OAI-SearchBot: what it is and how to allow it

OAI-SearchBot is an OpenAI user-agent used when OpenAI fetches public pages for search-oriented product flows. It sits apart from GPTBot, which handles broader ChatGPT retrieval crawling, and ChatGPT-User, which often reflects user-initiated browsing. Expect OAI-SearchBot in origin logs, CDN bot panels and Microsoft Clarity Bot Activity. To permit it, add a dedicated Allow block in robots.txt and confirm your WAF does not challenge that string. Blocking OAI-SearchBot whilst permitting GPTBot is a valid choice — document each user-agent on its own line. Permitting OAI-SearchBot does not guarantee ChatGPT search features will cite your site.

Audit OpenAI access by exporting robots.txt and filtering logs for GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot and ChatGPT-User together. A catch-all Disallow under User-agent: * can override narrower allows if your CMS merges rules incorrectly.