OAI-AdsBot (OpenAI): what it is and how to allow or block it
Updated · checked against the operator's documentation on
OAI-AdsBot is OpenAI's checker for landing pages of ads on ChatGPT; it visits only pages submitted as ads. Verify it against OpenAI's IP list; blocking it matters only to advertisers. OpenAI documents no robots.txt token for it; the name in its user agent is OAI-AdsBot.
Facts
- Operator
- OpenAI
- Category
- Special-purpose crawler
- robots.txt token
OAI-AdsBotOpenAI documents no robots.txt token for it; this is the name in its user agent.
- Honors robots.txt?
- Not stated by OpenAI. OpenAI's crawler page does not say whether OAI-AdsBot follows robots.txt; it names robots.txt tags only for OAI-SearchBot and GPTBot.
- User-agent example
Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko); compatible; OAI-AdsBot/1.0; +https://openai.com/adsbot
- Official source
- OpenAI: Overview of OpenAI crawlers
- Published IP ranges
- https://openai.com/adsbot.json
- Compared with the source
What it is used for
Per OpenAI, OAI-AdsBot is used to validate the safety of web pages submitted as ads on ChatGPT, and OpenAI may use landing page content to decide when to show the ad. OpenAI says it only visits pages submitted as ads and its data is not used to train generative AI foundation models.
Not the crawler behind a search index. What blocking it changes is specific to its tool, so read the next section.
What happens if you block it
Per OpenAI, it only visits pages submitted as ads on ChatGPT, so a block only matters for an ad landing page: OpenAI could then not check it for policy compliance (our reading). ChatGPT search uses OAI-SearchBot, a separate bot.
Is it really OAI-AdsBot?
Anyone can send OAI-AdsBot as a user agent, so a log line proves nothing by itself. The way to tell is the requesting IP address.
- Compare the IP address with the OpenAI: published IP ranges. A request from outside those ranges is not the operator's crawler.
- Guide: ChatGPT and robots.txt: which OpenAI bot does what, and which obeys your file.
- Guide: How to block AI crawlers in robots.txt: tokens for training, search and user requests.
- Guide: How to let AI assistants read your site (and which bots to block).
- Paste any user agent from your logs into the user-agent lookup, or follow the scripts in Fake Googlebots and PHP scanners.
How to allow or block OAI-AdsBot
Add one of these groups to the robots.txt at the root of your domain. A group that names the bot overrides a general User-agent: * group.
OpenAI names no robots.txt token for OAI-AdsBot, so these groups use the name from its user agent and may have no effect. OpenAI's crawler page does not say whether OAI-AdsBot follows robots.txt; it names robots.txt tags only for OAI-SearchBot and GPTBot.
User-agent: OAI-AdsBot Allow: /
User-agent: OAI-AdsBot Disallow: /
Does your site allow OAI-AdsBot today? The checker evaluates your robots.txt for this and every other bot.Check my site
What we see on this site
No request identifying as OAI-AdsBot has been recorded since 19 Oct, so there is nothing to show yet. We never fill this in with estimates.
Counts come from this site's own server; they hold no IP addresses or URLs, and a user agent is only a claim. See the bot traffic data and the methodology.
Questions about OAI-AdsBot
What is OAI-AdsBot?
OpenAI's fetcher that checks web pages submitted as ads on ChatGPT. Per OpenAI, OAI-AdsBot is used to validate the safety of web pages submitted as ads on ChatGPT, and OpenAI may use landing page content to decide when to show the ad. OpenAI says it only visits pages submitted as ads and its data is not used to train generative AI foundation models.
Is OAI-AdsBot safe and legitimate?
The real OAI-AdsBot is a special-purpose crawler run by OpenAI. A user-agent string is only a claim, though, so anyone can send it. Compare the requesting IP address with the published IP ranges.
Does OAI-AdsBot obey robots.txt?
Not stated by OpenAI. OpenAI's crawler page does not say whether OAI-AdsBot follows robots.txt; it names robots.txt tags only for OAI-SearchBot and GPTBot.
How do I block OAI-AdsBot?
Add a group to the robots.txt at the root of your domain: User-agent: OAI-AdsBot followed by Disallow: /. A group that names the bot overrides a general User-agent: * group. OpenAI documents nothing about robots.txt for this agent, so we cannot promise it is honored.
Will blocking OAI-AdsBot hurt my Google rankings or AI visibility?
No: per OpenAI it only visits pages submitted as ads on ChatGPT. Whether you appear in ChatGPT search is decided by OAI-SearchBot.
Related bots
More from OpenAI
- GPTBot AI training crawlerOpenAI's crawler for public web content that may be used to train its generative AI models.
- OAI-SearchBot AI search crawlerOpenAI's crawler that surfaces websites in ChatGPT's search features.
- ChatGPT-User AI user-triggered fetcherThe fetcher ChatGPT and Custom GPTs use when a person asks them to open a web page.
Other Special-purpose crawlers
- GoogleOther GoogleGoogle's generic crawler that product teams can use for their own purposes.
- Google-InspectionTool GoogleThe Google fetcher behind Search testing tools such as the Rich Result Test and URL Inspection.
- archive.org_bot Internet ArchiveReported to be the crawler the Internet Archive uses for Wayback Machine and Archive-It captures.
- WebMCPIndexBot WebMCP ShieldA survey crawler that measures how widely websites adopt WebMCP.
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