AI Crawlers, Indexing, and Access: OAI-SearchBot, robots.txt, Bing, and IndexNow

If AI search can't access your pages, it can't retrieve them. If it can't retrieve them, it can't cite them. That sounds obvious, but this is the #1 hidden reason people don't show up in AI answers even when their content is good.

If you want the big picture first, read What is AI search?. This guide is the practical "access layer."

What is OAI-SearchBot?

OAI-SearchBot is OpenAI's crawler used for search. OpenAI describes it as the bot used to surface websites in ChatGPT's search features.

Two practical implications:

• If you block OAI-SearchBot, you're telling OpenAI "don't crawl this," which can reduce how your pages show up in ChatGPT search results.
• OpenAI recommends allowing OAI-SearchBot in robots.txt and also publishes IP ranges for it.

How do I know if AI crawlers can access my site?

Use a layered check. Don't trust just one signal.

Check robots.txt

• Confirm you are not blocking OAI-SearchBot (or your important paths).
• Confirm your important pages aren't under disallowed directories.

Check server logs

Look for requests with user-agent strings like:

OAI-SearchBot

Then verify the requested URLs are actually returning:

• 200 status code
• real HTML content (not a blank shell)

Check indexability signals

Even if a bot can fetch a page, it might not "count" if:

• the page is noindex
• content is behind login
• your "real content" only appears after heavy client-side JS

Check Bing Webmaster Tools

If Bing can't discover and index your important pages reliably, many AI retrieval paths are weaker. (Treat Bing as a real indexing surface, not an afterthought.)

Can I block or allow AI crawlers via robots.txt, and what changes when I do?

Yes. robots.txt is the first gate most crawlers respect.

Allow OAI-SearchBot (recommended if you want visibility)

Add this to robots.txt:

User-agent: OAI-SearchBot
Allow: /

OpenAI explicitly recommends allowing OAI-SearchBot if you want your content discovered and surfaced in ChatGPT search features.

Block OAI-SearchBot (if you don't want crawling)

User-agent: OAI-SearchBot
Disallow: /

What changes when you block it?

• You reduce the system's ability to crawl and discover your pages directly for ChatGPT search features.
• If a URL is found via other providers, OpenAI notes it may still surface a link/title in some contexts unless you also use noindex (and noindex requires crawl access to be seen).

Important nuance

robots.txt controls crawling, not "de-indexing." If you block a bot from fetching a page, it can't read meta tags on that page either. So if your plan is "block crawling but still control snippets," that usually backfires.

Why does Bing matter for AI search experiences?

Because for many AI search flows, the system needs an index and retrieval layer. Bing is one of the major indexing surfaces that often shows up in these discussions because it powers discovery and fast refresh for a lot of the web ecosystem, and many AI experiences depend on major search indexes for retrieval.

Practical takeaway:

• If your site is hard to crawl, poorly structured, or invisible in Bing, you often see weaker coverage in AI answers too.
• Treat Bing SEO basics (crawlability, indexing, clean canonicals, sitemaps) as part of your GEO foundation.

(For citation mechanics: How AI citations work.)

What is IndexNow and does it help with AI visibility?

IndexNow is a protocol that lets you notify participating search engines when a URL is created, updated, or deleted. The idea is to speed up discovery and refresh instead of waiting for crawlers to find changes on their own.

IndexNow can help AI visibility indirectly:

• If your AI visibility depends on retrieval through search indexes, faster indexing/refresh can shorten the "I published it but nobody sees it" window.
• It won't fix weak content or weak authority, but it can fix slow discovery.

Implementation note: IndexNow uses a key you host on your site and URL submissions to participating search engines.

Quick checklist

FAQ