Can ChatGPT read your website?
Find what stops ChatGPT reading your site — and get the exact fixes, plus your full AI readiness report.
ChatGPT
Claude
Gemini
PerplexityInstant preview · Full report free by email
Includes all AI platforms and all five readiness categories.
canairead.me
Can ChatGPT read your website? · Full AI readiness report included
Example AI readiness report
canairead.me · 92/100
OpenAI access has separate controls
OAI-SearchBot supports ChatGPT search discovery. GPTBot relates to potential model-training crawls. Allowing either creates access for its purpose; it does not guarantee selection, ranking or citation.
Use the full AI crawler matrix when wildcard groups or multiple agents interact.
Verification workflow
- 1. Scan and record the matching group and directive.
- 2. Decide separately whether you want search and training access.
- 3. Edit the real production robots.txt without removing private-path rules.
- 4. Publish, bypass any stale CDN cache, and rescan.
- 5. Test important URLs and monitor actual ChatGPT referrals separately.
What we check
ChatGPT interacts with the web in three distinct ways: training crawls (GPTBot), live search citations (OAI-SearchBot), and on-demand browsing when a user pastes your link (ChatGPT-User). Each is controlled separately, and a site can be open to one while fully blocked from another.
- robots.txt rules for GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot and ChatGPT-User
- Whether your content is present without JavaScript rendering
- Structured data OpenAI's systems can use to identify your business
- Response time and availability during automated requests
Passing technical checks is only the starting point. Read why your site might not show up in ChatGPT to work through access, rendering and content issues before expecting citations.
See exactly what is tested and what a score cannot prove in the scan methodology and limitations.
Crawlers involved
GPTBot
OpenAI
Crawls public content that may be used to train future OpenAI models.
OpenAI crawler documentation ↗Explore the related checker →OAI-SearchBot
OpenAI
Powers live web results and citations shown inside ChatGPT search.
OpenAI crawler documentation ↗Explore the related checker →ChatGPT-User
OpenAI
Fetches a specific page when a user explicitly asks ChatGPT to browse it.
OpenAI crawler documentation ↗Explore the related checker →Common problems
OAI-SearchBot blocked, GPTBot allowed
Training access is open but live citation access is closed — the opposite of what most sites intend.
Cloudflare bot-fight mode
Aggressive bot protection can block legitimate AI crawlers alongside malicious traffic.
How to fix them
Explicitly allow OAI-SearchBot
If you want ChatGPT search citations, add a clear Allow rule rather than relying on default behaviour.
Review WAF/CDN bot rules
Check Cloudflare, Akamai or similar dashboards for AI-crawler-specific exceptions.
Frequently asked
What's the difference between GPTBot and OAI-SearchBot?
GPTBot crawls for model training. OAI-SearchBot powers live citations in ChatGPT's search feature. Blocking one has no effect on the other.
Can I let ChatGPT cite me but opt out of training?
Yes — disallow GPTBot while allowing OAI-SearchBot in robots.txt. They're independent directives.
Primary documentation
Crawler descriptions were reviewed 2026-09-12. Product behavior can change; verify decisions against the current source.