---
title: "Where Does ChatGPT Get Its Information? Training vs Search"
description: "ChatGPT answers from training data, live web search and your chat. See what OpenAI documents for each source and what a site owner can control."
url: https://seenlens.com/guides/where-does-chatgpt-get-its-information
last_updated: 2026-11-06
---

# Where does ChatGPT get its information from?

ChatGPT answers from three inputs: what its model learned in training, live web search, and the content you give it in a chat. OpenAI says training draws on public web content, partner data, and material from users and human trainers. For current questions, ChatGPT can search the web and cite sources. A site owner controls training and search with separate robots.txt rules.

By SeenLens. Last updated: 2026-11-06

## What are the sources behind a ChatGPT answer?

A ChatGPT answer can use up to four inputs. The table shows each input, what OpenAI says about it, and whether a website owner can influence it. All statements come from OpenAI's own help center and bot documentation, checked on 2026-11-06.

| Input | What OpenAI says | What a site owner controls |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Training data | Foundation models are developed from three primary sources: public internet information, information from third party partners, and information that users, human trainers and researchers provide or generate. | Allow or disallow `GPTBot` in robots.txt. |
| Live web search | ChatGPT may search the web automatically when a question would benefit from current information. Responses may include citations. | Allow `OAI-SearchBot` and OpenAI's published searchbot IP addresses. |
| Pages fetched for a user | `ChatGPT-User` visits pages when a user asks ChatGPT or a Custom GPT something. Because users start these visits, robots.txt rules may not apply. | Robots.txt may not stop it. Use authentication for private pages. |
| The chat itself | ChatGPT uses what you type and attach. If memory is enabled, it may use saved memories when it rewrites a search query. | Nothing. This input comes from the user. |

## What training data does ChatGPT use?

OpenAI's help article on how its models are developed names three primary sources. The first is information that is publicly available on the internet. The second is information that OpenAI accesses through third party partners. The third is information that users, human trainers and researchers provide or generate. The article also says OpenAI increasingly uses synthetic data in some training processes.

For the public web, OpenAI says it uses only information that is freely and openly accessible, such as public webpages, forums and blogs. It says it does not intentionally gather data from sources known to be behind paywalls or from the dark web. It filters out material such as hate speech, adult content, sites that aggregate personal information, and spam.

OpenAI says its models do not store copies of the data they learn from. The model adjusts numeric weights as it learns patterns. This is the answer to "How does AI know so much?": the model learned patterns in language from very large amounts of text, images and other data, and it predicts the next likely word when it answers.

Website owners can manage whether their public content is accessed for training. OpenAI's article names robots.txt rules that disallow `GPTBot` as the control. OpenAI's bot documentation says disallowing GPTBot indicates that a site's content should not be used in training generative AI foundation models. See the [GPTBot page](https://seenlens.com/bots/gptbot).

## When does ChatGPT search the web?

OpenAI's help article on web search says ChatGPT may search automatically when a question would benefit from current information. A person can also start a search by choosing Search in the tools menu. Web search is available on Free, Go, Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu plans, and people who are not signed in can use it too.

Responses that use web search may include citations. The Sources button, when available, lists cited sources and other relevant links. OpenAI warns that search results and citations can be incomplete, outdated or incorrect, and tells users to open a cited source to check that it supports the answer.

Search answers can carry citation links to websites. OpenAI describes no equivalent link for training data.

## Where do ChatGPT search results come from?

OpenAI documents two facts. First, OpenAI runs its own crawler, `OAI-SearchBot`, which it says surfaces websites in ChatGPT's search features. Second, the help article says ChatGPT search sometimes partners with other search providers. When it does, ChatGPT typically rewrites the question into one or more targeted queries and sends them to those providers. The article links the Microsoft privacy statement and the Shopify privacy policy for details on how those providers process queries.

The OpenAI pages checked on 2026-11-06 do not describe how much of the search index comes from each source. They do not name Bing in their text.

A press report of 2024-11-04 by Search Engine Roundtable said ChatGPT Search appears to draw most of its web index from Microsoft Bing. It cited an OpenAI executive's statement in a Reddit AMA that Bing is an important service among those OpenAI uses. This is a press report, and OpenAI's own pages do not confirm the share. Bing visibility is still worth checking. See [Bingbot](https://seenlens.com/bots/bingbot) and the [IndexNow guide](https://seenlens.com/guides/indexnow).

## How does ChatGPT choose which sources to cite?

OpenAI says ChatGPT ranks search results using multiple factors intended to help users find relevant, reliable information, and that placement is not guaranteed. OpenAI does not publish the factors.

Ahrefs, an SEO tool vendor, studied about 1.4 million ChatGPT 5.2 prompts in a post published on 2026-04-15. Ahrefs reported that 88% of the URLs ChatGPT cited were taken directly from search, and that ChatGPT cited only about half of the URLs it retrieved. Cited pages had titles closer to the prompt than pages that were retrieved and not cited (similarity 0.602 against 0.484). URLs with natural language slugs were cited 89.78% of the time, against 81.11% for URLs without. The median cited page was about 500 days old.

These numbers are correlations from one vendor's dataset. They show that ChatGPT's citations mostly come from pages that its search step retrieves. A page that search cannot find has little chance of being cited. They do not prove that a slug or a title causes a citation.

## What can I control as a site owner?

OpenAI says each setting is independent. You can allow `OAI-SearchBot` so your pages can appear in ChatGPT search, and disallow `GPTBot` so your content is not used for training. OpenAI also says that if both are allowed, it may use one crawl for both purposes.

```text
User-agent: OAI-SearchBot
Allow: /

User-agent: GPTBot
Disallow: /
```

- **Allow OAI-SearchBot.** OpenAI says sites that opt out of OAI-SearchBot will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers, though they can still appear as navigational links.
- **Allow OpenAI's IP addresses.** The help article says to confirm that your host or CDN allows traffic from OpenAI's published searchbot IP addresses. See [AI crawlers blocked by a firewall](https://seenlens.com/fixes/ai-crawlers-blocked-by-waf).
- **Wait about 24 hours.** OpenAI says it can take about 24 hours after a robots.txt update for its systems to adjust.
- **Do not rely on robots.txt for private pages.** OpenAI says robots.txt rules may not apply to ChatGPT-User.

The [OpenAI crawlers guide](https://seenlens.com/guides/openai-crawlers) compares the three bots in detail. The [robots.txt guide for AI crawlers](https://seenlens.com/guides/robots-txt-for-ai-crawlers) gives recipes for other AI companies.

## How do I check whether ChatGPT can reach my site?

1. Run the [AI crawler checker](https://seenlens.com/tools/ai-crawler-checker) above. It shows whether your robots.txt allows OAI-SearchBot, GPTBot and ChatGPT-User, and whether your firewall serves the page to the OAI-SearchBot user agent.
2. Search your server logs for `OAI-SearchBot`. OpenAI's documentation gives `compatible; OAI-SearchBot/1.4; +https://openai.com/searchbot` as an example user agent, and says the version may change.
3. Ask ChatGPT a question that your page answers. Open Sources and look for your URL. One answer is a spot check and not proof, because ChatGPT answers vary.
4. Run the [free SeenLens scan](https://seenlens.com/) to see crawler access, content structure and structured data in one score. The score measures readiness and does not measure actual ChatGPT mentions.

[Run the free SeenLens scan](https://seenlens.com/)

## Can ChatGPT read my chats, and should I worry about what I type?

OpenAI's help article on model improvement says that on its individual services (Free, Plus and Pro) OpenAI may use your content to train its models, and that you can turn this off under Settings, Data controls. Temporary chats are not used to improve models while they stay temporary. By default OpenAI does not use inputs or outputs from ChatGPT Business, Enterprise, Edu or the API to improve its models.

If you opt out and then give thumbs up or thumbs down feedback on a response, OpenAI may use the whole conversation that is tied to the feedback. Treat any text you type as content that OpenAI processes.

## Frequently asked questions

### Where does ChatGPT get its information from?

From its training data, from live web search when it searches, and from the content you give it in a chat. OpenAI names public internet content, third party partner data, and material from users, human trainers and researchers as the three primary training sources.

### Does ChatGPT browse the internet in real time?

It can. OpenAI says ChatGPT may search the web automatically when a question would benefit from current information, and shows citations when it does.

### How does AI know so much?

The model learned patterns from very large amounts of text and other data during training. OpenAI says the model does not store copies of that data and predicts the next likely word when it answers.

### Does blocking GPTBot remove my site from ChatGPT search?

No. GPTBot is the training crawler. Sites that opt out of OAI-SearchBot are not shown in ChatGPT search answers. Allow OAI-SearchBot to stay eligible.

### Can ChatGPT read my chats?

OpenAI may use content from individual plans to train its models unless you opt out in Data controls. Business, Enterprise, Edu and API content is not used for training by default.

### Does ChatGPT use Bing?

OpenAI says ChatGPT search sometimes partners with other search providers and links Microsoft's privacy statement. Its text does not describe Bing's role. A 2024 press report says Bing supplies much of the index.

## Sources

- [OpenAI Help Center: How ChatGPT and our foundation models are developed](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/7842364-how-chatgpt-and-our-foundation-models-are-developed) (three training sources, GPTBot opt out, filters, no stored copies; checked 2026-11-06)
- [OpenAI Help Center: Searching the web with ChatGPT](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/9237897-searching-the-web-with-chatgpt) (when ChatGPT searches, citations, search providers, how to make a site eligible; checked 2026-11-06)
- [OpenAI Help Center: How your data is used to improve model performance](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/5722486-how-your-data-is-used-to-improve-model-performance) (training use of chats, opt out, business plans; checked 2026-11-06)
- [OpenAI: Overview of OpenAI crawlers](https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/bots) (GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, ChatGPT-User, robots.txt behavior, 24 hour delay; checked 2026-11-06)
- [Ahrefs: Why ChatGPT cites some pages and not others](https://ahrefs.com/blog/why-chatgpt-cites-pages/) (about 1.4 million ChatGPT 5.2 prompts, published 2026-04-15, vendor study)
- [Search Engine Roundtable: ChatGPT Search Is Powered By Bing's Index](https://www.seroundtable.com/bing-powers-chatgpt-search-38345.html) (press report, 2024-11-04)