As the availability of ChatGPT Search expands, understanding its indexing mechanics will be vital for digital visibility.
While Bing’s index plays a key role, OpenAI’s system surfaces content using its own crawlers and attribution methods.
Here is a breakdown of the technical requirements for ensuring your website is indexed correctly.
Technical Framework
ChatGPT Search combines Bing’s search index with OpenAI’s proprietary technology.
According to OpenAI’s technical documentation, the platform utilizes a fine-tuned version of GPT-4o, enhanced with synthetic data generation techniques and integration with their o1-preview system.
The platform employs three distinct crawlers, each serving different purposes.
The OAI-SearchBot serves as the primary crawler for search functionality, while ChatGPT-User handles real-time user requests and enables direct interaction with external applications.
The third crawler, GPTBot, manages AI model training and can be blocked without affecting search visibility.
Implementation
Proper indexing begins with robots.txt configuration.
Your website’s robots.txt should specifically allow OAI-SearchBot while maintaining separate permissions for different OpenAI crawlers.