What it means
ChatGPT chooses to search based on the question, and users can also ask it to search. OpenAI says it typically rewrites the question into one or more targeted queries for its search partners and may send more specific queries after reviewing the first results. Answers that use search carry inline citations.
Publishers control inclusion through OpenAI's OAI-SearchBot crawler: OpenAI says sites that opt out of OAI-SearchBot are not shown in ChatGPT search answers, though they can still appear as navigational links. Blocking GPTBot, the training crawler, does not remove a site from search.
Why it matters
Many B2B buyers already use ChatGPT for vendor research. When ChatGPT searches, the recommendation depends partly on the pages it retrieves at that moment, so current, specific and crawlable evidence can change what it says.
Example
A buyer asks ChatGPT for time-tracking tools for agencies that bill by project. ChatGPT searches, cites two comparison articles and a vendor's pricing page, and recommends three tools. A vendor that blocks OAI-SearchBot by mistake cannot be one of the cited pages, whatever its content.
Common misunderstandings
- ChatGPT does not search for every question; answers without search rely on what the model learned in training.
- The queries ChatGPT sends to search partners can differ from the user's wording, so optimising for one exact phrasing misses the point.
- A cited page is not proof that the answer describes it accurately.