# What is OAI-SearchBot? AI crawler guide

Canonical URL: https://trakkr.ai/bots/oai-searchbot
Published: 2026-06-11
Last updated: 2026-06-11

Learn what OAI-SearchBot is, who operates it, its verified user-agent, robots.txt posture, and how blocking it can affect AI search, citations, training, or agent visibility.

OpenAI search crawler for indexing pages that can appear in ChatGPT search results.

## What is OAI-SearchBot?

OAI-SearchBot is a web crawler operated by OpenAI. It visits pages to index content that can appear in ChatGPT search results. The bot identifies itself with the user-agent token OAI-SearchBot and respects robots.txt directives. Its purpose is to discover and catalog web pages so that ChatGPT can surface them as search results or source citations when users ask questions. The crawler does not collect data for training OpenAI's generative AI models; it is solely used for search indexing. Site owners can control its access through standard robots.txt rules.

## What it's for

If you want your pages to be eligible to appear in ChatGPT search results and be cited as sources, you should allow OAI-SearchBot to crawl your site. Blocking it may prevent your content from being discovered and shown to users who rely on ChatGPT for search.

## How to handle OAI-SearchBot

To allow OAI-SearchBot, ensure your robots.txt file does not disallow it. To block it, add a disallow rule for the user-agent OAI-SearchBot. The bot honors robots.txt, so this is the primary control mechanism.

## robots.txt rule

User-agent: OAI-SearchBot
Disallow: /

## Blocking cost

Blocking OAI-SearchBot can prevent your pages from appearing in ChatGPT search results and being eligible for source citations.

## Examples

- A news website allows OAI-SearchBot so its articles can be indexed and shown as search results in ChatGPT.
- A private dashboard blocks OAI-SearchBot via robots.txt to keep its pages out of ChatGPT search.
- A blog that relies on organic traffic from AI search engines permits OAI-SearchBot to crawl its posts.

## Related bots

- PerplexityBot: Also tracked as a search crawler.
- MistralAI-Index: Also tracked as a search crawler.
- Claude-SearchBot: Also tracked as a search crawler.
- YouBot: Also tracked as a search crawler.
- Googlebot: Also tracked as a search crawler.
- Bingbot: Also tracked as a search crawler.
- Meta-WebIndexer: Also tracked as a search crawler.
- Applebot: Also tracked as a search crawler.
- atlassian-bot: Also tracked as a search crawler.
- SearchGPT: OAI-SearchBot is a search crawler tied to AI answer visibility.
- ChatGPT: OAI-SearchBot gives crawler context for ChatGPT.

## Frequently Asked Questions

### What does OAI-SearchBot do?

OAI-SearchBot crawls web pages to index them for inclusion in ChatGPT search results. It does not use crawled data for training OpenAI's generative models.

### How can I block OAI-SearchBot?

You can block OAI-SearchBot by adding a disallow rule for the user-agent OAI-SearchBot in your site's robots.txt file. The bot honors robots.txt directives.

### Will blocking OAI-SearchBot affect my site's visibility in ChatGPT?

Yes, blocking OAI-SearchBot may prevent your pages from appearing in ChatGPT search results and being used as source citations.

### Does OAI-SearchBot use my content for AI training?

No, OAI-SearchBot is only used for search indexing. It does not collect data for training OpenAI's generative AI models.

### How can I verify that OAI-SearchBot is crawling my site?

You can check your server logs for requests with the user-agent token OAI-SearchBot. The full user-agent string includes a link to OpenAI's documentation.

## Data And Sources

- [OpenAI documentation](https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/bots) - Primary source for OAI-SearchBot crawler details.
- [OAI-SearchBot live crawler data](https://trakkr.ai/data/crawlers/oai-searchbot) - Trakkr crawler telemetry for this user agent.