ChatGPT search
ChatGPT search rewrites a question into one or more queries, retrieves results through OpenAI's own crawler (OAI-SearchBot) and third-party search providers, and answers with clickable citations. To be eligible, allow OAI-SearchBot in robots.txt. GPTBot, which collects training data, is controlled separately. Referral clicks carry utm_source=chatgpt.com.
How it sources answers
ChatGPT “may search the web automatically when your question would benefit from current information,” or users can select Search manually. Answers “may include citations” that open the source.[1]
OpenAI says ChatGPT search “sometimes partners with other search providers.” When it does, it “typically rewrites your query into one or more targeted queries,” may send follow-up queries after reviewing initial results, and shares general location but not your IP address. The help page links to Microsoft’s and Shopify’s privacy policies as search providers.[1] TechCrunch has reported that OpenAI “has a partnership with Bing but uses other undisclosed sources.”[2]
ChatGPT is the most used chatbot in the U.S.: 44% of adults say they use it, against 24% for Gemini and 17% for Copilot (Pew survey, February 2026).[6] Independent study
OpenAI’s crawlers
| User agent | Purpose | Documented user-agent string |
|---|---|---|
| OAI-SearchBot | Surfaces websites in ChatGPT search | Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/131.0.0.0 Safari/537.36; compatible; OAI-SearchBot/1.4; +https://openai.com/searchbot |
| GPTBot | Crawls content that may be used to train foundation models | Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko); compatible; GPTBot/1.4; +https://openai.com/gptbot |
| ChatGPT-User | Visits pages for user actions; “not used for crawling the web in an automatic fashion” | Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko); compatible; ChatGPT-User/1.0; +https://openai.com/bot |
Strings as published by OpenAI; OpenAI notes version numbers may change and publishes IP ranges for verification.[3]
- Settings are independent: allow OAI-SearchBot and disallow GPTBot to appear in search without offering content for training.[3] Vendor-documented
- Sites that opt out of OAI-SearchBot “will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers, though can still appear as navigational links.”[3] Vendor-documented
- Robots changes take about 24 hours to affect search.[3] Vendor-documented
- Because ChatGPT-User visits are user-initiated, “robots.txt rules may not apply.”[3] Vendor-documented
Getting included
OpenAI’s publisher FAQ says “any public website can appear in ChatGPT search.” Its guidance:[4]
- Do not block OAI-SearchBot.
- If OpenAI learns a disallowed URL from a search provider or other pages, it may still show the link and title. To prevent that, use a
noindexmeta tag, and let the crawler fetch the page so it can see the tag. - For ChatGPT’s agent in the Atlas browser, follow WAI-ARIA best practices, because the agent uses ARIA labels and roles to interpret pages.
Because providers such as Bing feed ChatGPT search, Bing indexing is worth checking too (see Copilot & Bing). Practitioner practice
Measuring ChatGPT traffic
“ChatGPT automatically includes the UTM parameter utm_source=chatgpt.com in referral URLs.”[4] In GA4, filter session source for chatgpt.com or build an AI channel group (see AI traffic in GA4). OpenAI provides no impressions report.
Accuracy caveats
OpenAI itself says search results and citations “can be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect.”[1] In the Tow Center test, ChatGPT search misidentified 134 of 200 news excerpts.[5] In the larger 2025 EBU and BBC study, 36% of ChatGPT’s news answers had at least one significant issue and 24% had significant sourcing issues.[7] Independent study
Frequently asked questions
Does blocking GPTBot remove me from ChatGPT search?
No. GPTBot is the training crawler. ChatGPT search uses OAI-SearchBot, which you control separately in robots.txt.
How can I see ChatGPT referral traffic?
Look for sessions with source chatgpt.com in your analytics; OpenAI adds utm_source=chatgpt.com to referral links.
Does ChatGPT use Bing?
OpenAI says ChatGPT search partners with other search providers and links to Microsoft’s privacy statement; it does not publish the full list or how results are combined.
See also
References
Pages accessed September 28–30, 2026 unless a date is given. See all sources and our editorial policy.
- ^ "Searching the web with ChatGPT". OpenAI Help Center.
- ^ "Anthropic appears to be using Brave to power web search for its Claude chatbot". TechCrunch. Published March 21, 2025.
- ^ "Overview of OpenAI Crawlers". OpenAI Platform documentation.
- ^ "Publishers and Developers – FAQ". OpenAI Help Center.
- ^ "AI Search Has a Citation Problem (Jaźwińska and Chandrasekar)". Columbia Journalism Review, Tow Center for Digital Journalism. Published March 6, 2025.
- ^ "Americans and AI 2026: Chatbots, Smart Devices and Views on Impact". Pew Research Center. Published June 17, 2026; survey of 5,119 U.S. adults, February 17–23, 2026.
- ^ "News Integrity in AI Assistants". European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and BBC. Published October 22, 2025; responses generated May–June 2025.