Answers · AI search · As of 6 October 2026

Can ChatGPT read my website?

Short answerYes, if your website allows requests from OpenAI. OpenAI works with two separate crawlers: OAI-SearchBot shows websites in ChatGPT's search, GPTBot collects content for training the models1.

Two crawlers, two purposes

OpenAI describes both in its documentation. OAI-SearchBot is designed to show websites in ChatGPT's search results. GPTBot retrieves content that can feed into the training of the models1.

Both can be controlled separately in the robots.txt file. Anyone who wants to be mentioned in ChatGPT must therefore above all allow OAI-SearchBot.

How often does ChatGPT mention company websites?

A study by BrightLocal from December 2024 found: ChatGPT used company websites as a source in 58% of cases2. Semrush arrives at a similar figure: 50% of links in answers from ChatGPT 4o point to websites of companies and service providers3.

Your own website is therefore one of the most important sources. The prerequisite is that the crawler can access it.

What counts besides your own website?

Mentions elsewhere. According to an analysis by Clearscope, brands appeared 2.8 times as often in ChatGPT answers when they were positively mentioned in at least four independent forums, compared with brands that only appeared on their own website4.

Is it worth the effort?

In a study by Ahrefs, ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini together accounted for 98% of all visits from AI services. ChatGPT alone accounted for 50%5.

Semrush measured that a visitor from AI search is worth 4.4 times as much as a visitor from classic search, measured by the conversion rate3.

Sources

  1. contextbolt, with a quote from OpenAI's bot documentation: contextbolt.com
  2. BrightLocal: AI search and listings sources: brightlocal.com
  3. Semrush: AI search and SEO traffic study: semrush.com
  4. Evertune, with reference to Clearscope: evertune.ai
  5. Analyze AI, with reference to the study by Ahrefs: tryanalyze.ai

Every figure on this page comes from the source named next to it and was read on the date shown above. Figures from studies describe the sample examined; they are no promise for an individual case.

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