When does ChatGPT search the web?
OpenAI's announcement of ChatGPT search, published in October 2024 and updated in February 2025, says ChatGPT will choose to search the web based on what you ask, or the user can choose to search by clicking the web search icon. Answers that use search include links to sources, and a Sources button opens the list of references. Answers that do not use search come from the model's training data, which has a cut-off date. A business that opened, moved or changed its services after that date may be missing or out of date in those answers until the model is updated.
The product has changed since that announcement, so treat the post as a description of how search was designed and check the current interface when you test.
Which OpenAI crawlers visit your site?
OpenAI's crawler documentation lists four user agents, each with its own purpose and its own published list of IP addresses. Two of them are controlled through robots.txt tags that OpenAI describes as independent of each other. A site can allow OAI-SearchBot so it appears in search results and disallow GPTBot so its content is not used to train OpenAI's foundation models. If both are allowed, OpenAI says it may use one crawl for both purposes. The other two agents act only in specific situations: ChatGPT-User when a person's request leads ChatGPT to open a page, and OAI-AdsBot when a page has been submitted as an ad.
- OAI-SearchBot surfaces websites in ChatGPT search. IP list: openai.com/searchbot.json.
- GPTBot crawls content that may be used to train foundation models. IP list: openai.com/gptbot.json.
- ChatGPT-User visits pages for user actions, and OpenAI says robots.txt rules may not apply. IP list: openai.com/chatgpt-user.json.
- OAI-AdsBot checks landing pages submitted as ChatGPT ads. IP list: openai.com/adsbot.json.
What happens if you block OAI-SearchBot or GPTBot?
OpenAI states that sites opted out of OAI-SearchBot will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers, though they can still appear as navigational links. It recommends allowing OAI-SearchBot in robots.txt, and allowing requests from its published IP ranges, if you want your site to appear. Disallowing GPTBot signals that your content should not be used to train OpenAI's generative AI foundation models. OpenAI also says ChatGPT-User is not used to decide whether content may appear in search. After a robots.txt change, OpenAI says its systems can take about 24 hours to adjust.
A common mistake is one rule written to keep out AI training that also catches OAI-SearchBot, such as a blanket Disallow in the group for every user agent. Check the group that applies to each agent separately.
Where do ChatGPT's search results come from?
OpenAI's announcement says ChatGPT search uses third-party search providers as well as content provided directly by its partners. The page does not name the providers. Microsoft states that its grounding service powers nearly every major AI assistant on the market; read that as Microsoft's description of its own business. For a site owner, the practical point is that being in ordinary search indexes still matters for AI search. Verify the site in Bing Webmaster Tools as well as Google Search Console, and confirm that your key pages are indexed in both.
What makes a page usable in a ChatGPT answer?
OpenAI has not published ranking factors for ChatGPT search, so be wary of anyone who claims to know them. What you control is whether the page is reachable and whether the facts a buyer needs are written on it. Put your service area, licences, the work you take on and decline, and how to book in plain text on the relevant page, so the page makes sense when read on its own. Keep the same details consistent across your website, Google Business Profile and directory listings, because an answer drawing on several sources may repeat whichever version it finds.
How do you test what ChatGPT says about you?
Write a short list of questions a buyer would ask before choosing a supplier in your category and area, without naming your business. Run each one, save the full answer and the cited links, and note the date, whether you were logged in and the location setting. Answers are generated each time and can differ between runs of the same question, so one answer is a sample. Repeat the same set on a schedule and compare like with like. The cited links are the most useful part: they show which pages the search drew on, including competitors' pages and directories.