# OAI-SearchBot

> Crawls the web so pages can be surfaced and linked in ChatGPT search answers. OpenAI says sites that opt out will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers, though they can still appear as navigational links.

Canonical page: https://getrankroot.com/ai-bots/oai-searchbot · Facts checked against OpenAI docs on 2026-10-20

| Operator | Used for | Type | Obeys robots.txt |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| OpenAI | ChatGPT search | AI search index | Yes |

## Should you allow it?

Allow it. This is the bot that decides whether ChatGPT search can cite you.

**If you block it:** Your pages stop appearing in ChatGPT search answers (they can still show up as navigational links).

OpenAI says robots.txt changes for search can take about 24 hours to take effect.

Separate from GPTBot: you can block training and still allow ChatGPT search.

When fetching robots.txt, OpenAI says it may add a "robots.txt" marker to the user agent (e.g. "compatible; OAI-SearchBot/1.4; robots.txt; +https://openai.com/searchbot"). Match on the OAI-SearchBot token, not the full string.

## robots.txt rules

Allow OAI-SearchBot:

```
User-agent: OAI-SearchBot
Allow: /
```

Block OAI-SearchBot:

```
User-agent: OAI-SearchBot
Disallow: /
```

Disallow OAI-SearchBot from one folder only:

```
User-agent: OAI-SearchBot
Disallow: /private/
Allow: /
```

A bot follows the most specific User-agent group that names it and ignores the generic `User-agent: *` group, so repeat any shared Disallow lines inside it.

## Same company, different bots: OpenAI

| Bot | Type | Purpose | Obeys robots.txt | If you block it |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [OAI-SearchBot](https://getrankroot.com/ai-bots/oai-searchbot.md) | AI search index | ChatGPT search | Yes | Your pages stop appearing in ChatGPT search answers (they can still show up as navigational links). |
| [ChatGPT-User](https://getrankroot.com/ai-bots/chatgpt-user.md) | User-triggered fetcher | ChatGPT (user actions and GPT Actions) | Not reliably | A robots.txt rule may not apply, OpenAI says. It has no effect on ChatGPT search eligibility. |
| [GPTBot](https://getrankroot.com/ai-bots/gptbot.md) | AI training crawler | OpenAI model training | Yes | Signals OpenAI not to use your content to train its foundation models. No effect on ChatGPT search. |
| [OAI-AdsBot](https://getrankroot.com/ai-bots/oai-adsbot.md) | User-triggered fetcher | ChatGPT ads | Not documented | OpenAI's docs don't describe a robots.txt opt-out. It only visits pages submitted as ChatGPT ads, to review them. |

## User agent string

```
Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/131.0.0.0 Safari/537.36; compatible; OAI-SearchBot/1.4; +https://openai.com/searchbot
```

## How to verify it's really OAI-SearchBot

Find its requests in your server logs:

```
grep -i "OAI-SearchBot" access.log
```

OpenAI publishes a separate IP list for each of its bots and recommends allowing requests from those ranges. It does not document a reverse DNS check.

Published IP list: https://openai.com/searchbot.json

## Common mistakes

- Blocking GPTBot to get out of ChatGPT search. GPTBot is training only; ChatGPT search is controlled by OAI-SearchBot.
- Allowing it in robots.txt but blocking OpenAI's IP ranges in a firewall. OpenAI recommends allowing both the robots.txt token and requests from its published IP ranges.
- Writing a User-agent: OAI-SearchBot group and expecting your User-agent: * rules to still apply. A crawler follows only the most specific group that matches it and ignores the others, so repeat any shared Disallow lines inside the OAI-SearchBot group.
- Leaving a CDN or host "block AI bots" setting on and only checking robots.txt. Those settings block requests at the network edge. Cloudflare, for example, changed its defaults on September 15, 2026 for customers who did not opt out: bots it classifies as Training or Agent are blocked on pages that display ads, and multi-purpose crawlers that combine Search and Training are affected by the Training block.
- Trusting the user agent header alone. Anyone can send "OAI-SearchBot" in a request; verify the source IP as shown above before allowlisting or blocking.

## FAQ

### What is OAI-SearchBot?

Crawls the web so pages can be surfaced and linked in ChatGPT search answers. OpenAI says sites that opt out will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers, though they can still appear as navigational links.

### Does OAI-SearchBot respect robots.txt?

Yes, according to OpenAI.

### What happens if I block OAI-SearchBot?

Your pages stop appearing in ChatGPT search answers (they can still show up as navigational links).

### Should I block OAI-SearchBot?

Allow it. This is the bot that decides whether ChatGPT search can cite you.

### What is the difference between GPTBot and OAI-SearchBot?

OpenAI controls them separately in robots.txt. GPTBot crawls content that may be used to train OpenAI's foundation models. OAI-SearchBot surfaces websites in ChatGPT search. You can allow OAI-SearchBot and disallow GPTBot to stay in ChatGPT search while opting out of training.

### How long does an OAI-SearchBot robots.txt change take to work?

OpenAI says it takes roughly 24 hours for its systems to adjust after you change robots.txt rules for search.

### If I allow both GPTBot and OAI-SearchBot, does OpenAI crawl my site twice?

Not necessarily. OpenAI says that if a site allows both bots, it may use the results from just one crawl for both purposes to avoid duplicate crawling.

## Sources

- [Official documentation from OpenAI](https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/bots)
- [Published IP addresses for OAI-SearchBot](https://openai.com/searchbot.json)

Check whether OAI-SearchBot can reach a site: https://getrankroot.com/tools/ai-crawler-checker or `GET https://getrankroot.com/api/bots?url=example.com`. Full list: https://getrankroot.com/ai-bots.md