AI Engine · by OpenAI
How ChatGPT chooses which brands to recommend
- Where it gets sources
- Live web search when browsing is active; training memory otherwise
- How it attributes
- Inline links when browsing; none when answering from memory
How it picks who to name
When browsing, the retrieved pages decide the answer. Your presence in review sites, comparison articles, and forum threads matters more than the volume of content on your own domain.
When answering from memory, breadth and consistency of historical coverage dominate. This is slow to influence and cannot be edited directly.
In both modes it looks for a reason to prefer one option: a stated audience fit, a price, a certification, a third-party rating it can point at.
How to get cited by ChatGPT
- 1
Allow OpenAI's crawlers
Permit GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, and ChatGPT-User in robots.txt, and check that your CDN or firewall is not blocking them independently.
- 2
Earn independent mentions
Get named on the domains ChatGPT already cites for your category. Ask it your buyers' questions and use the citations as your target list.
- 3
Publish specific, checkable claims
State who you are best for, what you cost, and what you integrate with — then keep those claims identical everywhere they appear.
What makes ChatGPT different
The only major engine that routinely answers with no retrieval at all. That split personality means a brand can be well cited in browsing mode and invisible in memory mode, and the two require different work.
Does ChatGPT name you?
We ask real buyer questions and show you the answer, the brands named instead, and every source cited.
Related questions
ChatGPT recommends brands it can find corroborating evidence for at answer time. When browsing is active it runs web searches, reads the top results, and names brands that appear repeatedly across independent, trustworthy sources. Without browsing it falls back on patterns learned in training, which favour brands with a large, consistent published footprint.
Usually one of four reasons: your site blocks AI crawlers, your content only renders in JavaScript, nothing independent has been published about you, or your brand name is ambiguous enough that the model cannot resolve which company you are. The first two are technical and fixable in a day.
Get your brand named on the independent pages ChatGPT retrieves when it browses: review platforms, comparison articles, industry round-ups, and forum threads. Your own site alone is rarely enough — models corroborate across sources, so a brand described consistently in several independent places is the one that gets named.
Other AI engines
Frequently asked about ChatGPT
How does ChatGPT decide which brands to recommend?+
ChatGPT names brands it can corroborate at answer time. With browsing active it searches the web, reads the results, and favours brands appearing consistently across independent sources. Without browsing it relies on training-data patterns, which reward brands with a large, consistent published footprint built up over years.
How do I get cited by ChatGPT?+
Allow OpenAI's crawlers: Permit GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, and ChatGPT-User in robots.txt, and check that your CDN or firewall is not blocking them independently. Earn independent mentions: Get named on the domains ChatGPT already cites for your category. Ask it your buyers' questions and use the citations as your target list. Publish specific, checkable claims: State who you are best for, what you cost, and what you integrate with — then keep those claims identical everywhere they appear.
Where does ChatGPT get its information?+
Live web search when browsing is active; training memory otherwise. Citations: inline links when browsing; none when answering from memory.
What makes ChatGPT different from other AI engines?+
The only major engine that routinely answers with no retrieval at all. That split personality means a brand can be well cited in browsing mode and invisible in memory mode, and the two require different work.