Is Your Site Visible to ChatGPT?
Find out if OAI-SearchBot — the crawler behind ChatGPT search — can access your website. See exactly what's blocking ChatGPT from reading your content.
What We Check
robots.txt Analysis
We check if OAI-SearchBot, GPTBot, and ChatGPT-User are blocked in your robots.txt file.
Crawl Simulation
We simulate how OpenAI's crawler sees your pages, including JavaScript rendering.
Actionable Report
Get specific recommendations on how to fix any issues blocking ChatGPT access.
OpenAI Crawlers We Analyze
OpenAI runs three crawlers with different jobs. Only one of them — OAI-SearchBot — decides whether you appear in ChatGPT search.
Builds the index behind ChatGPT search. If blocked, your site won't appear in ChatGPT search results or citations. Changes propagate in roughly 24 hours.
Collects data for training OpenAI models — nothing else. Blocking it is a policy choice and does not remove you from ChatGPT search.
Fetches a page when a user asks ChatGPT to open it. OpenAI says robots.txt may not apply to these user-triggered requests.
We also check Claude, Perplexity, Google Gemini, Meta, Common Crawl, and more. See full list
Frequently Asked Questions
Why isn't my site appearing in ChatGPT answers?
ChatGPT search answers come from an index built by OAI-SearchBot — that's the visibility gate. If your robots.txt blocks OAI-SearchBot (or a WAF challenges it), your site can't appear in ChatGPT search results or citations. Many sites block it accidentally with a blanket AI-bot rule.
What is GPTBot?
GPTBot is OpenAI's training crawler — it collects data for training OpenAI models and respects robots.txt. It does not control ChatGPT search: blocking GPTBot does NOT remove your site from ChatGPT search results. That's decided by OAI-SearchBot, a separate crawler.
How do I allow ChatGPT to access my site?
Check your robots.txt file for 'User-agent: OAI-SearchBot' or 'User-agent: GPTBot' followed by 'Disallow: /'. For ChatGPT search visibility, make sure OAI-SearchBot is allowed — changes typically propagate to ChatGPT search in about 24 hours. Our tool shows you exactly what's blocked.
Should I block or allow GPTBot?
It's a policy choice, not a visibility decision. Allowing GPTBot lets OpenAI train future models on your content; blocking it keeps your content out of training datasets. Either way, your ChatGPT search visibility is unaffected — that depends on OAI-SearchBot. Many sites block GPTBot while allowing OAI-SearchBot to get citations without contributing training data.
What's the difference between GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, and ChatGPT-User?
GPTBot collects training data (policy choice). OAI-SearchBot builds ChatGPT's search index — the one that decides whether you're visible and citable in ChatGPT search. ChatGPT-User fetches a page live when a user asks ChatGPT to open it; OpenAI notes robots.txt may not apply to these user-triggered fetches. You can allow or block each independently.
Related
- GPTBot & robots.txt guide — Allow or block OpenAI's crawler
- Check Claude visibility — ClaudeBot checker
- Check Perplexity visibility — PerplexityBot checker
- What is GEO? — Generative Engine Optimization guide
- Check Copilot visibility — Microsoft Copilot checker
- Complete AI crawlers guide — All 17 crawlers explained
- Check all 17 AI crawlers at once
Check Your ChatGPT Visibility Now
It takes 30 seconds. See if ChatGPT can access your site and get actionable recommendations.