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ChatGPT (robots.txt): What Does It Block and What Does It Allow?

chatgpt robots.txt
robots.txt of chatgpt


The robots.txt file, quietly residing in a website's root directory, is like the internet's 'gatekeeper.' This single, small text file instructs search engines like Google and Naver, as well as numerous automated bots (crawlers), "You are welcome here," or "Do not enter there."


The robots.txt file of ChatGPT, the world's most-watched AI service, has been identified. Based on the contents of this file, we have analyzed five of their key strategies. (This file is more than just a technical document; it is tantamount to a 'strategic declaration' of how OpenAI intends to protect its content and what it plans to reveal to the world.)



"No AI Training Allowed": Blocking Competing AI Bots at the Source

The first thing that stands out is the strong directive explicitly blocking specific AI bots.


```

User-agent: CCBot

Disallow: /


User-agent: Google-Extended

Disallow: /


User-agent: anthropic-ai

Disallow: /


User-agent: PerplexityBot

Disallow: /

...



Here, Disallow: / is the most powerful prohibition command, meaning "Do not access any page on this website."

  • CCBot: A bot that scrapes the entire web to build a massive dataset (Common Crawl).

  • Google-Extended: A bot that collects data used for training Google's AI models. (This is different from the standard Googlebot.)

  • anthropic-ai: The bot from competitor Anthropic (developer of Claude).

  • PerplexityBot: The bot from the AI search engine Perplexity.

  • Claude-Web: The bot from the AI search engine Claude.

Strategy Summary: This is a strategic move by ChatGPT to prevent its website content (public conversations, GPTs information, etc.) from being used to build competing AI models or general-purpose AI datasets.



"Enter Only Where Permitted": The 'Allow-List' Strategy for General Bots


For all other bots (User-agent: *), excluding the specific AI bots, they use the opposite strategy: "Block everything first, then open only the allowed pages."

User-agent: *

# Place allows first to avoid bots skipping after Disallow: /

Allow: /$ # Homepage

Allow: /?* # Homepage with parameters

Allow: /g/* # Public GPTs pages

Allow: /share/* # Shared conversations

Allow: /features* # Features page

Allow: /pricing # Pricing page

Allow: /learn* # Learning materials

Allow: /ko-KR/$ # Korean homepage

... (Numerous Allow entries) ...

# Now block everything else

Disallow: /


Strategy Summary: We can see they explicitly list all pages to be permitted using Allow: rules, and then place Disallow: / at the end to block access to all other pages. This appears to be a stable method chosen to prevent the accidental exposure of sensitive information.



"Feel Free to View Our Promo Materials": Maximizing SEO


If you look closely at the 'Allow-List' above, you can see that most of the allowed pages are for marketing and informational purposes.


  • /overview, /features, /pricing

  • /business, /students

  • /ko-KR/$, /ja-JP/$, and dozens of other country-specific homepages

Strategy Summary: We get a glimpse of their exposure strategy: ChatGPT manually specifies exposure country-by-country and page-by-page to maximize selective and primary page visibility.



Ironclad Security for Users' Private Conversations


So, what does the Disallow: / rule for User-agent: * ultimately block? It blocks all URLs not on the 'Allow-List.' This includes users' 'private conversations.'

Strategy Summary: All conversation content that a user has not explicitly 'Shared' is not on the Allow list. Therefore, access by search engine crawlers is blocked at the source by the final Disallow: / rule. This structure shows they are using robots.txt as the most critical mechanism to protect user privacy.




"We Will Guide the Way": Providing a Friendly Sitemap


At the end of the file, a 'map' is provided for crawlers.


Sitemap: https://chatgpt.com/sitemap.xml
Sitemap: https://chatgpt.com/marketing-sitemap.xml

Strategy Summary: The sitemap.xml file is a list that tells crawlers, "Among the pages we have allowed, please collect these specific ones." ChatGPT has bifurcated this list into 'marketing' and 'general' to guide bots more efficiently to the desired information (mainly marketing pages).




Conclusion: A Delicate Balance of Openness and Control

ChatGPT's robots.txt file is not a simple list of rules, but a clear business strategy that states: "Thoroughly protect what must be protected, and actively promote what must be known."

  1. Control (Competitors & Privacy): They do not allow their own content (which could be used as AI training data) or users' private conversations to be accessed by anyone.

  2. Openness (Marketing & SEO): Marketing pages designed to attract new users and user-'shared' content are wide open to search engines to maximize exposure.

Through ChatGPT's robots.txt, we were able to see a 'strategy map' for using robots.txt, demonstrating how a company can protect its assets and users while simultaneously operating its business.



What do you all think? Please share your thoughts in the comments!

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