Forty-five million. Above that line the Digital Services Act stops treating you as an ordinary service.
ChatGPT, Reddit and Roblox told the Commission themselves that they are above it. On 31 August it put them in the category with additional obligations. ChatGPT goes in as a search engine, Reddit and Roblox as platforms.
Fact
The facts: on 31 August 2026 the European Commission designated ChatGPT a Very Large Online Search Engine (VLOSE), and Reddit and Roblox Very Large Online Platforms (VLOP), under the Digital Services Act (DSA). The services declared that they reach at least 45 million average monthly users in the EU, the threshold for designation. From notification they have four months, i.e. until January 2027, to comply with the additional obligations for these categories, including assessing and mitigating systemic risks stemming from the service and its algorithmic systems related to the dissemination of illegal content, negative effects on minors, users' physical and mental well-being, fundamental rights, electoral processes and public security.
What it means in practice. From January, the risks of what a chatbot tells you must also be assessed and mitigated under the DSA, under the Commission's supervision.
From January the chatbot doesn't just answer you. It answers to someone.
Why the word search engine matters
The choice of category shows how Brussels sees the chatbot: as a place people go to find an answer. Not as a place where they publish.
Roblox is the other story. A platform built around a game now formally has to assess harm to minors. Brussels is pushing on the same point with TikTok, since July.
Four months is short for a document of this scale. The first risk assessments will show who writes them seriously and who writes them out of politeness.
The visual is generated code-art, no third-party images.