Get cited by ChatGPT
ChatGPT is the largest AI assistant in the world, and more of your buyers now use it to frame a decision, build a shortlist, and compare vendors before they ever reach your site.
What the data says
How people use ChatGPT to search in 2026
OpenAI describes people arriving at ChatGPT with clear goals: choosing software for their business, planning a renovation, looking for a job. They explain what they want, what matters to them, and the constraints they face, and ChatGPT helps them set criteria, weigh alternatives, and move toward a decision. In OpenAI's own words, discovery, consideration, and decision-making come together in a single experience. That is a different job from a ten-blue-links search: the buyer is often asking for a recommendation, not a list of websites.
Search and shopping are now built in. ChatGPT can search the web on every plan, including for people who are not signed in, and in March 2026 OpenAI rolled out richer product discovery that lets shoppers describe what they need, compare products side by side with price, reviews and features, and then buy on the merchant's own site. For B2B companies, ChatGPT tends to show up mid-journey, when a buyer already knows the problem and is building a shortlist. If your brand is missing from that answer, you are often missing from the shortlist.
How ChatGPT finds and cites sources
According to OpenAI, ChatGPT searches the web automatically when a question would benefit from current information, or when a user turns Search on. It typically rewrites the prompt into one or more targeted queries, sends them to search partners (OpenAI's help center names Microsoft and Shopify among its providers), reviews the results, and may run more specific follow-up queries before it answers. Responses that use search include inline citations, and a Sources panel lists the cited pages and other relevant links.
OpenAI says any public website can appear in ChatGPT search, provided it does not block OAI-SearchBot, the crawler that powers search. Sites that opt out of OAI-SearchBot are not shown in search answers, although a bare link and title can still appear. OpenAI says it ranks results using multiple factors intended to surface relevant, reliable information, and that placement is not guaranteed. Referral clicks carry utm_source=chatgpt.com, so this traffic can be measured in analytics. For products, merchants can share feeds through the Agentic Commerce Protocol, and Shopify merchants are already included through Shopify Catalog. OpenAI also states that ads in ChatGPT are labeled, kept separate from answers, and do not influence them.
How to earn visibility on ChatGPT
Let OpenAI's crawlers in
Allow OAI-SearchBot in robots.txt and make sure your CDN or firewall is not blocking OpenAI's published IP ranges. A blocked crawler means ChatGPT cannot use your page as a source.
Answer the shortlist questions
Publish pages that answer what buyers ask ChatGPT: what it costs, how you compare with alternatives, who it suits, how long it takes. Put the direct answer in the first lines of each section.
Write sentences worth quoting
ChatGPT cites passages, not whole sites. Use specific, self-contained statements with numbers, dates and named methods so a single paragraph can stand as the answer.
Be present where ChatGPT looks
ChatGPT pulls from third-party sources as well as your own site. Earn mentions in industry publications, review sites, directories and community discussions that already show up for your category.
Keep product data complete
For ecommerce, keep product feeds accurate and current. Shopify stores are already in Shopify Catalog; larger merchants can share feeds and promotions through the Agentic Commerce Protocol.
Measure what it sends you
Track utm_source=chatgpt.com sessions through to leads, opportunities and revenue in your CRM, and review which pages earn the visits that convert.
It is not just about traffic
The goal is not a mention in a chatbot. It is getting into the answer at the moment a buyer is choosing, and turning that visit into a qualified conversation. AlchemyLeads is a revenue-first AI search agency: we find the questions your buyers ask ChatGPT, build and restructure the pages that answer them, earn the third-party mentions it relies on, and connect the resulting traffic to pipeline in your CRM. For one industrial ground-monitoring manufacturer, that work produced 4,500 AI citations across 18 pages in six months and 170% more requests for quote. We work with companies doing roughly $5M to $150M in revenue, and 95% of clients who joined since 2020 have stayed longer than 12 months.
Straight answers
How many people use ChatGPT?
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said at Dev Day in September 2026 that 1.2 billion people use ChatGPT every week, up from 900 million weekly users in February 2026. The most recent daily volume OpenAI has shared is 2.5 billion prompts a day, disclosed in July 2025. Reports of higher weekly figures circulate online, but we only cite numbers that OpenAI or a major outlet has confirmed.
Can any website be cited by ChatGPT?
OpenAI says any public website can appear in ChatGPT search. The practical requirements are that OAI-SearchBot can crawl the page and your hosting or CDN does not block OpenAI's search crawler IPs. Beyond that, OpenAI ranks results on multiple relevance and reliability factors and states that placement is not guaranteed, so content quality and outside mentions still matter.
Does blocking GPTBot remove us from ChatGPT search?
No. OpenAI uses separate crawlers. GPTBot collects content for model training, while OAI-SearchBot powers ChatGPT search. You can block GPTBot to opt out of training and still allow OAI-SearchBot so your pages can be surfaced and cited in search answers. Check both rules in robots.txt, because a broad block can remove you from search by accident.
Is ChatGPT traffic worth the effort if the volume is small?
Volume is smaller than Google for most sites, but intent tends to be higher. Similarweb's 2025 ecommerce report estimated a 11.4% conversion rate for ChatGPT-referred visits against 5.3% for organic search. Results differ by industry and offer, which is why we measure ChatGPT sessions through to leads and revenue rather than judging the channel on clicks.
Can we pay to appear in ChatGPT answers?
ChatGPT now sells ads, but OpenAI says ads are clearly labeled, kept separate from answers, and do not influence what ChatGPT says. Paid placement and organic citations are different things. Being cited inside the answer depends on your pages being crawlable, relevant and trustworthy, and on what other credible sources say about your company.
Sources
- Engadget, OpenAI Dev Day 2026 live blog (Sam Altman on stage), Sep 2026
- OpenAI: A milestone in expanding access to AI, Aug 2026
- TechCrunch: ChatGPT reaches 900M weekly active users, Feb 2026
- TechCrunch: ChatGPT users send 2.5 billion prompts a day, Jul 2025
- Similarweb: 3rd Annual Global Ecommerce Report press release, Sep 2025
- OpenAI Help Center: Searching the web with ChatGPT, Sep 2026
- OpenAI Help Center: Publishers and Developers FAQ, Sep 2026
- OpenAI: Overview of OpenAI crawlers, Oct 2026
- OpenAI: Powering Product Discovery in ChatGPT, Mar 2026
Show up where your buyers actually search
We map where your buyers research, then build the visibility that turns those moments into qualified pipeline.
