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ChatGPT uses more than one source when it searches the web, and Bing is the only search engine OpenAI points to. OpenAI’s help page says ChatGPT search “sometimes partners with other search providers” and sends readers to Microsoft’s privacy statement to see how those providers handle queries. It doesn’t name Google as a provider, although several independent tests say Google results turn up too. For a business, the practical answer to “does ChatGPT use Google or Bing” is to make sure OpenAI’s own crawler, Bing and Google can all reach your site.
Plenty of owners ask it. Type “does chatgpt use” into Google and “does chatgpt use google or bing” is the first suggestion, the People also ask box carries “Does ChatGPT use Google or Bing?” and “Is ChatGPT powered by Bing?”, and an r/SEO thread titled “Does ChatGPT still use Google’s index when doing web…” has more than 40 answers. Below is what OpenAI, Microsoft and Google publish, what the independent tests found, and the checks we run when we start AI SEO work for a client.
What does OpenAI say about where ChatGPT gets its search results?
OpenAI says ChatGPT rewrites your question into short search queries, sends them to partner search providers, then reads and cites the pages that come back. Its Searching the web with ChatGPT page says that when it partners with other providers, ChatGPT search “typically rewrites your query into one or more targeted queries that it sends those providers.”
The same section links two privacy policies for those providers: Microsoft’s privacy statement and Shopify’s privacy policy. Google comes up on the page only in the Chrome extension section, as a shortcut for sending a search to Google instead of ChatGPT.
The location example on that page matters for local businesses. If someone asks for good restaurants near them and ChatGPT works out from their IP address that they are in San Francisco, OpenAI says it “may rewrite your prompt into the search query ‘top restaurants San Francisco.'” So a long, chatty question about your trade turns into a short service-plus-town search, and your pages have to show up for that short search wherever it is sent.
OpenAI also runs its own search crawler. Its crawler documentation says OAI-SearchBot “is used to surface websites in search results in ChatGPT’s search features” and that “Sites that are opted out of OAI-SearchBot will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers.” The help page adds that to be eligible you should allow OAI-SearchBot and confirm your host or content delivery network lets in traffic from OpenAI’s published searchbot IP addresses. It also says plainly: “Placement is not guaranteed.”
Is there proof ChatGPT uses Google?
OpenAI hasn’t said it uses Google, so the only evidence comes from tests run by SEO companies, and they disagree with each other.
- Semrush (August 2025) reported a test where a page about an invented term was reachable only by Google, and ChatGPT still cited it. A repeat by Backlinko’s Leigh McKenzie suggested paid ChatGPT used Google while the free version did not.
- AI+Automation (March 2026) argues the opposite. It states that ChatGPT uses Bing as its search engine, not Google, and backs its other findings with the author’s own study of more than 19,000 queries.
- Peec AI (September 2026) says ChatGPT has started building its own index while still pulling from Google, Microsoft and other providers.
Each of these is one setup tested on particular days. OpenAI can change or add providers without telling site owners, which is why we don’t advise any business to plan around a single search engine.
Does ChatGPT have its own search index?
OpenAI runs its own search crawler, OAI-SearchBot, but it hasn’t published how much of the web that crawler stores or how it is ranked. The claim that ChatGPT has a full in-house index comes from Peec AI’s analysis, not from OpenAI.
OpenAI’s crawler page separates three bots:
| Bot | What OpenAI says it does | What blocking it does |
|---|---|---|
| OAI-SearchBot | Surfaces websites in ChatGPT’s search features | Your site is not shown in ChatGPT search answers |
| GPTBot | Used to make OpenAI’s AI models more useful and safe | Tells OpenAI not to use your content for model training |
| ChatGPT-User | Visits a page when a user’s request needs it, not automatic crawling | robots.txt rules may not apply, and OpenAI says it isn’t used to decide what appears in search |
OpenAI treats each setting separately, so a site can allow OAI-SearchBot for search and still disallow GPTBot for training. Our post on whether to block AI crawlers covers that choice in more depth.
Do I need to be on Bing for ChatGPT to find my business?
Yes, set it up. Bing is the one search provider OpenAI’s help page points to, and Microsoft describes Bing Webmaster Tools as a set of free SEO tools on its Bing for business page.
Bing Webmaster Tools also has an AI Performance report, introduced in February 2026, that counts how often your pages are cited in “Microsoft Copilot, AI-generated summaries in Bing, and select partner integrations.” Microsoft doesn’t name those partners, so treat the numbers as Copilot and Bing citations rather than a ChatGPT report.
In the same post Microsoft recommends IndexNow to tell search engines when you add, change or remove a page. The IndexNow site lists Microsoft Bing, Naver, Seznam.cz, Yandex and Yep as participating engines. Google is not on that list, so IndexNow helps the Bing side only.
What should I set up so ChatGPT can find my website?
Cover all three routes: OpenAI’s crawler, Bing and Google. Each one needs a different check.
| Route | Why it matters for ChatGPT | What to check | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| OAI-SearchBot | OpenAI’s own search crawler; blocking it keeps you out of ChatGPT search answers | robots.txt allows it, and your firewall or CDN lets in OpenAI’s searchbot IP addresses | yoursite.com/robots.txt, your host, Cloudflare or security plugin |
| Bing | The search provider OpenAI’s help page points to | Site added, sitemap submitted, main service and location pages indexed | Bing Webmaster Tools |
| Not named by OpenAI, but found in several tests; also feeds Google’s own AI Overviews and AI Mode | Pages indexed and eligible to show with a snippet | Google Search Console |
Then work through these steps:
- Open yoursite.com/robots.txt in a browser. Look for a group that names OAI-SearchBot or Bingbot with Disallow: /, or a User-agent: * group with Disallow: / that would catch them. Here are two of the groups in our own file, which let both bots in and keep them out of the WordPress admin:
User-agent: OAI-SearchBot Allow: / Disallow: /wp-admin/ Allow: /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php User-agent: Bingbot Allow: / Disallow: /wp-admin/ Allow: /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php
OpenAI says it can take about 24 hours after a robots.txt change for ChatGPT search to adjust.
- Check the layer in front of your site. A Cloudflare bot rule, a host firewall or a security plugin can block OpenAI even when robots.txt allows it. OpenAI publishes the searchbot IP addresses so your host can allow them.
- Add your site to Bing Webmaster Tools. If you already use Google Search Console, use the import option. Microsoft’s post on importing from Search Console says imported sites are verified automatically and your sitemaps come across with them. If you don’t use Search Console, add the site manually and verify it.
- Set up IndexNow if your website platform or SEO plugin offers it. Bing gets told about new and updated pages instead of waiting to find them.
- Check Google Search Console. Google’s AI features guide says a page must be “indexed and eligible to be shown in Google Search with a snippet” to be a supporting link in AI Overviews or AI Mode, and that you don’t need AI text files or special markup. The same indexing work covers the Google side of ChatGPT if the tests are right.
None of this makes ChatGPT name you. It removes the technical reasons it couldn’t. What gets you named is pages that answer customers’ questions clearly and other sites describing you accurately, which our guide to getting your business to show up in ChatGPT walks through.
How can I tell whether ChatGPT found my business through Bing or Google?
You can’t see it directly, but you can compare ChatGPT’s sources with Bing’s and Google’s results for the same short search. OpenAI says responses that use search may include citations, and you can select Sources to see the cited pages and other links.
- In ChatGPT, start a search: select View all tools, then Search, or type / in the message box and choose Search.
- Ask the question a customer would ask, with your town in it.
- Select Sources and write down every cited page.
- Search the short version of the question on Bing and on Google, signed out, and note where each cited page ranks.
- Repeat once a month with the same questions, because answers change.
Here’s an example with made-up details. A plumber in Leeds asks ChatGPT “who can fix a burst pipe tonight in Leeds?” ChatGPT might send something like “emergency plumber Leeds” to its search partner. If the three pages it cites all sit on Bing’s first page and only one is on Google’s, Bing is probably doing more of the work for that question, and getting the plumber’s own pages indexed and ranking on Bing is the first job.
To see the visits that come out of this, OpenAI’s publishers FAQ says ChatGPT adds utm_source=chatgpt.com to the links people click. Our guide to tracking AI traffic in Google Analytics shows where that appears in GA4.
Does ChatGPT use Google Maps or Bing Places for local results?
OpenAI doesn’t say. Its help page says ChatGPT may share your location with “trusted third-party providers that help provide more local information, such as nearby business listings or weather reports”, without naming them. For restaurants it names OpenTable, Resy and Yelp as the reservation providers.
Because the listing source isn’t published, keep your name, address, phone number, hours and services identical on your Google Business Profile, your free Bing Places listing and the directories that matter in your trade. That way, whichever listing a provider supplies, it says the same thing.
Common mistakes and how to fix them
- Blocking GPTBot and thinking you’ve left ChatGPT search. GPTBot is the training crawler. Search inclusion depends on OAI-SearchBot, so decide on each one separately.
- Never adding the site to Bing. If your site has only ever been set up in Google Search Console, importing it into Bing Webmaster Tools fixes that.
- A firewall that disagrees with robots.txt. robots.txt says yes, but a bot-blocking setting at the host or CDN says no. Ask your host to allow OpenAI’s published searchbot IP addresses.
- Paying for an llms.txt file as the fix. Google says AI features need no AI text files, and OpenAI’s steps for eligibility don’t mention one. We cover this in do I need llms.txt.
- Reading Bing’s AI Performance report as a ChatGPT report. It covers Copilot, Bing’s AI summaries and unnamed partners.
- Checking once and drawing conclusions. ChatGPT’s sources can change from one day to the next, and tests report differences between free and paid accounts, so track the same questions over months.
If you’d like someone to set up the OpenAI, Bing and Google side and then check every month which assistants name your business, that’s what our AI SEO service does. Nobody can promise ChatGPT will cite you, so the work is removing what blocks it and making the pages it would cite answer your customers’ questions. Your first two months are free, with no setup, audit or management fees, and after that you only pay if you think it’s worth it.
FAQ
Does ChatGPT use Bing for every search?
OpenAI says ChatGPT “sometimes” partners with other search providers, so not necessarily, and it doesn’t say how often. Independent tests also report different results for free and paid accounts.
If I block GPTBot, will my business disappear from ChatGPT search?
No. OpenAI says GPTBot controls whether your content is used for model training, while OAI-SearchBot controls whether your site can be shown in ChatGPT search answers. You can allow one and block the other.
How long after I unblock OAI-SearchBot will ChatGPT see my site?
OpenAI says it can take about 24 hours after a robots.txt update for its systems to adjust. That makes you eligible to appear; it doesn’t mean ChatGPT will cite you.
Is ranking on Google still worth it if ChatGPT leans on Bing?
Yes. Google’s own AI Overviews and AI Mode take their supporting links from pages indexed in Google Search, and several tests found Google results inside ChatGPT answers. Our guide to getting into Google AI Overviews covers that side.
Sources: 1. Searching the web with ChatGPT (OpenAI Help Center). 2. Overview of OpenAI crawlers (OpenAI). 3. Publishers and developers FAQ (OpenAI Help Center). 4. Introducing AI Performance in Bing Webmaster Tools (Microsoft Bing Webmaster Blog, February 2026). 5. Bing Places for Business (Microsoft). 6. IndexNow. 7. AI features and your website (Google Search Central). 8. Import sites from Search Console to Bing Webmaster Tools (Microsoft Bing Webmaster Blog).
