Bots / OpenAI

ChatGPT-User

User-agent seen when ChatGPT fetches pages on a user’s behalf during browsing.

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Identity

  • Name: ChatGPT-User
  • Operator: OpenAI
  • User-Agent: ChatGPT-User

User-agent seen when ChatGPT fetches pages on a user’s behalf during browsing. Treat this page as the entity owner for “ChatGPT-User” / User-Agent facts. The Shopify how-to for allowing AI crawlers lives on Learn so we do not compete with that head term here.

Typical robots.txt directive

User-agent: ChatGPT-User
Allow: /

Match the User-Agent string your logs actually see. Some operators use multiple agents (fetch vs training). When in doubt, allow the answer-oriented agents you care about and document intentional denials.

Shopify notes

If shoppers ask ChatGPT to open your PDP, this agent needs access to public HTML.

Implementation steps

  1. Edit robots.txt in Shopify admin (or your SEO app’s robots template)
  2. Allow storefront paths; keep /checkouts, /cart, /account disallowed under User-agent: *
  3. Review security/bot apps for blanket AI blocks
  4. Test on the custom domain customers use (not only *.myshopify.com)
  5. If shoppers ask ChatGPT to open your PDP, this agent needs access to public HTML.

When to allow

  • You want answer engines operated by this company to fetch public storefront HTML
  • Your PDPs and collections should be eligible as citation or Shopping sources
  • robots.txt already allows general crawling but AI agents were accidentally blocked

When teams deny

  • A security incident requires temporary lockdown (re-open when safe)
  • You intentionally do not want this operator fetching your storefront

How to verify

  1. Confirm robots.txt includes a clear rule for ChatGPT-User / ChatGPT-User
  2. Fetch homepage and a hero PDP; expect HTTP 200 with real product HTML
  3. Ensure bot challenges / walls do not trigger for this User-Agent on public paths
  4. Re-run a TopMention tech scan to confirm crawler checks move toward pass

Related

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