ChatGPT becomes the first AI chatbot designated under the DSA

This article was published on August 31, 2026 ChatGPT, Reddit and Roblox now face the DSA’s strictest tier. The first AI chatbot to be designated has four months to comply. European Commission Executive Vice-President Henna VIRKKUNEN on strengthening security at the EU’s external borders in Brussels, Belgium on Dec. 11, 2024. The European Commission has classified ChatGPT as a search engine. Monday’s designation brings the chatbot under the Digital Services Act as a Very Large Online Search Engine, alongside Reddit and Roblox, which have been designated as Very Large Online Platforms. ChatGPT is the first AI chatbot to be designated under the regime. The Commission announced the decision after signalling in July that it intended to act as soon as August. The designation itself follows a fairly simple calculation. Services with more than 45 million monthly users in the EU fall under the DSA’s threshold, and ChatGPT reported 159 million monthly active users across the six months to March 2026. Reddit and Roblox also cleared the threshold, although by a smaller margin. Reddit reported 57.2 million monthly users, while Roblox had roughly 48 million, putting both above the limit but wel