ChatGPT search
Also called: ChatGPT web search
ChatGPT search is ChatGPT's web-connected mode that answers questions with current information pulled from the live web and links to the sources it cites. Instead of a list of blue links, it returns one synthesized answer with clickable inline citations to the original pages.
How it works
ChatGPT search grew out of the SearchGPT prototype OpenAI tested in mid-2024, then folded into ChatGPT in late October 2024. It reached all logged-in users that December and, in early 2025, opened to logged-out users with no account.
When your question needs fresh or factual information, ChatGPT queries the live web (retrieval runs largely through OpenAI’s Bing partnership plus news and data providers), pulls the most relevant passages, and writes one synthesized answer. It does not search every time. It decides per query, and you can also turn it on deliberately.
The output is not a page of ten blue links. It is a single answer with inline citations. Readers hover a citation to preview the source, click through to the page, or open the Sources panel to see every URL the model consulted. In the API, each citation is a url_citation annotation carrying the URL, title, and character range, and a sources field lists everything referenced. OpenAI tells developers these citations must stay visible and clickable in any interface.
For publishers this is the shift that matters. Your page can shape the answer, and earn a click, without ranking first in a traditional SERP. It can also be summarized with no citation at all. So being the cited source, not just a ranked one, is the whole game.
How it affects your traffic
ChatGPT search is one of the surfaces where buyers now research before they ever open Google, and a citation there can send qualified traffic even when you rank nowhere on the classic SERP. Getting cited depends on the page being crawlable to OpenAI's fetchers, stating facts in clean, quotable passages, and carrying enough entity strength and third-party mentions that the model trusts you. Our AI SEO work targets exactly those signals, so your pages get pulled into ChatGPT answers instead of a competitor's.
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