ChatGPT search queries partner search providers, including Microsoft's Bing, and crawls with its own OAI-SearchBot. Here is what OpenAI documents.
LLaunchScaler·Published ·7 min read
ChatGPT uses Bing as one of its sources: OpenAI says ChatGPT search "sometimes partners with other search providers," points to Microsoft's privacy statement for how those providers handle queries, and states for Enterprise and Edu workspaces that queries may be shared "with the Bing search engine." It also crawls the web itself with its own bot, OAI-SearchBot, which is the part you control directly.
So the setup is two steps: get your site indexed in Bing through Bing Webmaster Tools, and make sure robots.txt and your firewall let OAI-SearchBot in. Everything below comes from OpenAI's and Microsoft's own documentation, checked in September 2026.
Does ChatGPT use Bing or Google?
ChatGPT's documented search partner is Microsoft. OpenAI's consumer help page on web search lists the privacy policies of Microsoft and Shopify as the providers that may process rewritten queries, and its Enterprise page names Bing outright. Google is not named in either page. ChatGPT combines those partner results with pages its own crawler, OAI-SearchBot, has fetched.
The Enterprise and Edu page is the most explicit. It says ChatGPT "may share disassociated search queries with the Bing search engine to return web results," and that structured data from a prompt may go "to Bing or third-party data providers" for things like weather, sports and finance. It adds that ChatGPT for Healthcare workspaces "do not use Bing for web search," which confirms Bing is the default elsewhere.
What this does not mean is that ChatGPT shows Bing's results in Bing's order. OpenAI says "ChatGPT ranks search results using multiple factors intended to help users find relevant, reliable information. Placement is not guaranteed."
What does OpenAI say about how ChatGPT search works?
ChatGPT rewrites your question into shorter search queries, sends them to its partners, reads the results, sometimes sends more specific follow-up queries, then writes an answer with citations. OpenAI's own example turns a question about CCR8 cancer drugs into the query "CCR8 immunotherapy drug development 2025," then a narrower one.
A few details from OpenAI's help center matter for site owners:
ChatGPT may search automatically "when your question would benefit from current information," or the user can pick Search from the tools menu.
Questions, answered
What people ask about this
01
Does ChatGPT use Bing?
Yes, as one source. OpenAI says ChatGPT search partners with other search providers and points to Microsoft's privacy statement for how they process queries. For Enterprise and Edu workspaces it states that queries may be shared with the Bing search engine. OpenAI also crawls the web itself with OAI-SearchBot.
Responses that use search "may include citations," and a Sources button lists "cited sources and other relevant links."
ChatGPT shares an approximate location derived from the user's IP address with search providers, so local results vary by where the user is.
If memory is on, saved memories can change the rewritten query.
The line that matters most is the eligibility rule: "To make a website eligible for inclusion, allow OAI-Searchbot to crawl the site and confirm that the website host or content delivery network allows traffic from OpenAI's published searchbot IP addresses."
Why does being in Bing's index still matter?
Bing matters because it is one of the routes by which ChatGPT discovers URLs. OpenAI's publisher FAQ says that when it gets a disallowed page's URL "from a third-party search provider," it may still show the link and title. If a page is missing from Bing, ChatGPT loses one way of finding it, and Microsoft Copilot loses its main one.
Copilot is the second reason. Bing's webmaster guidelines describe Bing search, Copilot and "grounding API results" as one system that relies on "the same core crawling, indexing, and ranking foundation as traditional search." A page Bing has not indexed cannot ground a Copilot answer. The full Copilot picture is in how to get cited by Microsoft Copilot.
Many sites that are fine on Google have never been checked on Bing. Search site:yourdomain.com on bing.com. If key pages are missing, the fixes are in how to get indexed by Bing.
Why allow OAI-SearchBot even if you are in Bing?
Being in Bing does not replace OAI-SearchBot. OpenAI says sites opted out of OAI-SearchBot "will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers, though can still appear as navigational links." Its publisher FAQ adds that for your content "to be included in summaries and snippets in ChatGPT," you must not block OAI-SearchBot. Bing can hand ChatGPT your URL; only OAI-SearchBot access lets it quote you.
OpenAI runs three bots, and they do different jobs:
User agent
What OpenAI says it does
What blocking it does
OAI-SearchBot
Surfaces websites in ChatGPT's search features
You are left out of ChatGPT search answers, apart from navigational links
GPTBot
Crawls content that may be used to train OpenAI's foundation models
Signals your content should not be used for training; search is unaffected
ChatGPT-User
Visits a page when a user's request in ChatGPT or a Custom GPT needs it
OpenAI says robots.txt rules may not apply, because a user started the action
This split is why a blanket "block AI bots" rule is costly. It usually catches OAI-SearchBot along with GPTBot. The differences are covered in detail in OAI-SearchBot vs GPTBot.
Step one: how do you add your site to Bing Webmaster Tools?
Create a free Bing Webmaster Tools account, import or add your site, verify it, submit your sitemap, then set up IndexNow so Bing hears about changes quickly. If you already use Google Search Console, the import verifies your site automatically and carries your sitemaps across.
Go to Bing Webmaster Tools and sign in with a Microsoft, Google or Facebook account.
Choose Import to pull verified sites from Google Search Console. Bing says imported sites "get automatically verified," you can import up to 100 at a time, and it keeps importing new sitemaps it finds in Search Console later.
If you cannot import, add the site manually and verify it with one of four methods: DNS auto verification through Domain Connect, the BingSiteAuth.xml file uploaded to your root directory, a <meta> tag in your home page, or a CNAME record.
Submit your XML sitemap under Sitemaps. Bing's guidelines ask that sitemaps list only canonical URLs, drop deleted or redirected URLs promptly and carry accurate lastmod values.
Set up IndexNow. Host a key file named {your-key}.txt at your root, then send changed URLs to the /indexnow endpoint. A single URL is a GET with url= and key= parameters; up to 10,000 URLs go in one JSON POST. A 200 response only means the URL was received.
Wait. Bing says it "usually takes 48 hours" after adding a site before analytics and data appear.
Bing's guidelines list IndexNow first among the ways Bing discovers URLs and say timely notifications "reduce outdated or incorrect URL references in Copilot responses."
Step two: how do you let OAI-SearchBot into your site?
Allow it by name in robots.txt, then make sure no firewall or bot-protection rule blocks it before robots.txt is even read. OpenAI publishes the IP ranges OAI-SearchBot crawls from, so you can allow the real bot without letting in anything that merely borrows its name.
A robots.txt that keeps you in ChatGPT search while opting out of training looks like this:
Leave out the GPTBot group if you are happy to be used for training. Either way, OAI-SearchBot needs its own group, because a wildcard User-agent: * block with Disallow: / would otherwise apply to it.
Then check the layer in front of your server:
Download https://openai.com/searchbot.json. It lists the bot's IPv4 prefixes as ipv4Prefix entries.
In your CDN or firewall, create an allow or skip rule for requests from those ranges, above any "block AI bots" or bot-fight rule.
Test that your server does not reject the user agent outright: curl -I -A "Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; OAI-SearchBot/1.4; +https://openai.com/searchbot)" https://yourdomain.com/. A 403 or a challenge page means a rule is matching the name. A clean 200 here does not prove the real bot gets through, because IP-based rules only apply to OpenAI's addresses, so confirm with your logs too.
Allow about 24 hours. OpenAI says that is how long its systems can take to adjust after a robots.txt change.
How can you tell whether it worked?
Look for OAI-SearchBot requests in your server logs, then for visits from ChatGPT in your analytics. OpenAI says ChatGPT adds utm_source=chatgpt.com to referral links, and since May 13, 2026 GA4 files recognized AI assistant visits under its own AI Assistant channel with the medium ai-assistant.
Then test the answers themselves. Ask ChatGPT, with Search on, the questions a buyer would ask before they know your name, and open the Sources panel. Record which questions cite you and which cite someone else. Answers vary from run to run, so repeat each question a few times and compare totals over a month rather than reacting to one reply. The wider method for ranking there is in how to rank in ChatGPT.
Check both steps with one scan
Run the free scan on LaunchScaler to see whether a crawler can actually reach you. It takes a URL, needs no account and runs 156 checks across 6 of its 7 categories at no cost. Its AI visibility checks read whether robots.txt blocks OAI-SearchBot, Claude-SearchBot or PerplexityBot, whether a wildcard or "block AI" rule catches them by accident, whether a firewall answers those bots with a 403 or a challenge, and whether your main content is missing from the HTML that non-rendering crawlers read. Its search checks cover the sitemap and canonical problems that keep pages out of Bing.
Does ChatGPT use Google search?
OpenAI's help pages on ChatGPT search name Microsoft and Shopify as the providers whose privacy policies apply, and do not name Google. Being indexed by Google does not by itself put a page in ChatGPT's answers.
03
How do I get my website into ChatGPT search?
OpenAI says to allow OAI-SearchBot in robots.txt and make sure your host or CDN accepts traffic from its published IP addresses. Getting indexed in Bing through Bing Webmaster Tools covers the partner-search route as well.
04
If I block GPTBot, will I disappear from ChatGPT?
No. GPTBot only collects content that may be used to train OpenAI's models. OAI-SearchBot is the crawler used for ChatGPT search, so you can block GPTBot and keep OAI-SearchBot allowed.
05
How long does a robots.txt change take to affect ChatGPT search?
OpenAI says it can take about 24 hours from a robots.txt update for its systems to adjust.
Google stopped showing FAQ rich results on May 7, 2026, after limiting them in 2023. FAQPage is still valid schema.org. What to keep, remove and write.
GEO is optimizing content to be quoted inside AI answers. The 2023 paper that named it found citations, quotes and statistics lifted visibility 30 to 40%.
