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How do I get my product cited by ChatGPT and AI search?

Written by Dante, who built Prep66, PrepAMT and Ancestorii

Let each company's search crawler in, get your pages indexed, and keep the answer in the page's own text. OpenAI's crawler documentation says a site opted out of OAI-SearchBot is not shown in ChatGPT search answers, and that a robots.txt change can take about 24 hours to register. Google says a page needs to be indexed and able to show a snippet, and nothing special beyond that. Bing's guidelines rest Copilot on the same crawling and indexing as search. None of them sells a place in an answer, and OpenAI's search help page says placement is not guaranteed.

What OpenAI, Google and Microsoft say, in their own words

OAI-SearchBot is used to surface websites in search results in ChatGPT's search features. Sites that are opted out of OAI-SearchBot will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers, though can still appear as navigational links.

For search results, please note it can take ~24 hours from a site's robots.txt update for our systems to adjust.

OpenAI, Overview of OpenAI Crawlers

ChatGPT ranks search results using multiple factors intended to help users find relevant, reliable information. Placement is not guaranteed.

OpenAI Help Center, Searching the web with ChatGPT

There are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, nor other special optimizations necessary.

Just because a page meets all requirements, best practices, and complies with the policies, doesn't mean that Google will crawl, index, or serve its content. Indexing and serving isn't guaranteed.

Google Search Central, AI features and your website

It's important to understand that traditional SEO fundamentals still matter. Crawlability, metadata, internal linking, and backlinks remain essential for ensuring your content is discoverable.

While nothing guarantees selection, following these practices gives your content the best chance to be chosen for real user queries.

Microsoft, Optimizing Your Content for Inclusion in AI Search Answers, by a Bing product manager

Bing's Webmaster Guidelines open on the same point: Bing and Copilot rest on the same crawling, indexing and ranking as ordinary search.

Which crawler decides what

The names you write in robots.txt. Only some of them decide whether you can be cited.

NameWhoseWhat it decides
OAI-SearchBotOpenAIWhether your pages can be shown in ChatGPT search answers. OpenAI recommends allowing it.
GPTBotOpenAIWhether your pages may be used to train OpenAI's models. Each setting is independent, so blocking this one does not take you out of search.
ChatGPT-UserOpenAINothing about search. It fetches a page when a user asks for it, and OpenAI says robots.txt rules may not apply to it.
GooglebotGoogleGoogle Search with AI Overviews and AI Mode inside it. Google says robots.txt rules for this crawler are the control.
Google-ExtendedGoogleWhether your pages may train Gemini models and ground answers in the Gemini app. Google says it has no effect on inclusion or ranking in Search.
BingbotMicrosoftBing's index, which Copilot answers from. Bing's guidelines list blocking it among the things to avoid.
PerplexityBotPerplexityWhether your pages are shown and linked in Perplexity's search results. Perplexity recommends allowing it and says it is not used to train models.

What that means if you have just launched

  1. Open your robots.txt. Make sure it does not block OAI-SearchBot, Googlebot, Bingbot or PerplexityBot. Blocking GPTBot is a separate choice, about training.
  2. Check your host and firewall. OpenAI and Perplexity publish their crawlers' IP ranges and recommend letting them through.
  3. Get indexed by Google and by Bing. Verify the site in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools and submit a sitemap. Bing's guidelines ask for IndexNow whenever a page is added, changed or removed. OpenAI's search help page says ChatGPT search sometimes sends its queries to other search providers, and lists Microsoft's privacy statement among theirs. SEO for a new site covers this step.
  4. Keep the answer in the HTML. Bing's guidelines warn against hiding critical content behind rendering in the browser, and Microsoft's post against hiding answers in tabs or menus that expand.
  5. Leave the defaults alone. In Search Console, the Search generative AI control includes every site by default. Bing's guidelines say a NOARCHIVE tag keeps a page out of Copilot's answers and NOCACHE limits Copilot to the page's address, title and snippet.
  6. Do not try to game it. Bing's guidelines say content written to manipulate the language models behind Bing or Copilot may lose visibility or be removed. Google's guide says making a page for every variation of a question, mainly to steer AI responses, breaks its spam policy on scaled content.

One case: from 27 August 2026 to 3 September 2026, Prep66, an exam preparation site, recorded 13 signups by source, and 6 came from ChatGPT. How do I get ChatGPT to recommend my app? is the founder's account of it.

The numbers

  • About 24 hours. How long OpenAI says its systems can take to adjust to a robots.txt change, for search results. Perplexity says up to 24 hours for its own.
  • Several days to several months. How long Google says crawling can take to pick up a change to a page.
  • Two Google pages differ. AI features and your website, last updated 10 December 2025, says there are no additional technical requirements. The newer guide, last updated 10 July 2026, adds one: the site must be included through the Search generative AI control. Google's help page says the control reached every site by 31 August 2026 and include is the default, so there is nothing to switch on.
  • One tag to look for. OpenAI's publisher FAQ says ChatGPT adds utm_source=chatgpt.com to the links it sends visitors through, so your analytics can count them.
  • 10 February 2026. The day Bing opened its AI Performance report in public preview. It counts citations of your pages across Copilot, Bing's AI summaries and some partners, and shows the phrases the AI searched with. Bing says it shows how often a page is cited, not its ranking or placement.

What nobody sells and nobody promises

ChatGPT shows adverts under an answer. Nobody can buy the answer. OpenAI's page on ads says ads may appear for users on the Free and Go plans, below the end of a response and labelled as sponsored.

Ads run on separate systems from our chat model, and advertisers have no ability to shape, rank, or alter ChatGPT's responses.

OpenAI Help Center, Ads in ChatGPT

Google doesn't accept payment to crawl a site more frequently, or rank it higher. If anyone tells you otherwise, they're wrong.

Google Search Central, In depth guide to how Google Search works

Bing's guidelines say work aimed at AI answers does not guarantee a citation, and list buying links among the practices that cost a site its visibility. So no setting on this page earns a citation. Each one only makes you eligible.

How Sami uses it

In the ranked plan AskSami writes, this is a free method, so it is weighed before anything paid, and Sami says why it is in or out for your product. Before Sami advises on search or AI answers it checks the live web, and it can open your own pages, your robots.txt and your sitemap. When a step happens in Google Search Console or Bing Webmaster Tools it gives numbered steps and says what to bring back. When the fix is code, it writes the instructions for your own coding tool to run.

A small snippet ties each signup to its source where it recorded one, such as ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity, and every number you bring back becomes a dated record. AskSami never posts anywhere for you, never spends your money and never writes to your code. You do those things yourself.

Questions people ask

Can I pay to be recommended by ChatGPT?

No. OpenAI's page on ads says ads sit below a response, labelled as sponsored, and that advertisers have no ability to shape, rank or alter what ChatGPT answers.

Should I block GPTBot?

That is a choice about training, not about being cited. OpenAI says each setting is independent: you can allow OAI-SearchBot to appear in search and disallow GPTBot to keep your pages out of model training.

Does llms.txt help me get cited?

Google's guide says Search ignores it, so it neither helps nor harms there. The OpenAI, Bing and Perplexity pages read for this page do not ask for one.

How do I know whether AI search is sending me visitors?

Count them yourself. ChatGPT tags its links with utm_source=chatgpt.com, Bing's AI Performance report counts citations in Copilot and Bing, and Google's guide points to a generative AI performance report in Search Console.

Is getting cited by AI different from SEO?

Mostly not. Google's guide says optimising for generative AI search is still SEO, and Microsoft's post says the fundamentals still matter. SEO for a new site covers them.

Read next

Before you sign up, Sami in the chat can search the web, open a few pages of your site and read a screenshot or a table you send, for that one answer. Once you sign up, your honest read and your ranked plan are free. Ask Sami about your own product in the free chat.

Sources

  1. OpenAI, Overview of OpenAI Crawlers. Read on 8 October 2026.
  2. Google Search Central, AI features and your website, last updated 10 December 2025. Read on 8 October 2026.
  3. Microsoft Bing, Bing Webmaster Guidelines. Read on 8 October 2026.
  4. OpenAI Help Center, Searching the web with ChatGPT, updated 21 August 2026. Read on 8 October 2026.
  5. Microsoft Advertising, Optimizing Your Content for Inclusion in AI Search Answers, 8 October 2025. Read on 8 October 2026.
  6. Google, Google's common crawlers, last updated 14 July 2026. Read on 8 October 2026.
  7. Perplexity, Perplexity Crawlers. Read on 8 October 2026.
  8. Google Search Console Help, Search generative AI control, rollout note dated 31 August 2026. Read on 8 October 2026.
  9. Google Search Central, Optimizing your website for generative AI features on Google Search, last updated 10 July 2026. Read on 8 October 2026.
  10. OpenAI Help Center, Publishers and Developers FAQ, updated 29 August 2026. Read on 8 October 2026.
  11. Microsoft Bing Blogs, Introducing AI Performance in Bing Webmaster Tools Public Preview, 10 February 2026. Read on 8 October 2026.
  12. OpenAI Help Center, Ads in ChatGPT, updated 28 September 2026. Read on 8 October 2026.
  13. Google Search Central, In depth guide to how Google Search works, last updated 18 December 2025. Read on 8 October 2026.

Checked on 17 October 2026. Every rule, price and figure on this page was read on the page it links to, on the day shown beside it above. They change, so open the source before you rely on one.