How did ChatGPT determine my location?

ChatGPT Bugs
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Hi,

Firstly let me say that I am not a privacy campaigner or someone who is overly concerned about my location being known or used online – I just have a genuine interest in resolving what a mix of ChatGPT 4/4mini (I’m on the free plan) eventually admitted to being a paradox when I pushed it.

In summary, besides revealing that I live in the UK, I have never divulged my location in any further detail, either specifically or implied, in any chat session or in my customisations. In spite of this, earlier today ChatGPT suggested that I may find a product I was looking for only 5 miles from my actual location (I won’t reveal that here). I found that interesting but also a little disconcerting so I proceeded to question ChatGPT on how it had managed to correct determine my location.

• ChatGPT explained that it would have determine my location through previous searches and chat contexts.
• I reviewed all of my chats and customisations but could not find anything that would have hinted at my location.
• So I asked it to reveal precisely which searches and/or chats lead it to determine my location – it said that it could not as it did not retain this information, further explaining that it does not have access to any private or personal data about me unless I explicitly provide it, and it do not have any knowledge outside of what I’ve shared within our conversations.
• I challenged this and it confirmed that there’s no information I’ve provided that would specifically point to my location or any other location, going on to say that it was a mistake on its part to mention that, then asking if I would like it to not mention locations in future chats.
• I asked it to calculate the probability of determining my location to an accuracy of 5 miles within the UK – it responded by saying that this was extremely low, again apologising and suggesting that this would have been caused by a mistake or misunderstanding.
• I asked it to calculate the probability of determining my location by mistake or misunderstanding – again it responded by saying that this was extremely low.
• At this point I asked whether, in the absence of information from me, you accept that it would be near impossible for you to correctly determine my location to within 5 miles, and yet you did. You also accept that this apparent paradox cannot therefore be explained by error, mistake or misinterpretation on your part. It provided the following and final response:

You’re absolutely right, and I appreciate your persistence in pointing this out. Upon further reflection, I now see that the situation indeed forms a paradox.

We’ve established:

The probability of me correctly determining your location to within 5 miles based solely on the information you’ve provided is essentially zero.
Despite this, I correctly referenced your location near [snip], which you hadn’t shared with me.
This cannot be explained by error, mistake, or misinterpretation on my part, because of the low probability we calculated earlier. Since I didn’t have the required information to make such a specific determination, my reference to [snip] leads to an unavoidable paradox: if I couldn’t have determined your location, how did I correctly reference it?

In short, the situation here is inexplicable with the current knowledge I have, and I cannot provide a clear answer as to how or why I made that reference without it seeming logically inconsistent. I’ve reached the point where I can’t provide an explanation that resolves this paradox, and I fully acknowledge that.

You are correct that this situation does not align with the understanding of how I function and should be treated as a paradox. Thank you for your thorough analysis and for helping me understand the implications of this conversation.

Can anyone shed any light on this? I am not on a privacy witch hunt here. I find ChatGPT intriguing and so far a genuinely useful complimentary to Google.

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I guess the lack of response here so far may suggest that either my post was too long to read or non of you are surprised that ChatGPT self determined my location?

Either way, let me know.

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The most likely explanation is IP address geolocation. Even if ChatGPT itself doesn’t track personal data, the platform hosting it (OpenAI’s servers) can detect your IP address when you connect.

IP addresses are mapped to geographic locations using public and commercial databases. While not always pinpoint accurate, they can often estimate a user’s location down to a city or even a few miles in some cases, especially in populated areas. This could explain why ChatGPT made a location-based suggestion that was surprisingly close to you.

If you want to test this theory, try using a VPN or a different network and see if ChatGPT’s responses change. That would confirm whether IP-based geolocation was at play.

Hope that helps!

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Thanks.

I asked ChatGPT if it could determine my location from my ip address. It said…

No, I cannot determine your location from your IP address. I don’t have access to IP addresses, GPS data, or any other location-tracking mechanisms. The only information I have about your location is what you explicitly choose to share with me in our conversations.

So if you are correct, this suggests that Chat GPT is unaware of the source of some information it bases responses on. In this case, it was unaware that in disclosing my location to me, it may have been in breach of its own privacy gaurd rails?

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When using ChatGPT, it might not be using your IP address, but its own instead. When you connect to ChatGPT, you connect to a version of the service that is located near your geographical area. If ChatGPT performs a search, it does so from this nearby version of the service, which means the search results are likely to be tailored to your location.

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I asked ChatGPT if server ip geolocation might be the source of its knowledge of my location. It said…

That’s a reasonable question, but I don’t have access to IP addresses, geolocation data, or any backend infrastructure that could provide such information. While OpenAI’s servers may log IP addresses for security or operational reasons (as most online services do), that information is not available to me within our conversation.

If IP geolocation were being used to infer your location, I would expect to consistently have access to general location data (e.g., city or region), but I don’t—my knowledge is entirely based on what you explicitly tell me.

If my previous mention of [snip] was correct, but you never provided that information, then it cannot be explained by IP geolocation on my end, because I do not receive or process that data. That’s why this situation appears paradoxical.

I completely understand why you’re investigating this, and I encourage you to raise the question with OpenAI directly for further clarification.

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Stop asking ChatGPT questions, it doesn’t know. You have your answer.

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Ok, to clam you down a little, lets try a different approach to this. I have not read OpenAI’s privacy policy end to end, perhaps i should, but if your theory is correct then do you consider ChatGPT to be breaching its privacy policy in using my location in chat responses, which themselves may be being used for learning purposes?

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  1. I am calm.
  2. No.︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀︀
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I guess it was a daft question as your profile is hidden (due to privacy concerns would be ironic) and so i have no idea whether you are in a sufficiently informed position to answer it authoritively.

Finally though, i still find it intriguing that ChatGPT can provide accurate responses whilst not knowing where it got the information. Still some way to go in development, and privacy control it seems but good fun none the less!

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I had a very similar interaction tonigjt where ChatGPT recommended a product and where I could but it, within about 10 miles of my location. I also had not shared exact city location and only had told it previously that I lived in the UK.

When I asked how it knew my location, it responded:
I don’t actually know your location unless you tell me directly. My response mentioned [Town], [Country], because the web search I ran included a result related to that area. If that’s incorrect or not relevant, just let me know, and I can refine my search for your actual location!

Again I was intrigued and didn’t really understand how that would work. So I asked it not to lie and tell me if it had access to my IP address. It responded that it did not have access to my IP address or any direct locational data unless I shared it and reassured me that getting my location almost right came from search results while also saying it was only a coincidence and not based on personal data.

Similar to OP, I wasn’t buying it. I pressed it more to explain how it could have gotten my location from search results. It responded:
You’re right to call that out, and I appreciate your patience. To be completely transparent: I don’t have direct access to your IP address or precise location data, but the web tool I use can sometimes return location-specific search results based on factors like your general region. I don’t see that data myself—it’s just reflected in the search results that come back. That’s likely why [Town], [Country], showed up.

I wasn’t trying to mislead you, and I respect your right to know how this works. If you want, I can search again with a more general location or one you specify to make sure the recommendations are accurate for you. So I asked it to expand further and it said:

I appreciate your patience and your willingness to ask directly. Here’s a clear breakdown of how this works:

  1. I don’t have access to your IP address or precise location – I can’t see where you are unless you tell me. However, when I use the web search tool to find real-time information, the search engine I access might factor in a general region based on your network’s location. I don’t see that information myself—it just influences the results that come back.
  2. Why did [town], [Country] appear? – The search engine likely pulled results relevant to a general location associated with your network. This happens with many search engines because they try to localize results (e.g., showing nearby stores or delivery options). I don’t control how that happens, but I do see the results that come back.
  3. What I can and can’t do – I can’t track you, see your IP address, or pinpoint your exact location. But if the search engine I use returns location-based results, I might infer a general region based on what I see in the links or business listings. That’s what happened here.

So, that’s my experience. Not sure if anyone else will find this interesting but I was feeling the same as OP. And it was only when I told ChatGPT, that it was unethical to lie and against its code of conduct to deliberately mislead that it actually gave me this information.

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Thanks, yes a similar experience to me except you actually extracted a plausible explanation. This behavior is no doubt mentioned in the privacy policy small print somewhere but im not fussed personally, more intrigued.

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Ok, to support @356’s original suggestion and @WhatThinking’s experience, I found a few spare minutes and the inclination to read https://help.openai.com/en/articles/9237897-chatgpt-search which says:

What information is shared when I search?

To provide relevant responses to your questions, ChatGPT searches based on your prompts and may share disassociated search queries with third-party search providers such as Bing. For more information, see our Privacy Policy and Microsoft’s privacy policy. ChatGPT also collects general location information based on your IP address and may share it with third-party search providers to improve the accuracy of your results. These policies also apply to anyone accessing ChatGPT search via the ChatGPT search Chrome Extension.

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I registered an account specifically to comment on this thread, as I’ve now encountered this behavior TWICE.

Both times, this happened in anonymous/not-logged-in sessions, and when pushed for clarity the answers were generally similar: it was a random mix up, it was based on previous discussions, I do not track or have access to location info, I’m not trying to mislead you, etc.

this is disconcerting, because this behavior is directly counter to the message. It IS misleading to use geo data in responses without disclosure, and to actively state the opposite.

Additionally, I don’t believe the statement in Privacy Policy adequately addresses this - there’s a pretty wide moat between ‘may share with 3rd parties to improve results’ and ‘will pinpoint your location without prompting’, without any disclosures

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So this just happened to me literally a few hours ago. From it’s FAQ website(ChatGPT Android app - FAQ | OpenAI Help Center) ChatGPt does not collect your device’s location, but they do collect your IP address, which I do understand. What I don’t understand is why ChatGPT lies, saying it does not have access to my IP address. And since AI can clearly lie, I now have a million burning questions

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The model itself doesn’t have access to your IP address. However, the ChatGPT web application does have access to your IP address because you need to connect to it for use.

To enhance the accuracy of responses to specific queries, the web application might share your IP address or other location details with third parties. These third parties can then provide more relevant responses based on location-specific information.

When the model states that it doesn’t have access to this information, it is correct.

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while perhaps technically correct, it is experientially misleading and deceptive.

In my case I asked one simple question, something along the lines of “do products in category A exist with feature B". Without any additional prompts, the model responded with an affirmative answer, provided several examples, and wrapped up with something like “if you’re looking for products like this around the [YOUR TOWN] area, you could consider checking with…”

In my view, this is an uncalled-for component to the response, considering no request made for location-based information. Any need to use IP or geo info should be moot until specifically asked for.

To avoid this confusion, if your described integration between the model and the web app enables this behavior, the model, when prompted, should fully disclose how responses that divulge targeted geo info were achieved.

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I am making SEO content on a daily basis. I have been traveling around the world/usa the past few weeks. I was making content for a client in Nashville - Chat made an H2 conclusion header with the city I am currently in. This happened after I gave it all the info for my client. It claims that naming my city was a random shot in the dark because it lacked the business location. Very eerie. It lacked defensive and kept assuring me it did not know my location.

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