OAI-SearchBot
Indexes pages so they can surface and be cited as sources inside ChatGPT search.
What OAI-SearchBot is for
Indexes content for AI search - how users find you inside an answer.
This is the bot that decides whether your site can appear as a source in a ChatGPT answer. Blocking it removes you from ChatGPT search citations.
Crawler guide
Evergreen identity, source, and robots.txt handling guidance.
How OAI-SearchBot reads a site
Its real crawl signature, from the pages Trakkr observes it fetch.
When OAI-SearchBot crawls
Activity over a day in UTC - it peaks around 21:00 and is quietest near 13:00.
Allow or block OAI-SearchBot
Honours robots.txt. Add one of these to your robots.txt.
User-agent: OAI-SearchBot Disallow: /
User-agent: OAI-SearchBot Allow: /
Other AI crawlers
Every bot Trakkr tracks is a doorway.
AmazonbotOther · AmazonCommon questions
What is OAI-SearchBot?
OAI-SearchBot is an AI web crawler operated by OpenAI. Indexes pages so they can surface and be cited as sources inside ChatGPT search.
How do I block OAI-SearchBot?
Add a directive to your robots.txt: "User-agent: OAI-SearchBot" followed by "Disallow: /". Honours robots.txt.
Does blocking OAI-SearchBot hide me from AI?
Yes - OAI-SearchBot is a search crawler, so blocking it removes your site as a citable source in that assistant's answers. This is the bot that decides whether your site can appear as a source in a ChatGPT answer. Blocking it removes you from ChatGPT search citations.
Identity and robots.txt facts come from OpenAI's published bot documentation. Behaviour is measured from identified OAI-SearchBot requests in the server logs of the brands Trakkr tracks - 576K crawler visits across 84 sites, recounted as new data arrives.
Telemetry updated Feb 1, 2026.