China’s censors block ChatGPT, and Italy’s privacy regulator forced it offline for a month in 2023. Most other gaps are OpenAI’s own choice: it doesn’t offer ChatGPT in Russia, Belarus, Iran, Hong Kong or Macau.
By the vpnAlert team · Background checked on 10 Oct 2026 · Tested every day since 29 Sep 2026 ·
How we test · Report a wrong result
Every day we open ChatGPT from inside 24 countries, mostly over home broadband, and record
where it’s blocked, since when and how.
1 of 24tested countries with a confirmed block of ChatGPT
ChatGPT is blocked in China. ChatGPT itself turns away visitors from Russia. 24 of 24 results confirmed in the last 48 hours.
Blocked means the networks we test there failed to open chatgpt.com, twice, while it opened elsewhere.
“Turned away by the site” means ChatGPT itself refused visitors from that country.
“In our tests since” is when our own tests first showed the result, not when a ban began: where it reads “our first test”, the block may be older. Older results are excluded from current totals.
In most places where ChatGPT is missing, OpenAI made that choice itself. Its list of supported countries and territories leaves out mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau, Russia, Belarus and Iran, while Taiwan is included, and it warns that using its services from an unlisted country may get an account blocked or suspended. In July 2024 OpenAI also began blocking traffic to its developer platform from unsupported countries such as China, North Korea, Iran and Russia.
China is where the government blocks it as well. In February 2023 Chinese regulators told the country’s tech firms to stop offering access to ChatGPT, and rules issued that July require content from AI chatbots in China to embody “core socialist values”. GreatFire, which tests websites from inside mainland China, has recorded interference with chatgpt.com since May 2024, and its tests in the three months to October 2026 found it blocked every time.
Italy’s data protection authority, the Garante, forced ChatGPT offline in Italy for a month in 2023, until OpenAI added a privacy notice, age checks and a way to opt out of training. The dispute went on: in December 2024 the Garante fined OpenAI €15 million and ordered a six-month public information campaign, and in March 2026 the Court of Rome upheld an appeal against that decision.
Key dates
The Court of Rome upholds an appeal against the Garante’s €15 million fine on OpenAI, and the Garante temporarily takes the decision off its website.
Italy’s Garante fines OpenAI €15 million over ChatGPT’s handling of personal data and orders a six-month public information campaign.
OpenAI starts enforcing a block on traffic to its developer platform from countries it doesn’t support, China among them.
ChatGPT returns to Italy after OpenAI adds a privacy notice, age checks for Italian users and a way to opt out of training.
Italy’s Garante orders OpenAI to stop processing Italians’ data, citing a data breach and missing age checks, and ChatGPT goes offline in Italy.
Chinese regulators tell the country’s tech firms to stop offering access to ChatGPT.
Get past a block
ChatGPT blocked where you are?
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Test machines on the two biggest home-internet providers in most countries open the homepage every day.
A failure counts only when it happens twice on the same network, while the site opens from other countries.
A change is published only after re-checks a few hours later and again the next day, on several machines per provider, confirm it. It’s dated from the first sighting.
Test machines caught getting around blocks, through a VPN or a filter-dodging tool, are set aside.
We test websites, mostly over home broadband. Apps, calls and mobile networks can behave differently.
China is the main one: its censors block chatgpt.com, and in February 2023 regulators told Chinese tech firms to stop offering access. Italy’s data protection authority forced ChatGPT offline from March to April 2023. In Russia, Belarus and Iran the barrier is OpenAI’s own list of supported countries, which leaves them out.
Is ChatGPT Available in Russia?
Not officially. Russia isn’t on OpenAI’s list of supported countries and territories, and OpenAI warns that using its services from an unlisted country may get an account blocked or suspended. That restriction is OpenAI’s own, and Belarus and Iran are left off the list too.
Why Did Italy Ban ChatGPT?
Italy’s data protection authority, the Garante, ordered OpenAI on 30 March 2023 to stop processing Italians’ data. It cited a data breach, no legal basis for collecting personal data to train ChatGPT and no age checks. ChatGPT returned on 28 April 2023, after OpenAI added a privacy notice, an opt-out and an age gate.
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Sentence to quote
As of 13 Nov 2026, chatgpt.com is blocked in 1 of the 24 countries in the vpnAlert Censorship Monitor’s daily test: China.
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Source: vpnAlert Censorship Monitor, test of 13 Nov 2026, https://vpnalert.com/tools/censorship-monitor/chatgpt/ (CC BY 4.0)
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{{cite web |url=https://vpnalert.com/tools/censorship-monitor/chatgpt/ |title=Where is ChatGPT banned? |website=vpnAlert Censorship Monitor |publisher=vpnAlert |date=2026-11-13 |access-date=2026-11-13}}
