How each AI enginecites sources.
Per-engine guides: how each one retrieves, which signals it weights, what user-agents to allow in robots.txt, and how to optimize for it specifically.
ChatGPT Search
OpenAIOpenAI's web-retrieval-enabled chat surface — the largest AEO target by user volume.
GPTBotOAI-SearchBotChatGPT-UserClaude (with web tool)
AnthropicAnthropic's frontier model with web_search_20250604 tool — values structural depth + provenance.
ClaudeBotClaude-Webanthropic-aiPerplexity
Perplexity AIPure RAG answer engine — every response is grounded in cited sources.
PerplexityBotPerplexity-UserGoogle AI Overview
GoogleGoogle's generated answer block above SERPs — the single highest-volume AEO surface.
GooglebotGoogle-Extended (for training data only)Google AI Mode
GoogleGoogle's full-page conversational answer surface — deeper sub-query fanout than AI Overview.
GooglebotGoogle-ExtendedGemini (Google)
GoogleGoogle's frontier model with web search — distinct from AI Overview's SERP integration.
GooglebotGoogle-ExtendedGoogleOtherMicrosoft Copilot (with Bing)
MicrosoftMicrosoft's chat surface using Bing's index — the third-largest answer engine.
BingbotMSNBotYou.com
You.comIndependent answer engine with strong dev-tool integration and multi-model support.
YouBotGenius (for code-search agent)