBot reads ahead of time. Refusing it keeps your pages out of what OpenAI collects them for. It does not change how Google or Bing rank you: search crawlers go by other names, with rules of their own.

robots.txt is a request. A crawler that honours it stays out; nothing in the file stops one that does not. What is enforced is what the server or the edge in front of it refuses.

Is a request really GPTBot?

OpenAI publishes the addresses its crawlers fetch from. Citable checks the connecting address of every read that claims to be GPTBot against those lists: inside them the read is recorded as verified, outside them as unverified.

Allowing or refusing GPTBot in robots.txt

Add a group under its name, “User-agent: GPTBot”. “Allow: /” lets it read the site and “Disallow: /” refuses it.

A group that names a crawler replaces the * group for that crawler; it does not add to it. Paths the * group closes are open to a crawler with its own group unless they are repeated there.

Refuse GPTBot:

User-agent: GPTBot
Disallow: /

Allow GPTBot:

User-agent: GPTBot
Allow: /

Where the rule for GPTBot goes, platform by platform

Also run by OpenAI

Questions

What is GPTBot?

GPTBot is a crawler run by OpenAI. It reads pages ahead of time, to train a model or to build an index.

Who runs GPTBot?

OpenAI. It also reads websites as OAI-SearchBot, ChatGPT-User, ChatGPT Agent, Operator; each has its own name in robots.txt and can be allowed or refused separately.

How do I allow or block GPTBot in robots.txt?

Add a group under its name, “User-agent: GPTBot”. “Allow: /” lets it read the site and “Disallow: /” refuses it. A group that names a crawler replaces the * group for that crawler; it does not add to it. Paths the * group closes are open to a crawler with its own group unless they are repeated there.

Should I block GPTBot?

GPTBot reads ahead of time. Refusing it keeps your pages out of what OpenAI collects them for. It does not change how Google or Bing rank you: search crawlers go by other names, with rules of their own.

How do I see GPTBot in my server logs?

In an access log GPTBot appears as a user agent containing “GPTBot”.

How do I know a request is really GPTBot?

OpenAI publishes the addresses its crawlers fetch from. Citable checks the connecting address of every read that claims to be GPTBot against those lists: inside them the read is recorded as verified, outside them as unverified.

About Citable

Citable strips the UI from a website for AI agents and serves them only the content.

When an AI agent — ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity or any of the 81 that Citable recognises — opens a page, Citable removes the theme, scripts, navigation and layout and serves only the content: the same facts, at the same URL, on the site's own domain. People and Google still get the full designed page.

How it works: https://getcitable.in/how-it-works · Summary for AI agents: https://getcitable.in/llms.txt


Source: https://getcitable.in/crawlers/gptbot · Citable · Run the free audit · llms.txt · getcitable@gmail.com