What is GPTBot?

GPTBot is OpenAI's web crawler for content that may be used to improve its generative AI models. It is distinct from OAI-SearchBot, which OpenAI documents for surfacing websites in ChatGPT search results. Blocking GPTBot is therefore a training-use choice, not a blanket switch for ChatGPT search citations.

Publishers can control GPTBot and OAI-SearchBot separately with robots.txt. That distinction lets a site restrict potential training use while still allowing OAI-SearchBot to fetch pages for ChatGPT search.

Allowing a crawler permits direct fetching; it does not guarantee indexing, recommendation, ranking, or citation. Blocking both can prevent those crawlers from fetching a page directly, but an answer system may still know about a URL through other sources.

To check whether your site allows or blocks GPTBot, use CiteFuel's free AI Crawler Access Checker.

Related

Frequently asked questions

Is GPTBot the same as ChatGPT?

No. GPTBot is a crawler associated with potential model improvement; ChatGPT is the user-facing product. OpenAI documents OAI-SearchBot separately for ChatGPT search.

Can I block GPTBot training but allow ChatGPT search?

Yes. You can disallow GPTBot while allowing OAI-SearchBot. Allowing OAI-SearchBot permits direct retrieval but does not guarantee that a page will be shown or cited.

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