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AI crawler

What is OAI-SearchBot?

OAI-SearchBot is OpenAI's crawler that finds pages to show and link in ChatGPT search results.

AI search and answersFollows robots.txtIP list
Operator
OpenAI
Purpose
AI search and answers. Indexes pages so AI answers can cite and link to you. Blocking it can remove you from those answers.
robots.txt token
OAI-SearchBot
Sample user agent
Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko); compatible; OAI-SearchBot/1.4; +https://openai.com/searchbotUser agents change with versions. Match on the token, not the full string.
Follows robots.txt
Yes, according to OpenAI. OpenAI says robots.txt changes take about 24 hours to apply.
How to verify
Check the IP against OpenAI's published list.
Sources
OpenAI documentationOpenAI IP list
Last reviewed

Allow or block OAI-SearchBot

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

Asks OAI-SearchBot not to crawl any page. Well-behaved crawlers stop; it does not stop anyone who ignores robots.txt.

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

Lets OAI-SearchBot crawl everything. You only need this if a broader rule would otherwise block it.

Should you block it?

Keep OAI-SearchBot allowed if you want to appear, with a link, in OpenAI's answers. Blocking it is the fastest way to disappear from them.

Write a full policy with the AI Crawler Policy Generator

How to verify a OAI-SearchBot request

  1. Find the IP address of the request in your server or CDN logs.
  2. Get OpenAI's published list (OpenAI IP list).
  3. Check whether the IP falls inside one of the ranges. If it doesn't, the request is not from OAI-SearchBot, whatever its user agent says.
Test OAI-SearchBot requests

Questions about OAI-SearchBot

Is OAI-SearchBot safe to allow?

OAI-SearchBot reads public pages; it does not log in or submit forms. Whether to allow it depends on whether you want OpenAI's product to use your pages.

How do I know a request is really OAI-SearchBot?

Check the request against what OpenAI publishes: Check the IP against OpenAI's published list. The user agent alone proves nothing.

How often does OAI-SearchBot visit?

It depends on your site; OpenAI doesn't publish a schedule. Referscope shows the real visits.

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Less guessing. Clearer growth.

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