ChatGPT Search Reaches 159.1 Million in EU — Still No VLOSE Label
ChatGPT search still has no Very Large Online Search Engine, or VLOSE, designation in the European Union. As of August 14, 2026, the Commission’s designated-services roster, updated July 24, lists Google Search and Bing as VLOSEs but contains no entry for ChatGPT or OpenAI.
The audience behind the regulatory question has nevertheless grown. OpenAI’s current DSA disclosure puts ChatGPT search at approximately 159.1 million average monthly active recipients in the EU during the six months ending March 31, 2026. That reach makes the classification question harder to ignore, but it does not turn a possible designation into a completed one.
Crossing the threshold does not settle the legal category
The issue first took shape in 2025, when the disclosed audience for ChatGPT’s online-search functions moved above the DSA threshold for the largest services. A February 2026 legal analysis records 120.4 million average monthly EU recipients for the period ending September 30, 2025, against a threshold of 45 million.
The newer figure is more than three times that threshold, based on the two disclosed values. However, the threshold answers only the quantitative question: whether a service is large enough to enter the enhanced regime. The Commission must still determine whether the relevant service meets the DSA definition of an online search engine or online platform and specify what, exactly, is being designated.
The wording of OpenAI’s disclosure matters. It counts average monthly active recipients of ChatGPT search, defined as the company’s online-search features, rather than subscribers, registered accounts or every person who uses ChatGPT. OpenAI also cautions that the average was calculated solely for DSA compliance, so it should not be treated as a general measure of ChatGPT’s entire European audience.
This is why the 159.1 million figure is strong evidence of scale but not proof of legal status. A service can exceed the recipient threshold while its functions, boundaries and regulatory classification remain under examination. The absence of ChatGPT from the current roster means the enhanced VLOSE regime cannot yet be described as active for the product.
ChatGPT search blurs the boundary regulators must draw
A conventional search engine typically receives a query and returns ranked links or other results drawn from indexed material. ChatGPT search combines web retrieval with a generated response inside the same conversational workflow. The user can receive a synthesis of retrieved information rather than only a results page.
That design creates several plausible regulatory boundaries. The Commission could treat only the online-search functionality as the relevant service, leaving conversations that do not retrieve web material outside that particular designation. Alternatively, a decision could define a broader service if the Commission concludes that retrieval, generation and the surrounding interface cannot be separated meaningfully under the DSA.
The legal analysis cited above argues that ChatGPT has both search-engine and platform-like characteristics, including information retrieval, stored conversations and user-created GPTs. That is a scholarly interpretation, not a Commission decision. It illustrates why audience size alone cannot determine whether the final label would cover search, a wider part of ChatGPT or another precisely defined service.
The distinction is more than semantic. DSA obligations attach to the service identified in a designation decision and to its provider. A designation of ChatGPT search would not automatically place every OpenAI model, API or unrelated product inside the same VLOSE boundary.
What a VLOSE designation would add
OpenAI already performs DSA compliance activities that do not depend on VLOSE status. These include publishing recipient data, maintaining contact channels for EU users and authorities, and providing a mechanism for reporting potentially illegal content. Those measures show that some DSA rules already apply; they do not establish that the enhanced large-service regime has begun.
A formal designation would add obligations associated with the EU’s largest platforms and search engines. They include systemic-risk assessments and mitigation, independent audits, additional transparency and compliance controls, and forms of data access for regulators and eligible researchers. The practical scope would depend on how the Commission defines the designated service.
Those duties could expose decisions about information sourcing, ranking, recommendation and risk controls to more structured oversight. They would not necessarily require the publication of a complete search or citation algorithm, nor would they predetermine how an individual ChatGPT answer must be written. Specific product changes would follow from the applicable obligations and OpenAI’s compliance choices, not from the label alone.
Potential fines, delayed feature launches or stricter moderation are therefore possible downstream consequences, not established outcomes. There is currently no public designation decision tying the unresolved classification to a particular interface change or release schedule for EU users.
The update is growth without regulatory closure
The central change since the classification debate emerged is measurable growth: the disclosed average rose from 120.4 million recipients in the earlier six-month period to 159.1 million in the period ending March 2026. What has not changed is the formal status. ChatGPT search remains absent from the Commission’s public VLOSE list.
For EU users, the latest disclosure creates no immediate new right or product restriction by itself. For OpenAI, it increases the contrast between the scale of the search feature and the lack of a settled classification. The consequential event will be a published Commission decision that defines the service and its legal category; until then, ChatGPT’s VLOSE status remains unresolved.
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