OAI-SearchBot
OpenAI's search indexing crawler for ChatGPT Search features.
What is OAI-SearchBot?
OAI-SearchBot is OpenAI's dedicated search indexing crawler, separate from GPTBot (which collects training data) and ChatGPT-User (which browses in real-time). OAI-SearchBot builds the index that powers ChatGPT's search features, enabling ChatGPT to find and cite web content.
This crawler represents OpenAI's push into AI-native search, directly competing with Google and Bing. Content indexed by OAI-SearchBot becomes available when ChatGPT users trigger a web search within their conversation, and is cited with source links.
With ChatGPT's massive user base, being indexed by OAI-SearchBot provides access to a rapidly growing search channel. The crawler respects robots.txt and operates from published IP ranges at openai.com/searchbot.json.
User-Agent Strings
These are the known user-agent patterns used by OAI-SearchBot. Use them to identify this crawler in your server logs or configure robots.txt rules.
robots.txt example:
User-agent: OAI-SearchBot Disallow: /private/ Allow: /
How to Manage OAI-SearchBot
Allow OAI-SearchBot to be cited in ChatGPT search results.
Separate from GPTBot — you can enable search visibility without allowing training data use.
Serve well-structured markdown content for better citation formatting.
Monitor via Switch to track how often your content is accessed for search.
Start managing OAI-SearchBot today
Switch detects, tracks, and lets you build custom journeys for OAI-SearchBot and 35+ other AI agents and crawlers. Set up in five minutes.
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