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OAI-SearchBot: IP ranges, verification & how to handle it

Last verified: 2026-06-13 · maintained by Unsourced

OAI-SearchBot powers ChatGPT Search results. It fetches pages to surface and link them in live answers, so it can drive real referral traffic — one to court, not block.

Verified IP ranges & identity

OAI-SearchBot publishes the IP ranges it crawls from, from the operator's published feed. A request claiming to be OAI-SearchBot from an IP outside these ranges is suspect:

104.210.140.128/28
135.234.64.0/24
172.182.193.224/28
172.182.193.80/28
172.182.194.144/28
172.182.194.32/28
172.182.195.48/28
172.182.209.208/28
172.182.211.192/28
172.182.213.192/28
172.182.224.0/28
172.203.190.128/28
20.14.99.96/28
20.168.18.32/28
20.169.6.224/28
20.169.7.48/28
20.169.77.0/25
20.171.123.64/28
20.171.53.224/28
20.25.151.224/28
20.42.10.176/28
4.227.36.0/25
40.67.175.0/25
40.90.214.16/28
51.8.102.0/24
74.7.175.128/25
74.7.228.0/25
74.7.228.128/25
74.7.229.0/25
74.7.229.128/25
74.7.230.0/25
74.7.241.128/25
74.7.242.128/25
74.7.243.0/25
74.7.244.0/25

How to verify a request is really OAI-SearchBot

A User-Agent string is just a claim — anyone can send OAI-SearchBot in a header. Confirm identity two ways: forward-confirmed reverse DNS (the IP resolves to OpenAI, and that host resolves back to the IP), and, where published, an IP inside the operator's official ranges. If neither holds, it's an impostor wearing the badge — not OAI-SearchBot.

Should you allow or block OAI-SearchBot?

Recommended: bait. Cites and links to sources and can send you referral traffic — you want this crawler.

If you do choose to act in robots.txt (which crawlers honour but don't enforce):

# OAI-SearchBot: recommended to ALLOW — blocking can cost you AI visibility
User-agent: OAI-SearchBot
Disallow:

Official sources

Published IP feed: https://openai.com/searchbot.json
OpenAI crawler info: https://platform.openai.com/docs/bots ↗

Common questions about OAI-SearchBot

Is OAI-SearchBot really from OpenAI?

OAI-SearchBot is OpenAI's crawler, but a User-Agent header can be spoofed, so the claim alone isn't proof. Confirm it with forward-confirmed reverse DNS and, where published, a match against OpenAI's official IP ranges.

What are OAI-SearchBot's IP ranges?

OpenAI publishes the IP ranges OAI-SearchBot crawls from, via the operator's live published feed. This page lists the current 35. A request claiming to be OAI-SearchBot from an IP outside those ranges is suspect.

Should I block OAI-SearchBot?

Our recommendation: bait. Cites and links to sources and can send you referral traffic — you want this crawler.

Related crawlers

Is OAI-SearchBot — or an impostor — actually hitting your site?

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