# OAI-AdsBot

> Checks landing pages submitted as ads on ChatGPT for safety and may use their content to decide when to show the ad. It only visits submitted ad pages and OpenAI says its data is not used to train foundation models.

Canonical page: https://getrankroot.com/ai-bots/oai-adsbot · Facts checked against OpenAI docs on 2026-10-20

| Operator | Used for | Type | Obeys robots.txt |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| OpenAI | ChatGPT ads | User-triggered fetcher | Not documented |

## Should you allow it?

Only relevant if you run ChatGPT ads. Do not block your own ad landing pages.

**If you block it:** OpenAI's docs don't describe a robots.txt opt-out. It only visits pages submitted as ChatGPT ads, to review them.

## robots.txt rules

Allow OAI-AdsBot:

```
User-agent: OAI-AdsBot
Allow: /
```

Block OAI-AdsBot:

```
User-agent: OAI-AdsBot
Disallow: /
```

Disallow OAI-AdsBot from one folder only:

```
User-agent: OAI-AdsBot
Disallow: /private/
Allow: /
```

A bot follows the most specific User-agent group that names it and ignores the generic `User-agent: *` group, so repeat any shared Disallow lines inside it.

## Same company, different bots: OpenAI

| Bot | Type | Purpose | Obeys robots.txt | If you block it |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [OAI-SearchBot](https://getrankroot.com/ai-bots/oai-searchbot.md) | AI search index | ChatGPT search | Yes | Your pages stop appearing in ChatGPT search answers (they can still show up as navigational links). |
| [ChatGPT-User](https://getrankroot.com/ai-bots/chatgpt-user.md) | User-triggered fetcher | ChatGPT (user actions and GPT Actions) | Not reliably | A robots.txt rule may not apply, OpenAI says. It has no effect on ChatGPT search eligibility. |
| [GPTBot](https://getrankroot.com/ai-bots/gptbot.md) | AI training crawler | OpenAI model training | Yes | Signals OpenAI not to use your content to train its foundation models. No effect on ChatGPT search. |
| [OAI-AdsBot](https://getrankroot.com/ai-bots/oai-adsbot.md) | User-triggered fetcher | ChatGPT ads | Not documented | OpenAI's docs don't describe a robots.txt opt-out. It only visits pages submitted as ChatGPT ads, to review them. |

## User agent string

```
Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko); compatible; OAI-AdsBot/1.0; +https://openai.com/adsbot
```

## How to verify it's really OAI-AdsBot

Find its requests in your server logs:

```
grep -i "OAI-AdsBot" access.log
```

OpenAI publishes a separate IP list for each of its bots and recommends allowing requests from those ranges. It does not document a reverse DNS check.

Published IP list: https://openai.com/adsbot.json

## Common mistakes

- Blocking it with a firewall or bot-protection rule on pages you submitted as ChatGPT ads. It is the bot OpenAI uses to check those landing pages.
- Writing a User-agent: OAI-AdsBot group and expecting your User-agent: * rules to still apply. A crawler follows only the most specific group that matches it and ignores the others, so repeat any shared Disallow lines inside the OAI-AdsBot group.
- Leaving a CDN or host "block AI bots" setting on and only checking robots.txt. Those settings block requests at the network edge. Cloudflare, for example, changed its defaults on September 15, 2026 for customers who did not opt out: bots it classifies as Training or Agent are blocked on pages that display ads, and multi-purpose crawlers that combine Search and Training are affected by the Training block.
- Trusting the user agent header alone. Anyone can send "OAI-AdsBot" in a request; verify the source IP as shown above before allowlisting or blocking.

## FAQ

### What is OAI-AdsBot?

Checks landing pages submitted as ads on ChatGPT for safety and may use their content to decide when to show the ad. It only visits submitted ad pages and OpenAI says its data is not used to train foundation models.

### Does OAI-AdsBot respect robots.txt?

Not applicable.

### What happens if I block OAI-AdsBot?

OpenAI's docs don't describe a robots.txt opt-out. It only visits pages submitted as ChatGPT ads, to review them.

### Should I block OAI-AdsBot?

Only relevant if you run ChatGPT ads. Do not block your own ad landing pages.

### Which pages does OAI-AdsBot visit?

OpenAI says it only visits pages that were submitted as ads on ChatGPT. It checks them for safety and may use their content to decide when the ad is most relevant.

### Is OAI-AdsBot data used to train ChatGPT?

No. OpenAI says data collected by OAI-AdsBot is not used to train generative AI foundation models.

### How do I verify OAI-AdsBot?

Its user agent contains OAI-AdsBot/1.0 and +https://openai.com/adsbot. Check the source IP against OpenAI's list at openai.com/adsbot.json.

## Sources

- [Official documentation from OpenAI](https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/bots)
- [Published IP addresses for OAI-AdsBot](https://openai.com/adsbot.json)

Check whether OAI-AdsBot can reach a site: https://getrankroot.com/tools/ai-crawler-checker or `GET https://getrankroot.com/api/bots?url=example.com`. Full list: https://getrankroot.com/ai-bots.md