What is OAI-SearchBot?

What does OAI-SearchBot do with your content?

Builds the index behind ChatGPT search — this is the bot that decides if ChatGPT can cite you. Like most AI crawlers, OAI-SearchBot reads your pages as plain HTML — it does not run JavaScript — so content that only appears after scripts execute is invisible to it.

Should you block OAI-SearchBot?

Blocking OAI-SearchBot makes your business invisible to OpenAI's AI when customers ask it for recommendations. If you want to be found, allow it; block it only if you have a specific reason to keep OpenAI's AI away from your content.

How do you allow or block OAI-SearchBot in robots.txt?

Add one of these snippets to the robots.txt file at the root of your site. The first explicitly allows OAI-SearchBot everywhere; the second blocks it completely.

# Allow OAI-SearchBot
User-agent: OAI-SearchBot
Allow: /

# Block OAI-SearchBot
User-agent: OAI-SearchBot
Disallow: /

Is robots.txt enough?

Not always. CDNs and firewalls (Cloudflare in particular) can block crawlers at the network level regardless of what robots.txt says — Cloudflare blocks AI crawlers by default for many accounts. If you want OAI-SearchBot to reach your site, check your CDN's bot settings too. SeeGeo's free audit checks both.

What is OAI-SearchBot?

OAI-SearchBot is OpenAI's AI search index crawler. Builds the index behind ChatGPT search — this is the bot that decides if ChatGPT can cite you.

Should I block OAI-SearchBot?

Blocking OAI-SearchBot makes your business invisible to OpenAI's AI when customers ask it for recommendations. If you want to be found, allow it; block it only if you have a specific reason to keep OpenAI's AI away from your content..

Does OAI-SearchBot run JavaScript?

No. OAI-SearchBot, like most AI crawlers, reads raw HTML without executing JavaScript. If your content only renders client-side, it is effectively invisible to it.