GPTBot vs OAI-SearchBot: Which AI Crawler Should You Allow or Block?
Complete side-by-side comparison of GPTBot (OpenAI) and OAI-SearchBot (OpenAI): user-agent strings, safety ratings, SEO impact, and copy-paste blocking rules. Updated August 2026.
Quick Verdict
Both GPTBot and OAI-SearchBot carry the same safety rating (Safe). Your decision should come down to whether you want your content used by OpenAI versus OpenAI, and whether each bot's purpose (training, search, or user requests) aligns with your content strategy.
| Attribute | GPTBot | OAI-SearchBot |
|---|---|---|
| Operator | OpenAI | OpenAI |
| User-agent string | GPTBot |
OAI-SearchBot |
| Category | AI & LLM Bots | AI & LLM Bots |
| Safety rating | Safe | Safe |
| SEO impact if blocked | Low - No SEO ranking impact | Low - No SEO ranking impact |
| Recommendation | Generally safe to allow; provides legitimate crawling value. | Generally safe to allow; provides legitimate crawling value. |
| Official docs | GPTBot docs | OAI-SearchBot docs |
What is GPTBot?
OpenAI's web crawler. Used to collect training data for GPT models. Blocking it prevents your content from being used to train ChatGPT but does not affect search visibility.
Full GPTBot guideWhat is OAI-SearchBot?
OpenAI's prototype crawler for search features (SearchGPT). Unlike GPTBot (which trains models), this bot is used to fetch real-time information for user queries and provide citations.
Full OAI-SearchBot guideHow to block each bot
Block GPTBot in robots.txt
User-agent: GPTBot Disallow: /
Block OAI-SearchBot in robots.txt
User-agent: OAI-SearchBot Disallow: /
Want to block or allow many bots at once? Use our free robots.txt generator with 196+ bot presets, then verify with the AI crawler checker.
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