ChatGPT might have taken over the world since its release in late 2022, yet there are a handful of countries where it's either restricted or completely banned, landing you in legal trouble if you try to hop on.
It's hard to avoid artificial intelligence these days – even if you're not using it yourself – and while Anthropic's Claude might be the go-to model for those in the tech world, there's nothing that can beat OpenAI's ChatGPT when it comes to the average user.
This is primarily down to the fact that ChatGPT simply got there before anyone else, to the point where OpenAI's product is synonymous with AI as a whole for many like search engines and Google.
Its popularity has been proven through record sign up numbers and mass adoption, yet individuals in 20 different countries can't access the tool with almost all deeming its use to be a criminal activity.
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While you might be able to use ChatGPT right now – and you could even use it in the Vatican's Holy City despite Pope Leo XIV's repeated warnings about the future of AI – here are all of the countries that currently block ChatGPT, as per Visual Capitalist:
Where is ChatGPT banned?
- China
- North Korea
- Iran
- Cuba
- Syria
- Russia
- Afghanistan
- Central African Republic
- Eritrea
- South Sudan
- Sudan
- Yemen
- Bhutan
- Eswatini
- Chad
- Burundi
- Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Hong Kong
- Belarus
Every single one of these apart from Hong Kong and Belarus have been blocked from a political perspective, whereas the latter pair aren't supported directly by OpenAI despite being legally allowed.
Some countries have banned ChatGPT legally, but many are affected by government sanctions that prevent the American company from operating out of areas that are deemed to opposed to the United States.
Not every instance of government blocking is for the same reason, however, as while many fear privacy and cybersecurity breaches, others don't have the infrastructure to support the software or offer their own local alternatives.
China is the biggest one here, as not only does it block the U.S.-made software from the perspective of political security, but it would rather its citizens use models like DeepSeek, Qwen, Baichun, or Hunyuan.
Russia, North Korea, and Iran also block ChatGPT as part of wider internet controls, fearing foreign influence or political instability as a potential result.
Countries like Syria, Afghanistan, and Yemen are active warzones and support for ChatGPT would not only open up potential security concerns but maintaining service would prove to be incredibly difficult.