If you manage SEO or content, you should know what OpenAI’s bots are doing on your website.
OpenAI has multiple bots crawling the web, but they don’t all crawl your content for the same reason.
Some are related to search, some to improving AI models, some to accessing content based on user requests, and some to advertising.
If you’re working on AISEO, GEO, or AI visibility, understanding these differences is important.
The OpenAI Bots You Should Know
1. OAI-SearchBot
Purpose: ChatGPT Search
OAI-SearchBot is the bot associated with ChatGPT Search.
If you want your website’s content to be discoverable through ChatGPT Search, make sure you haven’t accidentally blocked OAI-SearchBot from accessing your site.
This doesn’t mean allowing OAI-SearchBot will automatically make your brand appear in ChatGPT responses.
It simply means you’re not preventing this particular OpenAI crawler from accessing your content.
2. GPTBot
Purpose: Improving AI models with the help of content on your website.
GPTBot is used to crawl publicly accessible content that may be used to improve OpenAI’s AI models.
This is different from ChatGPT Search.
So, if you’re looking at your robots.txt file and see GPTBot, don’t assume it has the same purpose as OAI-SearchBot.
They serve different purposes.
Whether you want to allow or restrict GPTBot is a decision you need to make based on your own content.
3. ChatGPT-User
Purpose: Accessing content for user requests
ChatGPT-User is different again.
It can be used when ChatGPT accesses a webpage because a user has asked it to retrieve or interact with information from that webpage.
So, this isn’t simply another general-purpose crawler that you should look at in exactly the same way as GPTBot or OAI-SearchBot.
Its purpose is connected to what a user is asking ChatGPT to do.
Example: User gives a url to ChatGPT and ask it to – go through, read content and summarize for them.
4. OAI-AdsBot
Purpose: Advertising-related access
OAI-AdsBot is associated with OpenAI’s advertising systems and can be used for accessing and checking advertising-related content, such as landing pages.
Again, this has a different purpose from search discovery or model improvement.
Whether you allow or restrict it depends on your advertising requirements and your own discretion.
So, Which OpenAI Bots Should You Allow as an SEO Professional?
If your priority is ChatGPT Search discoverability, OAI-SearchBot is the one you should pay particular attention to.
For the other bots, consider their purpose and decide whether allowing access makes sense for your website, content, and business.
Crawl Access ≠ AI Visibility
This is probably the most important thing to understand.
Allowing an OpenAI bot to crawl your website does not guarantee that your brand will be mentioned or your content will be cited by ChatGPT.
Crawling is only one part of the process.
A page can be accessible to an AI crawler and still never appear in an AI-generated response.
You can refer to the original document provided by OpenAI.
