# How to Get Your SaaS Cited by ChatGPT and Perplexity
> Get your SaaS cited by ChatGPT and Perplexity: which crawlers to allow, how to test access, what to put on pages, how to measure citations, from vendor docs.
Canonical: https://app369.com/blog/get-saas-cited-chatgpt-perplexity-2026/
Last updated: 2026-10-22
[ **Simon Dziak** Founder & developer, App369](https://app369.com/about/szymon-dziak/) [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/szymondziak/)
Published October 20, 2026 · Updated October 22, 2026•Facts last verified October 22, 2026•9 min
App369https://app369.com/blog/get-saas-cited-chatgpt-perplexity-2026/
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## Key takeaways
- →ChatGPT search finds pages with OAI-SearchBot. OpenAI says sites that block it "will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers." GPTBot is a separate crawler for training.
- →Perplexity search uses PerplexityBot, which Perplexity says "is not used to crawl content for AI foundation models."
- →A firewall or "block AI bots" setting can shut these crawlers out even when robots.txt allows them, so test with the real user agents.
- →No AI company publishes a list of ranking factors. The best public evidence, a 2023 research paper, found that adding sources, quotations and statistics made pages more visible in AI answers.
- →OpenAI says robots.txt changes can take about 24 hours to take effect for search.
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**To get your SaaS cited by ChatGPT and Perplexity, first make sure their search crawlers can reach your pages, then give them pages worth quoting: clear answers, specific facts and named sources.** Neither company publishes ranking factors, so this guide sticks to what OpenAI, Perplexity, Anthropic, Google and Bing document, plus one research paper. I re-read each source on October 22, 2026. The step-by-step checks are my own advice.
## Step 1: Let the right crawlers in
Each AI company runs separate crawlers for search and for training, and they are controlled separately in robots.txt.
**ChatGPT.** OpenAI says “OAI-SearchBot is used to surface websites in search results in ChatGPT’s search features,” and “Sites that are opted out of OAI-SearchBot will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers, though can still appear as navigational links.” GPTBot is the training crawler, and OpenAI says each setting is independent, so you can allow OAI-SearchBot and block GPTBot.
**Perplexity.** “PerplexityBot is designed to surface and link websites in search results on Perplexity. It is not used to crawl content for AI foundation models.” Perplexity recommends allowing it in robots.txt.
**Claude.** Anthropic runs ClaudeBot for training and Claude-SearchBot for search. It says blocking Claude-SearchBot “prevents our system from indexing your content for search optimization, which may reduce your site’s visibility”.
**User-triggered fetchers** work differently. When someone pastes your URL or asks about your page, ChatGPT-User, Perplexity-User or Claude-User may fetch it. Perplexity says its fetcher “generally ignores robots.txt rules” because a user requested it, and OpenAI says “robots.txt rules may not apply” to ChatGPT-User.
A robots.txt that lets search in and keeps training out looks like this:
```
User-agent: OAI-SearchBot
Allow: /
User-agent: PerplexityBot
Allow: /
User-agent: Claude-SearchBot
Allow: /
User-agent: GPTBot
Disallow: /
User-agent: ClaudeBot
Disallow: /
```
Whether to block the training crawlers is a business choice. Blocking them doesn’t remove you from AI search.
## Step 2: Test that they can actually get through
robots.txt is only one gate. Hosting firewalls and “block AI bots” toggles often sit in front of it, and they can block a crawler your robots.txt allows. OpenAI and Perplexity both publish IP ranges so you can allow their crawlers in a firewall.
**How to check:**
1. Open `yourdomain.com/robots.txt` and read it. Look for a blanket `Disallow: /` under `User-agent: *`.
2. Check your host or CDN’s bot settings for an AI crawler block.
3. Request your homepage with each crawler’s user agent, for example `curl -I -A "OAI-SearchBot" https://yourdomain.com/`, and look for a 200 rather than a 403. A firewall that checks IP addresses can still treat the real crawler differently, so also look for these user agents in your server logs.
After a change, give it time. OpenAI says “it can take ~24 hours from a site’s robots.txt update for our systems to adjust.”
## Step 3: Make your key pages readable without JavaScript or a login
The pages buyers ask about are your pricing, features, integrations, comparisons and docs. If those only appear after JavaScript runs, or sit behind a sign-in, a crawler may see an empty page. Google’s guidance for its own AI features points the same way: a page must be indexed and eligible to show in Search with a snippet, and content must be crawlable. Google says it can process JavaScript content as long as it isn’t blocked, but notes that JavaScript-heavy sites are more complex to optimize.
**How to check:** view the page source (not the inspector) or fetch it with `curl`, and confirm the prices and feature names are in the HTML.
## Step 4: Write pages worth quoting
There’s no official list of what makes ChatGPT or Perplexity cite one page over another. The best public evidence is the 2023 GEO research paper. It found that adding sources, quotations and statistics “achieved a relative improvement of 30–40%” on one of its visibility measures, and that adding keywords, the classic SEO move, did not perform well. In a test on Perplexity.ai, where the authors supplied source text as file uploads, they report “visibility improvements up to 37%” on one of their two measures. Those results come from the authors’ test setup with 2023 models, so treat them as direction, not a guarantee.
In practice, for a SaaS site:
- **Answer the buyer’s question in the first two sentences** of each section: who it’s for, what it costs, what it connects to.
- **Be specific.** A line like “Starts at $29 a month for 3 users” is quotable. “Affordable plans for every team” is not.
- **Cite your sources** for any claim about the market, a law or a standard, and link to them.
- **Publish comparison and alternative pages that are fair,** including where a competitor is the better fit. Buyers often search “X vs Y”, and a fair page gives an AI tool something honest to quote.
- **Keep facts current.** Bing says “Accurate and up to date content is important for inclusion and citation in AI-generated answers.”
Google adds a warning that applies everywhere: “seeking inauthentic ‘mentions’ across the web isn’t as helpful as it might seem.” Real reviews, real customers and real coverage beat planted ones.
## Step 5: Measure citations
- **Bing Webmaster Tools** has an AI Performance report that shows how often your content is cited in AI answers across Microsoft Copilot and AI summaries in Bing.
- **Google Search Console** has a generative AI performance report, which Google says covers generative AI features on Google Search and Discover.
- **ChatGPT and Perplexity** don’t offer site-owner reports. Make a list of 20 to 30 questions your buyers really ask, run each one a few times in both tools, and record who gets cited. Repeat monthly. For what a paid audit should add on top, see [what an AI search visibility audit checks and what it costs](https://app369.com/blog/ai-search-visibility-audit-what-it-checks-cost-2026/).
Being cited is different from your product doing the work inside an assistant; for that side, see [Agent Tool Optimization](https://app369.com/blog/agent-tool-optimization-get-your-app-picked-2026/).
## A one-hour checklist
1. Read your robots.txt and allow OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot and Claude-SearchBot.
2. Turn off any blanket AI bot block at your host, or allow-list the search crawlers.
3. Test with each user agent and check your logs.
4. Confirm pricing and features are in the page HTML.
5. Rewrite the top of your pricing and main feature pages to answer the question first, with specifics.
6. Verify your site in Bing Webmaster Tools and Google Search Console.
7. Write down your 20 buyer questions and run them in ChatGPT and Perplexity.
For how these terms fit together, see [AEO vs GEO vs SEO](https://app369.com/blog/aeo-vs-geo-vs-seo-2026/). If you’re wondering whether an llms.txt file helps, see [what llms.txt does and doesn’t do](https://app369.com/blog/llms-txt-what-it-does-2026/).
## Need a hand?
If you’d rather have it done for you, see [SEO, GEO and AEO services](https://app369.com/service/seo-geo-aeo/). The [AI Search Visibility Audit](https://app369.com/fixed-price/ai-search-visibility-audit/) is a $750 fixed price: I run your buyers’ questions through ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and Gemini, record who gets cited, and rank the fixes. To keep it moving after the fixes, [Monthly AI Search Growth](https://app369.com/fixed-price/ai-search-growth/) adds 4 answer-ready pages a month and reruns the same 30 questions so you can see your citation share change. For Google AI Overviews, see [how to show up in Google AI Overviews](https://app369.com/blog/how-to-show-up-in-google-ai-overviews-2026/). Or [send me a short description](https://app369.com/contact/).
## **Want this done at a fixed price?**
Fixed scope, fixed price, paid upfront. The work happens in writing; no call needed.
- [**AI Search Visibility Audit**$75030 buyer questions run in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and Gemini, who gets cited, and ranked fixes.](https://app369.com/fixed-price/ai-search-visibility-audit/)
- [**SEO + GEO Fix Sprint**$1,950Structured data, answer blocks, crawler rules, internal links, speed and 5 answer pages, in 10 business days.](https://app369.com/fixed-price/seo-geo-fix-sprint/)
- [**Monthly AI Search Growth**$1,500/month4 answer-ready pages, citation tracking on 30 questions and one link-earning asset a month. Cancel anytime.](https://app369.com/fixed-price/ai-search-growth/)
## **Frequently asked questions**
- **How does ChatGPT decide which websites to cite?**
- OpenAI doesn't publish ranking factors. What it does document is that ChatGPT search surfaces sites through OAI-SearchBot, so the first step is making sure that crawler can reach your pages. After that, clear answers with specific, sourced facts give it something worth quoting.
- **If I block GPTBot, will my SaaS disappear from ChatGPT?**
- No. OpenAI says each crawler setting is independent: you can allow OAI-SearchBot to appear in search results while disallowing GPTBot for training.
- **Does Perplexity respect robots.txt?**
- Perplexity says site owners manage PerplexityBot, its search crawler, with robots.txt, and recommends allowing it. Its Perplexity-User fetcher, which runs when a person asks about a specific page, "generally ignores robots.txt rules" because a user requested the fetch.
- **How long until ChatGPT sees my changes?**
- For crawler permissions, OpenAI says it can take about 24 hours from a robots.txt update. For new content, there is no published timeline.
- **Can I pay to be cited by ChatGPT or Perplexity?**
- Neither company documents a paid way into organic answers. Be wary of anyone who promises citations. What you can do is make your pages reachable, quotable and measurable.
## **Sources**
1. [OpenAI, Overview of OpenAI crawlers](https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/bots)
2. [Perplexity, Perplexity crawlers](https://docs.perplexity.ai/docs/resources/perplexity-crawlers)
3. [Anthropic, Does Anthropic crawl data from the web?](https://privacy.claude.com/en/articles/8896518-does-anthropic-crawl-data-from-the-web-and-how-can-site-owners-block-the-crawler)
4. [Google Search Central, Optimizing for generative AI search](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/ai-optimization-guide)
5. [Bing Webmaster blog, Introducing AI Performance in Bing Webmaster Tools](https://blogs.bing.com/webmaster/2026/2/Introducing-AI-Performance-in-Bing-Webmaster-Tools-Public-Preview/)
6. [Aggarwal et al., GEO: Generative Engine Optimization (arXiv 2311.09735)](https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.09735)
7. [OpenAI, Overview of OpenAI crawlers (current address)](https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/bots)
Tags
#get cited by chatgpt #perplexity citations #chatgpt search seo #oai-searchbot #perplexitybot #claude-searchbot #ai search visibility #saas seo #generative engine optimization
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## **Related Resources **
[GEO: The Complete Guide to Generative Engine Optimization (2026)](https://app369.com/blog/geo-generative-engine-optimization-guide-2026/) [AI Search Visibility Audit: What It Checks and Costs](https://app369.com/blog/ai-search-visibility-audit-what-it-checks-cost-2026/) [What is SaaS?](https://app369.com/glossary/what-is-saas/) [Agent Tool Optimization: How to Get Your App Picked in Google AI Mode, Gemini, ChatGPT and Claude](https://app369.com/blog/agent-tool-optimization-get-your-app-picked-2026/) [llms.txt: What It Does and Doesn't Do (2026)](https://app369.com/blog/llms-txt-what-it-does-2026/) [AEO vs GEO vs SEO: What Each One Changes (2026)](https://app369.com/blog/aeo-vs-geo-vs-seo-2026/)
## **Related guides **
[**AEO vs GEO vs SEO: What Each One Changes (2026)**
AEO vs GEO vs SEO in plain English: where the terms come from, what Google, OpenAI, Perplexity and Bing actually say, and what each changes on your site.**Read more **](https://app369.com/blog/aeo-vs-geo-vs-seo-2026/) [**llms.txt: What It Does and Doesn't Do (2026)**
llms.txt: what it is, who reads it, and what it won't do for rankings or AI citations, from Google, OpenAI, Anthropic and Perplexity docs. How to write one.** Read more **](https://app369.com/blog/llms-txt-what-it-does-2026/) [**GEO: The Complete Guide to Generative Engine Optimization (2026)**
Generative engine optimization (GEO) gets your content cited by AI search engines. Learn which methods the KDD 2024 GEO paper tested in this 2026 guide.** Read more **](https://app369.com/blog/geo-generative-engine-optimization-guide-2026/)