Definition

OAI-SearchBot

OpenAI’s crawler for ChatGPT search. Block it in robots.txt and your pages can be left out of its answers with sources.

By Manuel Sampedro PérezPublished 26 Sept 2026

OpenAI uses different crawlers for different purposes. OAI-SearchBot collects pages so they can appear and be cited in ChatGPT search. GPTBot collects content that may be used to train models. ChatGPT-User opens a page when a user asks it to.

Each one is controlled separately in robots.txt. If you want ChatGPT to be able to cite your pages, OpenAI’s help recommends not blocking OAI-SearchBot. Allowing it does not guarantee you appear: it only stops a rule from keeping you out.

Read: What GEO is and what it can honestly do for a brand.

Manuel Sampedro Pérez

Founder of AnswerGravity, Spain’s first 100% GEO agency. Measures how brands appear in ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude and works on what each company controls. Writes with dates, method and limits.

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Definition

GPTBot

OpenAI’s crawler for content that may be used to train its models. Blocking it does not take you out of ChatGPT search results.

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Definition

Crawling and indexing

Crawling is a bot downloading your page; indexing is the search engine storing it so it can be shown. Without both, AI cannot cite it.

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