GPTBot and OAI-SearchBot: which ChatGPT bots to allow so ChatGPT can recommend you
To let ChatGPT recommend you, allow OAI-SearchBot, the bot ChatGPT uses to find pages for its search answers. If your robots.txt file or your host’s firewall blocks it, your pages won’t be shown in ChatGPT’s search answers. ChatGPT has three bots in all, and each one does a different job.
| Bot | What it does | Allow or block for visibility |
|---|---|---|
| OAI-SearchBot | Finds and reads pages so ChatGPT search can show them and link to them | Allow. If it’s blocked, your pages won’t be shown in ChatGPT’s search answers. |
| GPTBot | Collects public pages that may be used to train future ChatGPT models | Allow if you want future models to learn about your brand. Blocking it doesn’t remove you from ChatGPT search. |
| ChatGPT-User | Visits a page when a person’s request in ChatGPT needs it | Allow. It only visits when someone’s question calls for your page. |
GPTBot vs OAI-SearchBot vs ChatGPT-User: what each bot does
A bot, or crawler, is a program that visits web pages and reads them. Each of ChatGPT’s bots gives its name when it visits. That name is called a user agent. Your site can read it and decide whether to let the bot in.
The three bots are separate. Allowing or blocking one doesn’t change the others.
OAI-SearchBot: the search bot
OAI-SearchBot visits pages so ChatGPT can show them in its search answers. When a question needs current facts, ChatGPT searches the web, reads pages and links to some of them. OAI-SearchBot is how those pages get found. It isn’t used to train models.
GPTBot: the training bot
GPTBot collects public web pages that may be used to train future ChatGPT models. Training is how a model learns what it knows before anyone asks it a question. Blocking GPTBot signals that your pages should not be used for that training.
ChatGPT-User: the helper bot
ChatGPT-User visits a page when a person asks ChatGPT to do something that needs it, like read a link they pasted. It doesn’t crawl the web on its own, and it isn’t used for training.
Which ChatGPT bots to allow so ChatGPT can recommend you
For AI visibility, allow all three bots on your public pages. OAI-SearchBot is the one you must allow. GPTBot is a choice, but allowing it is the better choice if you want ChatGPT to know your brand.
Here’s why both matter. ChatGPT names brands in two ways:
- From memory. It names brands it learned about in training.
- From live search. It names brands it finds on pages while it answers.
Our 10,000-keyword study shows that memory matters a lot. In 82.22% of the ChatGPT answers we checked, at least one brand was also named by an AI model with web search turned off. When ChatGPT named brands it already knew, 85% of those mentions had no link to the brand’s own website.
Source: Web Asset Builders study of 10,000 US keywords, August–September 2026.
Live search matters too. In our study, 42.42% of the links next to brand mentions in ChatGPT went to the brand’s own site. For Google’s AI Overviews, it was only 19.31%. ChatGPT links to your own site far more often than Google’s AI does, but only if OAI-SearchBot can read it.
ChatGPT
Google AI Overviews
- Brand’s own site
- Other websites
Source: Web Asset Builders study of 10,000 US keywords, August–September 2026.
So here is what to allow:
- Allow OAI-SearchBot on all public pages. This decides whether ChatGPT search can show your pages at all.
- Allow ChatGPT-User. It only visits when a person asks for your page.
- Decide on GPTBot. Allow it on your public pages if you want future models to know your brand. Block it on pages you don’t want used for training, like paid content.
Keep private and login pages blocked for every bot. Letting the right bot in is the first step in how to rank in ChatGPT. Not sure if ChatGPT names you today? Our free AI visibility audit shows it.
How to check your robots.txt and your host’s firewall
Robots.txt is a small text file at the root of your site. It tells bots which pages they may visit. To see yours, type yourdomain.com/robots.txt into your browser, using your own domain. Then check these five things:
- Look for each bot by name. Find any lines that say User-agent: OAI-SearchBot, User-agent: GPTBot or User-agent: ChatGPT-User.
- Check the lines under each name. “Disallow: /” under a bot’s name blocks it from your whole site. “Allow: /”, or no Disallow line at all, lets it in.
- Check the catch-all group. A group that starts with User-agent: * covers every bot that has no group of its own. If that group says Disallow: /, it blocks ChatGPT’s bots too, unless they have their own group.
- Check your host and security settings. Some hosts, firewalls and security services can block AI bots with one setting, and on some it is switched on by default. Your robots.txt can say yes while your firewall says no.
- Check your server logs. Search your logs for OAI-SearchBot. If you see visits with normal responses, it’s getting in. If you see errors like 403 (access denied), or no visits at all, something is blocking it.
Here is a simple set of rules that lets all three bots in:
| Line in robots.txt | What it does |
|---|---|
| User-agent: OAI-SearchBot | Starts the rules for ChatGPT’s search bot |
| Allow: / | Lets it visit every public page |
| User-agent: ChatGPT-User | Starts the rules for the helper bot |
| Allow: / | Lets it visit every public page |
| User-agent: GPTBot | Starts the rules for the training bot |
| Allow: / | Lets it visit (use Disallow: / instead to keep your pages out of training) |
Anyone can put a bot’s name on a program, so some firewalls check that a visit comes from the bot’s real addresses. ChatGPT’s bots use published IP address ranges. That lets your firewall allow the real bots and still block fakes. After you change anything, wait a day or so, then check your logs again.
Does blocking GPTBot remove you from ChatGPT?
No. Blocking GPTBot doesn’t remove you from ChatGPT search, because search uses OAI-SearchBot. You can block GPTBot, allow OAI-SearchBot, and still have your pages shown and linked in ChatGPT’s search answers.
Blocking GPTBot also doesn’t make ChatGPT forget you. It stops new pages on your site from being collected for training. It doesn’t erase what models already learned. And much of what ChatGPT says about your brand comes from other websites, not yours. Remember that 85% of ChatGPT’s mentions of brands it already knew had no link to the brand’s own site.
The bot you can’t block without losing search visibility is OAI-SearchBot. Block it, and your pages drop out of ChatGPT’s search answers.
Does llms.txt help ChatGPT or Google recommend you?
No, there’s no proof that llms.txt helps ChatGPT or Google recommend you. llms.txt is a proposed file that lists your key pages in plain text for AI tools to read. It sits at the root of your site, like robots.txt. The idea is to help AI tools find your best content fast.
Here is what we know:
- Google doesn’t use it. Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode use the same crawling and ranking as normal Google search. You don’t need a special AI file to show up in them.
- ChatGPT hasn’t been shown to use it to pick brands. ChatGPT search relies on OAI-SearchBot reading your normal pages.
- Our study didn’t measure it. We have no data showing it changes who AI recommends, so we won’t claim it does.
Adding an llms.txt file does no harm, and it takes little time. But don’t treat it as a fix. What moves AI answers is letting the right bots in, getting named on the pages AI trusts, and ranking for your buyers’ questions. The same idea runs through all LLM SEO: AI tools repeat what they can read and what other sites say about you.
Get your free AI visibility audit
Letting OAI-SearchBot in makes it possible for ChatGPT to show your pages. It doesn’t make ChatGPT pick you. That takes getting your brand named on the websites ChatGPT reads, a clear site, and tracking the answers. Our ChatGPT SEO service does all three, and we obsessively track what ChatGPT says about you. To see where you stand first, get a free AI visibility audit. It shows whether ChatGPT recommends you or your competitors, what your buyers ask AI, and how to close the gap.
