# OAI-SearchBot

> OAI-SearchBot is OpenAI's crawler that surfaces and links websites in ChatGPT's search answers. It respects robots.txt and is separate from GPTBot (training): if you block OAI-SearchBot you can disappear from ChatGPT search results, even though you stay eligible for training.

- Updated: 2026-05-31
- Canonical: https://geotoolbox.ai/glossary/oai-searchbot

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OAI-SearchBot is the crawler that decides whether your pages can appear in ChatGPT's search feature. Per OpenAI, sites opted out of OAI-SearchBot will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers, though they may still appear as plain navigational links.

The common mistake is blocking it by accident with a broad `User-agent: *` rule meant for scrapers. If ChatGPT visibility matters, confirm OAI-SearchBot is allowed in your robots.txt and not caught by a WAF rule.