Safe Official docs AI & LLM Bots

OAI-SearchBot

Q: What is the official user-agent string for OAI-SearchBot?

The official user-agent string for OAI-SearchBot is: OAI-SearchBot . This is the exact string you must use in robots.txt, Nginx, Apache, or Cloudflare firewall rules to target this bot. User-agent matching in robots.txt is case-insensitive, but the string must be spelled correctly. You can verify that a request genuinely comes from OAI-SearchBot by performing a reverse-DNS lookup on the source IP - legitimate bots resolve back to their operator's domain.

Q: Is OAI-SearchBot safe?

Yes. OAI-SearchBot is a documented bot: OpenAI publishes a page that names it and explains what it does.

Q: How do I block OAI-SearchBot in robots.txt?

Add the following lines to your /robots.txt file: User-agent: OAI-SearchBot Disallow: / This instructs OAI-SearchBot not to crawl any path on your site. The Disallow: / directive covers the entire domain including subfolders. To only block specific sections, replace / with the path (e.g., Disallow: /blog/ ). Note: robots.txt is publicly readable - any bot or human can inspect it at yourdomain.com/robots.txt .

Q: How do I verify if OAI-SearchBot is crawling my site?

Search your web server access logs for the string OAI-SearchBot (case-insensitive grep: grep -i "OAI-SearchBot" /var/log/nginx/access.log ). You can also check Google Search Console → Coverage → Crawl Stats for Googlebot variants. For OAI-SearchBot specifically, filter by user-agent in your log analysis tool (GoAccess, AWStats, etc.).

Operated by OpenAI

Scout's quick take

OAI-SearchBot fetches pages so OpenAI's AI search can answer and cite them. Block it and you can drop out of those answers, so most sites keep it allowed.

# Block only if you really mean to
User-agent: OAI-SearchBot
Disallow: /

Check which AI crawlers get in Build a full robots.txt

Quick Facts

User-Agent:: OAI-SearchBot
Category:: AI & LLM Bots
Operator:: OpenAI
Safety:: Safe
Blocking Impact:: Low - No SEO ranking impact
SEO Impact Score:: 2/10
Official docs:: developers.openai.com

Confirmed by the operator

OpenAI names OAI-SearchBot on its own documentation page, linked above. The token, purpose and robots.txt behaviour on this profile come from that page, re-checked on October 19, 2026.

What is OAI-SearchBot?

OAI-SearchBot is OpenAI's search crawler. It surfaces websites in ChatGPT search results.

OpenAI states OAI-SearchBot is for search; training is controlled separately by GPTBot. It identifies itself with the token OAI-SearchBot. OpenAI documents it at developers.openai.com.

What happens if you block OAI-SearchBot?

Blocking it removes your pages from ChatGPT search answers (they can still appear as navigational links). It has no effect on Google or Bing.

Generally safe to allow; provides legitimate crawling value.

Want to see whether OAI-SearchBot actually visits you? Read how do I monitor AI bot traffic to my website?

How to block OAI-SearchBot with robots.txt

<code>User-agent: OAI-SearchBot</code> - Matching is case-insensitive. Robots.txt is fetched from the root of each subdomain separately.

Block completely (robots.txt)

User-agent: OAI-SearchBot
Disallow: /

Allow all (robots.txt)

User-agent: OAI-SearchBot
Allow: /

Block private only (robots.txt)

User-agent: OAI-SearchBot
Disallow: /private/
Disallow: /api/
Disallow: /admin/
Allow: /

Nginx server block

# Nginx: Hard-block OAI-SearchBot
if ($http_user_agent ~* "OAI\-SearchBot") {
    return 403 "Bot blocked";
}

Apache .htaccess

# Apache: Hard-block OAI-SearchBot
SetEnvIfNoCase User-Agent "OAI\-SearchBot" bad_bot
Order Allow,Deny
Allow from all
Deny from env=bad_bot

Meta robots tag

X-Robots-Tag header

X-Robots-Tag: noindex, nofollow

Is OAI-SearchBot safe to allow?

Yes. OAI-SearchBot is a documented bot: OpenAI publishes a page that names it and explains what it does.

Verify by reverse-DNS lookup: legitimate OAI-SearchBot requests resolve to openai's domain.

What does OAI-SearchBot do?

From OpenAI's own documentation.

OAI-SearchBot is OpenAI's search crawler.
Not used to train AI models, according to the operator
Blocking it removes your pages from ChatGPT search answers (they can still appear as navigational links). It has no effect on Google or Bing.

OAI-SearchBot in context

OAI-SearchBot is a retrieval crawler that feeds AI search answers operated by OpenAI. In plain terms, it fetches a page when a person asks an assistant or app to open it. Our database files it under AI and LLM crawlers and ranks it Tier 1, the small set whose absence you would notice in AI answers or search results. 14 of the 104 AI and LLM crawlers in our database share this tier.

Its safety rating is safe and its blocking impact is low. So the decision about OAI-SearchBot rests on what you want from OpenAI, not on its behaviour. How we rate safety and impact.

How site owners treat OAI-SearchBot

In our own study of robots.txt files across the Tranco top 10,000 sites (fetched October 20, 2026, 5,583 valid files), 574 files (10.3%) name OAI-SearchBot in a User-agent line, and 434 (7.8%) block it from the homepage. 234 of those blocks come from a group written for this crawler by name, and 200 come from a broad User-agent: * rule that catches it by accident. Larger sites are stricter: 12.2% of the top 1,000 block it, against 8.4% of the middle band and 6.6% of the tail.

Does it follow robots.txt?

OAI-SearchBot's operator says it follows robots.txt, so a correctly written OAI-SearchBot group is enough to control it.

OpenAI crawlers and close alternatives

OAI-SearchBot is one of 7 OpenAI crawlers in our database. A User-agent: OAI-SearchBot group controls OAI-SearchBot only; the other OpenAI tokens below need their own lines.

OAI-SearchBot: this crawler (Tier 1)
ChatGPT Agent: ChatGPT Agent (Cloud browser), fetches a page when a person asks an assistant or app to open it (Tier 1)
ChatGPT Operator: ChatGPT Operator (Cloudflare name), fetches a page when a person asks an assistant or app to open it (Tier 1)
ChatGPT-User: ChatGPT Search, fetches a page when a person asks an assistant or app to open it (Tier 1)
ChatGPT-User/2.0: ChatGPT Search v2, fetches a page when a person asks an assistant or app to open it (Tier 1)
GPTBot: ChatGPT Training, collects pages to train AI models (Tier 1)
OAI-AdsBot: OpenAI Ads Validator, checks pages for an SEO, uptime or analytics service (Tier 2)

To give OAI-SearchBot the same answer as its siblings, stack User-agent: OAI-SearchBot with their lines above one set of rules; to treat OAI-SearchBot differently, give it its own group.

Other AI and LLM crawlers that do the same job (fetches a page when a person asks an assistant or app to open it) include Claude-SearchBot from Anthropic, Claude-User from Anthropic, GrokAgent from xAI, muse- from Meta, AI2Bot-DeepResearchEval from Allen Institute for AI, AmazonBuyForMe from Amazon. Deciding about OAI-SearchBot is usually a decision about the whole group, so check how your file treats these too.

We first recorded OAI-SearchBot on March 17, 2026. OpenAI documents it on developers.openai.com, and we recheck that page before each release.

Which rule OAI-SearchBot actually follows

OAI-SearchBot reads exactly one group in robots.txt, the most specific one that names OAI-SearchBot, and never combines rules across groups. This short file shows the trap:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /private/

User-agent: OAI-SearchBot
Disallow: /drafts/

Find the group. OAI-SearchBot looks for a group naming OAI-SearchBot. One exists, so it ignores User-agent: * completely.
Apply only that group. It is refused /drafts/ and nothing else.
The surprise. /private/ is open to OAI-SearchBot, because that rule lives in the * group it no longer reads. To keep it out of both, repeat Disallow: /private/ inside its own group.

Test yourself: does a rule under User-agent: * apply to OAI-SearchBot if the file also has a User-agent: OAI-SearchBot group?

No. Once a group names it, OAI-SearchBot reads only that group. Put every rule you want it to follow inside its own group.

Test yourself: will blocking OAI-SearchBot remove your pages from AI answers?

Often, yes. OAI-SearchBot is a retrieval crawler that feeds AI search answers, so pages it cannot fetch can drop out of the answers or results it supports.

Test yourself: is User-agent: oai-searchbot the same as User-agent: OAI-SearchBot?

Yes. RFC 9309 makes user-agent matching case-insensitive. Paths are a different story: Disallow: /Blog/ does not block /blog/.

Should you allow OAI-SearchBot? Decide by situation

Recommended setting for OAI-SearchBot by type of site
If you are...	Recommended setting
You publish content and want AI answers to cite it	Allow it. OAI-SearchBot fetches pages for answers, so blocking it can remove you from them.
You license content and want to stop AI training	Blocking it does not stop training, because OAI-SearchBot is a retrieval crawler that feeds AI search answers. Block the operator's training crawler instead.
You run an online shop	Allow it on product and category pages, which are the pages shoppers ask assistants about.
Your server is under load from bots	Rate-limit before blocking. It is rated safe in our database.

Check OAI-SearchBot on your own site

Open /robots.txt on your domain and search for OAI-SearchBot. If it is not named, it follows User-agent: *.
List the Disallow lines in the group OAI-SearchBot follows and test your key URLs against them; the longest match wins, and Allow wins a tie.
Look beyond the file. A firewall or bot manager can refuse OAI-SearchBot even when robots.txt allows it, and that never shows in the file.
Run our GPTBot and ClaudeBot access check to see how OAI-SearchBot and every other crawler we track are treated in one pass, including firewall refusals.

Common mistakes with OAI-SearchBot

The errors we see most often with OAI-SearchBot in the files and firewalls we test:

Blocking OAI-SearchBot while trying to stop AI training. Retrieval crawlers fetch pages so answers can cite them; blocking it can remove you from those answers without affecting training.
Letting a firewall or bot-fight mode refuse OAI-SearchBot while robots.txt allows it. The file looks right, but the crawler still gets a 403 or a challenge page.
Forgetting that once a User-agent: OAI-SearchBot group exists, OAI-SearchBot ignores every rule under User-agent: *.

All three hide inside a file that looks correct, so check OAI-SearchBot from outside after every change.

Spotting OAI-SearchBot in your logs

robots.txt says what OAI-SearchBot may do; your access logs show what it actually did.

Count requests

On a server with standard Nginx or Apache logs, this counts matching requests per day (adjust the log path for your host):

grep -iE "OAI-SearchBot" /var/log/nginx/access.log \
  | awk '{print $4}' | cut -d: -f1 | sort | uniq -c

And this shows which paths it requested most, which is the quickest way to see whether your Disallow lines are being respected:

grep -iE "OAI-SearchBot" /var/log/nginx/access.log \
  | awk '{print $7}' | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn | head -20

Check the requests are genuine

Anyone can send the OAI-SearchBot user-agent, so confirm the source before acting on a match:

OAI-SearchBot: compare each address with the ranges at openai.com/searchbot.json. A request claiming to be OAI-SearchBot from outside them is not genuine.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the official user-agent string for OAI-SearchBot?

The official user-agent string for OAI-SearchBot is: OAI-SearchBot. This is the exact string you must use in robots.txt, Nginx, Apache, or Cloudflare firewall rules to target this bot. User-agent matching in robots.txt is case-insensitive, but the string must be spelled correctly. You can verify that a request genuinely comes from OAI-SearchBot by performing a reverse-DNS lookup on the source IP - legitimate bots resolve back to their operator's domain.

Is OAI-SearchBot safe?

Yes. OAI-SearchBot is a documented bot: OpenAI publishes a page that names it and explains what it does.

Will blocking OAI-SearchBot hurt my SEO?

Blocking it removes your pages from ChatGPT search answers (they can still appear as navigational links). It has no effect on Google or Bing.

How do I block OAI-SearchBot in robots.txt?

Add the following lines to your /robots.txt file:

User-agent: OAI-SearchBot
Disallow: /

This instructs OAI-SearchBot not to crawl any path on your site. The Disallow: / directive covers the entire domain including subfolders. To only block specific sections, replace / with the path (e.g., Disallow: /blog/). Note: robots.txt is publicly readable - any bot or human can inspect it at yourdomain.com/robots.txt.

Does OAI-SearchBot respect robots.txt?

Yes. OpenAI says it follows robots.txt and that changes take about 24 hours to apply.

How do I verify if OAI-SearchBot is crawling my site?

Search your web server access logs for the string OAI-SearchBot (case-insensitive grep: grep -i "OAI-SearchBot" /var/log/nginx/access.log). You can also check Google Search Console → Coverage → Crawl Stats for Googlebot variants. For OAI-SearchBot specifically, filter by user-agent in your log analysis tool (GoAccess, AWStats, etc.).

What is the crawl frequency of OAI-SearchBot?

OAI-SearchBot crawls at a moderate rate. If you notice excessive traffic in your logs, you can add a Crawl-delay directive:

User-agent: OAI-SearchBot
Crawl-delay: 10

(10 second delay between requests).

Can I block OAI-SearchBot from specific pages only?

Yes. Instead of a global Disallow: / you can restrict OAI-SearchBot to specific paths:

User-agent: OAI-SearchBot
Disallow: /private/
Disallow: /staging/
Allow: /

This allows OAI-SearchBot everywhere except the listed paths. Path matching in robots.txt uses prefix matching - Disallow: /private/ blocks /private/page.html but NOT /public/private/.

Does blocking OAI-SearchBot prevent AI training on my content?

OAI-SearchBot is not used for AI training, according to OpenAI. OpenAI states OAI-SearchBot is for search; training is controlled separately by GPTBot.

Is there an alternative to robots.txt to opt out of OAI-SearchBot?

The opt-out OpenAI documents is robots.txt. A firewall, CDN or server rule that returns 403 for OAI-SearchBot enforces it. Per-bot meta tags and llms.txt are not opt-out mechanisms any major operator documents.