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Platform Optimization Intermediate
Step 2 of 7

ChatGPT Search

ChatGPT Search has the biggest distribution of any AI search surface but the sparsest citation behavior, because the model only browses when it decides to. The optimization surface narrows accordingly: you cannot make the model browse, but you can make sure the bot that fetches when it does browse can reach you — and the bot that does that fetching is OAI-SearchBot, not GPTBot.

What to read for this step

  1. ChatGPT Search
    Platforms
  2. OAI-SearchBot
    Wiki · coming soon
  3. ChatGPT-User
    Wiki · coming soon

After this step, you should be able to answer

  • What triggers ChatGPT to browse the live web for an answer — and what just runs on the parametric model?
  • Why is OAI-SearchBot the bot that matters here, not GPTBot — and what does that mean for your robots.txt?
  • Which kinds of content does ChatGPT Search actually pick up and cite, given its sparser citation behavior?