"OpenAI bot" usually means one of two things: ChatGPT, the assistant you talk to, or the crawlers OpenAI sends to read websites. They share a maker but do different jobs. If you want to chat, use ChatGPT. If you run a site and saw "GPTBot" in your logs, you're dealing with a crawler.
Which OpenAI Bot Are You Looking For?
OpenAI operates a conversational assistant and several automated web agents under one brand. Searchers land on this name from both directions, so the first job is sorting yourself into the right group.
- You want an assistant: you're after ChatGPT, OpenAI's chat product.
- You want to build a bot: you're after OpenAI's API.
- You manage a website: you're after the crawlers.
The rest of this page covers each briefly. The sections around this text show features, pricing and alternatives for the tool itself.
How the ChatGPT Assistant Fits Into OpenAI's Lineup
ChatGPT is OpenAI's consumer-facing assistant. You type or speak a request, and it drafts, explains, summarizes or writes code. It's the product most people mean when they say "the OpenAI bot."
It's a generalist, which is both the appeal and the limit. It handles many tasks adequately and needs checking on facts you can't afford to get wrong. For a coding-focused agent from the same company, see OpenAI Codex. Plan names, limits and prices change, so check the current pricing on OpenAI's official pricing page.
What OpenAI's Crawlers Do on Your Site
OpenAI's crawlers are automated agents that fetch web pages, and OpenAI documents them separately by purpose. As of its published documentation, these include GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot and ChatGPT-User. For current bot names and user-agent strings, check OpenAI's bot documentation.
They aren't interchangeable. One is associated with collecting content that may inform model training. Another supports search features. A third fetches a page when a ChatGPT user asks for it. Each respects robots.txt rules written for its own name, so a block on one doesn't block the rest.
Blocking everything may cost you visibility in AI answers. If citations matter to you, read how to get cited by AI before editing robots.txt.
Which One Should You Pick?
Match the bot to your situation.
| Your situation | What to use or check |
|---|---|
| Need help writing or analysis | ChatGPT |
| Building your own assistant | OpenAI API |
| Want AI search visibility | Allow the search crawler |
| Don't want content used for training | Review the training crawler rule |
Browse the wider Chatbots category if you'd like to compare ChatGPT with other assistants, such as ERNIE Bot.
