OpenAI
OpenAI: Entity Summary
OpenAI, Inc. is an artificial intelligence company that operates automated clients — including crawlers and assistant fetchers — that are reported to sign their HTTP requests using Web Bot Auth.
OpenAI: Core Facts
- Operator
- OpenAI, Inc.
- Role
- Agent operator (crawler and assistant fetcher traffic)
- Signing status
- Reported in production per ecosystem documentation (Cloudflare signed-agents program)
- Public key directory
- Not reachable at /.well-known/http-message-signatures-directory (verified 2026-08-27)
- Verification path
- Via vendor bot directories (e.g. Cloudflare BotBase) until a public directory exists
A public key directory would allow any website operator to verify OpenAI request signatures independently of any vendor. This page is updated when that endpoint becomes reachable.
OpenAI: Classification Metadata
- Entity Class
- Agent Operator
- Last verified
OpenAI: Not Identical To
OpenAI the company is not identical to its individual crawlers (such as OAI-SearchBot or GPTBot), not identical to ChatGPT the product, and not identical to Microsoft's OpenAI-related services. Signing an HTTP request proves the requesting infrastructure belongs to the operator; it does not state a permission to crawl.
OpenAI: FAQ
Does an OpenAI signature mean the request is allowed to crawl?
No. A signature proves identity, not permission. Crawling permission is governed by robots.txt and the operator's own policies.
Where can I verify OpenAI signatures today?
As of August 2026, verification is available through vendor programs such as Cloudflare's signed-agents directory rather than an OpenAI-published public key directory.