ChatGPT Search

ChatGPT Search is OpenAI's web-grounded answer mode inside ChatGPT, which retrieves current web pages before generating a response and displays a source panel alongside the answer. It launched as a standalone feature in late 2024 and uses a separate crawler, OAI-SearchBot, to build its citation index apart from GPTBot's model-training crawl.

Why it matters

ChatGPT Search tends to concentrate citations among established media outlets and sites with existing editorial authority, closer to how traditional search ranks trust signals than to Perplexity's preference for whatever page answers the query most directly. For a brand tracking AI visibility, that means ranking well in ChatGPT Search often depends more on accumulated domain authority and being cited elsewhere than on publishing the freshest page on a topic.

Related terms

• Answer Engine

  An answer engine is an AI-powered system, like ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Google AI Overviews, that responds to a query with a direct, synthesized answer and cited sources, rather than a ranked list of links a user has to click through to find their own answer.

• Generative Engine

  A generative engine is an AI system, such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Google's AI Overviews, that answers a query by synthesizing one direct response from multiple retrieved sources, instead of returning a ranked list of links for the user to click through themselves.

• Perplexity

  Perplexity is an AI-native search engine built around inline, numbered citations, where nearly every claim in its answers links directly to a specific source. It positions itself explicitly as a citation-first answer engine, and its retrieval favors recently published, directly responsive pages over pages with heavier accumulated editorial authority.

• Citation Panel

  A citation panel is the list of sources an AI engine displays alongside a generated answer, typically as numbered links or a sidebar, separate from any inline citations embedded in the answer text itself. Appearing in a citation panel without an inline citation still counts as a mention, but carries less prominence than being cited directly within the answer.