OAI-SearchBot
Builds the index behind ChatGPT search. A site that blocks OAI-SearchBot cannot appear as a cited source in ChatGPT answers with search, regardless of what it does about GPTBot. For visibility in AI answers, this is the OpenAI token that matters.
What it feeds
How to identify it
The crawler announces itself with a Chrome-derived user agent carrying its own token and a documentation URL.[3] OpenAI publishes the address ranges it crawls from at https://openai.com/searchbot.json, so a claimed visit can be checked against the published list rather than taken on the name alone.
Blocking and its consequences
Disallowing the token removes the site from the pool ChatGPT search cites, while leaving it reachable as a plain link.[4] That is a different trade from blocking GPTBot, which concerns model training rather than whether an answer can quote the page today.
Verification
Operator documentation: https://platform.openai.com/docs/bots
Published IP list: https://openai.com/searchbot.json
A user agent is a claim, not a proof: any client can send any name. Where an operator publishes IP ranges, a reverse lookup is the only way to tell a real visit from an impersonation.
Seen by Baseline
Requests from this bot across sites tracked by Baseline, last 30 days. Aggregated over - sites, never reported per site.
References (4)
Last updated 2026-09-05. Written and maintained by Baseline Labs.
