ChatGPT Search is a feature OpenAI integrated into ChatGPT that generates answers to user questions from up-to-date sources found through live web search, rather than from training data. It launched for Plus subscribers in October 2024 and for free users in December 2024.
Features of ChatGPT Search:
- Access to live web sources
- Source links within the answer
- A detailed source list in the “Sources” section
- Use of Bing search infrastructure
- The OAI-SearchBot user-agent for crawling
To be visible in ChatGPT Search:
- Keep your site crawlable for ChatGPT (allow OAI-SearchBot and GPTBot in robots.txt)
- Structure content in a question-and-answer format
- Add Structured Data (especially Article and FAQ)
- Make sure you are well indexed by Bing (Bing Webmaster Tools)
- Strengthen brand authority and E-E-A-T signals
Crawling permissions:
- OAI-SearchBot: Crawls for the ChatGPT Search index
- GPTBot: Crawls for training data
- ChatGPT-User: Live crawling during a user query
Tip: Clearly define your policy for these three user-agents in your robots.txt. If you do not want to participate in AI training, you can block GPTBot, but if you want to be visible, allow OAI-SearchBot.