What the Commission decided
The Digital Services Act sets rules for online intermediaries in the EU, with a heavier tier for the largest. A service with at least 45 million average monthly active users in the EU can be designated a very large online platform or a very large online search engine. On 31 August 2026 the Commission did that for three services: ChatGPT as a search engine, and Reddit and Roblox as platforms. Its press release, updated on 1 September, says the services had declared user numbers above the threshold.
Henna Virkkunen, the Commission's executive vice-president for tech sovereignty, security and democracy, said the three would “now be held to a higher standard of scrutiny and accountability in the European Union, in line with their large impact on our citizens and society”. With the three additions the Commission counts 28 designated services. Its register lists 29 entries, one of which, Stripchat, had its designation ended in May 2025.
Reports in April had said the Commission was weighing whether ChatGPT should be covered. The designation settles that question, at least for the search part of the service.
Why a chatbot counts as a search engine
The DSA defines an online search engine as a service that lets users enter queries “to perform searches of, in principle, all websites, or all websites in a particular language”, on any subject, and that “returns results in any format in which information related to the requested content can be found”. The words “in any format” matter here. An answer written in sentences, with links to the pages it drew on, is a format.
The Commission's description is careful. It calls ChatGPT an AI system that responds to prompts “including by searching the web”, and so “a hybrid service” that qualifies as a search engine. That puts ChatGPT's web search in the same legal category as Google Search and Bing for the purposes of this law, whatever else ChatGPT does.
The user numbers explain why it matters. On the Commission's register, as reported by the providers, ChatGPT has 159.1 million average monthly users in the EU. That is fewer than half of Google Search's 364 million, but more than Bing's 119 million. Among the search engines the EU has designated, that makes ChatGPT the second largest by reported users, though each provider counts users its own way.
Average monthly active users in the EU, millions, as reported by providers; Commission register updated 7 September 2026
Source: European Commission, Supervision of the designated very large online platforms and search engines under DSA; threshold from Regulation (EU) 2022/2065, Article 33.
Figures are self-reported by each provider and may count users differently; the Commission states they are without prejudice to its own assessment.
What the designation requires
From January 2027, OpenAI has to meet the duties in Section 5 of the DSA's Chapter III, on top of the general duties it already had as a search engine. In outline:
Risk assessment and mitigation (Articles 34 and 35). Each year, and before launching features likely to have a critical effect, OpenAI must assess systemic risks from the design and use of the service in the EU. The list covers illegal content; effects on fundamental rights, which the Act spells out as including “freedom of expression and information, including the freedom and pluralism of the media”; civic discourse, electoral processes and public security; and public health, minors and wellbeing. The assessment must consider how recommender and algorithmic systems, content moderation, terms, ad systems and data practices affect those risks, and whether the service is being manipulated. Then it must put mitigation measures in place.
Independent audit (Article 37). At least once a year, at OpenAI's expense, an independent organisation has to audit compliance with these obligations.
Recommender option (Article 38). Any recommender system must offer at least one option not based on profiling.
Ad repository (Article 39). A designated service “that present[s] advertisements” must keep a public, searchable repository of its ads, with the content, the advertiser, who paid, the period shown and the targeting, kept for a year after an ad last runs. OpenAI's Ads Manager lists every EU member state as a location advertisers can buy from, as set out in can you pay to appear in a ChatGPT answer. If ChatGPT shows ads to users in the EU, this duty applies.
Data access (Article 40). The Commission and the Irish regulator can require data needed to check compliance, and can ask OpenAI to explain “the design, the logic, the functioning and the testing” of its algorithmic systems. Vetted researchers can be given access to data to study systemic risks.
Transparency reports (Article 42). Reports on content moderation every six months.
Fines (Article 74). Up to 6 per cent of worldwide annual turnover for breaches, and up to 1 per cent for incorrect, incomplete or misleading information.
What changes for a company that appears in ChatGPT
Directly, very little. The DSA's search engine duties are about systems and risks, not about individual answers. Nothing in the designation gives a company a right to have a ChatGPT answer about it corrected, a right to be cited, or a right to know why another source was chosen. For what a company can do about an inaccurate answer, see can a company correct what an AI says about it.
Indirectly, it could change what is known. Today the evidence about how ChatGPT picks sources comes from outside tests, such as those set out in which sources AI assistants actually cite. Under the DSA, OpenAI will have to assess in writing whether its systems affect media pluralism and the spread of illegal content, have that assessed by an auditor, and give vetted researchers data. The first published audit and risk reports, and research based on that data, may be the first systematic evidence from inside the system about how ChatGPT search chooses what to show.
An ad repository would also make ChatGPT's advertising searchable in the same way Google's and Meta's already are in the EU: who is advertising, on what, and to whom.
The designation also brings the general DSA rules for search engines into sharper focus. For example, the Act already required ChatGPT to have points of contact for authorities and users, which OpenAI's help centre describes, including a government portal and a public form for reporting illegal content.
What the designation does not cover
It is not the AI Act. Rules on general-purpose AI models, including transparency about training data, come from a separate law, covered in does the EU AI Act require you to label AI-written coverage. The DSA designation is about ChatGPT as a service people use to search.
It does not settle whether every part of ChatGPT is a search engine. The Commission describes a hybrid; how the duties apply to answers that come from the model's training rather than a live search is a question for the risk assessments and, if it comes to it, enforcement.
The decision itself was “not yet available” on the Commission's register when we read it, so the reasoning beyond the press release has not been published.
Methodology and limitations
This explainer is built from primary EU sources read on 5 October 2026: the Commission's press release IP/26/1772 of 31 August 2026 (as updated on 1 September), read through the Commission's press-corner data service; the Commission's news item on the designation; the Commission's register “Supervision of the designated very large online platforms and search engines under DSA”, last updated 7 September 2026, from which the user numbers and the count of entries are taken; and the text of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065, the Digital Services Act, on EUR-Lex, which refused direct requests and was read through a text-rendering proxy. The user numbers are as reported by the providers, which the Commission notes is without prejudice to its own assessment of how they were calculated; ChatGPT's figure may count users differently from Google's or Bing's. The designation decision had not been published. OpenAI's contact arrangements are from its help-centre page on the DSA, read through the same proxy. The April reports that the Commission was considering a designation are from headlines in Reuters and PYMNTS, which we did not read in full and use only for the timeline. The detail on ChatGPT ads is from our earlier report and was not re-checked. This is not legal advice.
Conclusion
Under EU law, ChatGPT is now a search engine, and a very large one: by the Commission's register it has more EU users than Bing. That brings the duties built for Google Search to an AI assistant for the first time. From January 2027 OpenAI has to assess whether ChatGPT's systems put media pluralism, elections or public health at risk, have an auditor check it, open data to vetted researchers and, if it shows ads in the EU, publish them. None of that gives a company any say over a particular answer. What it may give is evidence: the first account, required by law and checked by an auditor, of how the EU's second-largest designated search engine decides what to show.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is ChatGPT legally a search engine in the EU?
Yes, for the purposes of the Digital Services Act. On 31 August 2026 the European Commission designated it a very large online search engine, describing it as a hybrid service that qualifies as a search engine because it can search the web to answer prompts.
How many EU users does ChatGPT have?
The Commission's register lists 159.1 million average monthly users in the EU, as reported by OpenAI. That compares with 364 million for Google Search and 119 million for Bing.
When do the new obligations apply?
Four months after the designation was notified, which the Commission puts at January 2027.
What does OpenAI have to do?
Assess and mitigate systemic risks each year, including risks to media freedom and pluralism and to elections; submit to an independent audit; offer a recommender option not based on profiling; give regulators and vetted researchers data; publish transparency reports every six months; and keep a public ad repository if it shows ads in the EU.
Can a company use the DSA to correct a ChatGPT answer about it?
Not through this designation. The duties concern systems and risks, not individual answers, and create no right to a correction or a citation.
Is this the same as the EU AI Act?
No. The AI Act regulates AI models and systems, including transparency about training. The DSA designation regulates ChatGPT as a service people use to search.
Sources
- regulator European Commission, Commission designates ChatGPT, Reddit, Roblox under Digital Services Act, press release IP/26/1772, 31 August 2026, updated 1 September 2026. Read 5 October 2026.
- regulator European Commission, Commission designates ChatGPT, Reddit, Roblox under Digital Services Act, news item, 31 August 2026. Read 5 October 2026.
- registry European Commission, Supervision of the designated very large online platforms and search engines under DSA, information updated 31 August 2026, page updated 7 September 2026. User numbers as reported by providers. Read 5 October 2026.
- policy document Regulation (EU) 2022/2065, Digital Services Act, Articles 3(j), 33–35, 37–40, 42 and 74. Read 5 October 2026 through a text-rendering proxy.
- official OpenAI Help Center, EU Digital Services Act (DSA). Points of contact and reporting routes. Read 5 October 2026 through a text-rendering proxy.