If you're a website owner or work in SEO, you've probably noticed an interesting phenomenon: sometimes Google cites your site for almost every relevant search term, but ChatGPT acts like it doesn't know you exist. What's going on? Is there a problem with your site? Does ChatGPT just not like you? The answer is more nuanced, and in this article, we'll break it down.
Before diving into the technical details, it's important to understand the basic difference in how these two systems operate:
Google's goal is to index as many pages as possible and direct users to them. Google cites you because you're relevant to the search term the user entered. Google wants to give users as many options as possible, which is why it displays multiple results.
ChatGPT is primarily an "answer machine." Unlike Google, it's not looking to provide as many results as possible—it's looking to give one good answer. According to OpenAI's transparency page, when it cites sources, it chooses them based on meaning, intent, and relevance to the user's query.
This difference is critical: Google will show you if you're relevant to the search term, but ChatGPT will choose to cite sources that precisely answer the intent behind the question.
Another factor affecting the differences between platforms is User Intent. The same search term can receive completely different recommendations depending on the context and what the system understands the user is actually looking for.
For example, if someone asks "What's the best way to learn programming?", Google might show various courses and tutorials, while ChatGPT might give a more tailored response based on previous conversation context or information the user provided. Therefore, what Google recommends isn't always what ChatGPT will recommend.
To understand why your site isn't appearing in ChatGPT, you first need to know the different OpenAI bots and what each one does. According to OpenAI's official documentation, there are three main bots:
This is OpenAI's general bot that collects information for model training. It's important to note that OpenAI's default is not to block sites, so there's no good business reason to block this bot—after all, we want the AI to know our business and recommend it.
This is the most important bot for traffic. This bot is designed to perform real-time searches and display results with prominent links to the information source. If you want to appear in ChatGPT Search citations, this is the bot that needs to be unblocked.
According to the official documentation: "ChatGPT-User is not used for crawling the web in an automatic fashion. Because these actions are initiated by a user, robots.txt rules may not apply."
In simple terms: this bot only activates when a specific user asks the chat to access a particular site. Since this is a user-initiated action (not automatic crawling), robots.txt rules don't necessarily apply to it. Important to understand: ChatGPT-User doesn't determine if you'll appear in citations—that's what OAI-SearchBot is for.
User-agent: GPTBot
Disallow: /
User-agent: OAI-SearchBot
Disallow: /If you see code like this on your site, the site is blocked from OpenAI bots.
According to OpenAI's official documentation, "it can take ~24 hours from a site's robots.txt update for our systems to adjust"—meaning after changing robots.txt, it can take up to 24 hours for OpenAI's systems to update.
The answer depends on your goal:
The bot that needs to be unblocked is OAI-SearchBot. This is the bot responsible for real-time search and displaying sources with links.
You also need to keep ChatGPT-User unblocked. This allows users to ask the chat to browse a specific site and summarize content.
It's recommended to keep all OpenAI bots unblocked, including GPTBot. The better the AI knows your site, the greater the chance it will recommend you.
By default, all OpenAI bots can access your site. They're only blocked if you've proactively set up blocking—in the robots.txt file or in server/WAF settings.
One common issue is that website owners aren't aware their site is blocked. There are two main places where blocking can occur:
This is the "visible" block. You can check your site's robots.txt file (usually at yoursite.com/robots.txt) and see if there are Disallow instructions for OpenAI bots. This is a block that's easy to identify and fix.
This is the more complex issue. Sometimes the site is blocked at the server or firewall level (like Cloudflare, Vercel, or Wordfence) without your knowledge. Signs of this include:
According to Google's documentation on robots.txt, this file is the standard way to communicate with bots, but it's important to remember that server-level blocks can override robots.txt settings.
A common question is: "I blocked everything containing GPT in the User-Agent, and now I've removed the block. Will the bot come back?"
The answer is: Yes, it won't "give up" forever. But there are a few important things to understand:
There's a common misconception that ChatGPT is "just a chat" and not a lead generation system. That's not accurate. While its essence is indeed not to sell, in practice it's becoming a powerful recommendation engine that operates with very strong User Intent.
What does this mean in practice?
According to OpenAI's official transparency page, search results are determined by: "Advanced language models: Used to evaluate content based on meaning, intent, and relevance"—meaning models that evaluate content based on meaning, intent, and relevance.
In practice, if you want to appear in ChatGPT citations, your content needs to be clear, focused, and relevant to the question the user is asking. This isn't just about "unique added value" in the traditional sense—it's about the ability of the content to precisely answer the intent behind the query while maintaining authority and credibility (as mentioned earlier—ChatGPT prefers reliable sources).
A common reason Google shows your site but ChatGPT doesn't cite it is that Google successfully crawls and indexes the site with Googlebot, while OpenAI bots encounter a block or limitation—either in robots.txt or at the server/WAF level (such as 403/429, CAPTCHA, or User-Agent blocking).
But even if there's no blocking at all, that still doesn't guarantee a citation: During search, ChatGPT chooses few sources to support the answer, and it might prefer other sources that are more focused on the question, clearer, or perceived as more authoritative (such as official organizations or recognized experts in the field).
A common reason is that Google successfully crawls the site with Googlebot, while OpenAI bots encounter blocking (in robots.txt or at the server level—403/429, CAPTCHA, User-Agent blocking). But even without blocking, it doesn't guarantee a citation—ChatGPT chooses few sources and might prefer others that are more focused, clear, or authoritative.
For most businesses—no. OpenAI's default is not to block sites, and there's no good business reason to block if you want the AI to know your business and recommend it. Blocking makes sense only if you have sensitive or proprietary content you don't want used for model training.
There's no definitive answer. After removing blocks, it takes time for the system to sync. ChatGPT-User will only return when a user asks it to access the site. OAI-SearchBot will start crawling again when it reaches your site as part of the searches it performs.
Important: According to OpenAI's official documentation, "it can take ~24 hours from a site's robots.txt update for our systems to adjust"—meaning after changing robots.txt, it can take up to 24 hours for OpenAI's systems to update.
Check your server logs and look for User-Agent containing GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, or ChatGPT-User. Some analytics tools also allow filtering by User-Agent. If you don't see them at all, there's probably a server-level block.
The difference between Google and ChatGPT in citing websites stems from two main reasons: the first is technical—specific blocking of OpenAI bots, and the second is fundamental—ChatGPT uses advanced models that evaluate content based on meaning, intent, and relevance to the query.
To appear in ChatGPT citations:
If you want to learn more about how to appear in AI search engines in general, read our comprehensive article on appearing in AI search engines.
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