What is OAI-SearchBot?
OAI-SearchBot is OpenAI's crawler for ChatGPT search. OpenAI documents it as the bot for search, and says a site that allows it in robots.txt can be shown in ChatGPT search answers. It is separate from GPTBot, which covers training, and from ChatGPT-User, which opens a page when a user asks.
Three bots, three settings
OpenAI's bot documentation lists three user agents and says each setting is independent: OAI-SearchBot for search, GPTBot for content that may be used to train its models, and ChatGPT-User for pages visited when a user asks ChatGPT. It adds that if a site allows both OAI-SearchBot and GPTBot, OpenAI may use the results of one crawl for both purposes.
What blocking does
Sites that opt out of OAI-SearchBot will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers, but may still appear as navigational links, according to OpenAI. Blocking GPTBot is a different decision and, per the documentation, does not decide search appearance. ChatGPT-User is not used to decide whether content may appear in search, and because its visits are triggered by a user, OpenAI says robots.txt rules may not apply to it.
Practical checks
- Allow OAI-SearchBot explicitly if you want to be found in ChatGPT search. A blanket Disallow for all user agents also covers it.
- Expect a delay: OpenAI says it can take about 24 hours after a robots.txt update for its systems to adjust.
- OpenAI publishes the IP ranges of OAI-SearchBot, GPTBot and ChatGPT-User as JSON files, so you can check that a request claiming the name is genuine.
- Use the free checker to see which AI crawlers your robots.txt allows.
For the wider picture of what decides whether ChatGPT names a brand, read how ChatGPT chooses which brands to recommend.
Check which AI crawlers your site allowsFree AI crawler checker: GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot and more.Read more: How ChatGPT chooses which brands to recommend