Can ChatGPT read my website?

Short answer: maybe. It depends on two things. Your robots.txt file must allow the AI crawler. Your server must also send the page to the crawler. This page shows four checks. You can do all of them yourself. You do not need to buy a tool.

Check 1. Read your robots.txt file

Open a browser. Go to yourdomain.com/robots.txt. The file is plain text. It lists crawler names and rules.

Look for these names: GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, ClaudeBot and PerplexityBot. Read the line under each name.

If you see Disallow: / under a name, that crawler must not read any page on your site. If you see no name for the crawler, look at the rules under User-agent: *. Those rules apply to all crawlers that have no rule of their own.

Check 2. Test the server

A robots.txt file is a request. A firewall is a lock. Some firewalls and security plugins reject AI crawlers even when robots.txt allows them. The site owner often does not know this.

Use the free crawler test on this site. Enter your address. The test sends a request as each major AI crawler and shows the answer your server gives. A normal page answer means the crawler can enter. An error answer means the server rejects it. If you see an error, ask your host or web developer to check the firewall and security plugin settings.

Check 3. Look at the page source

Some crawlers do not run JavaScript. They read only the HTML that the server sends first. Open your home page. Right click and choose View page source. Look for your main text, for example your business name and what you sell.

If the source shows your text, the crawler can read it. If the source shows only an empty page and script files, the crawler may see nothing. Ask your web developer how to send the text as HTML.

Check 4. Look for llms.txt

Go to yourdomain.com/llms.txt. This file is optional. It is a plain text summary of your business and your key pages. It gives AI tools a short map of your site. See our own llms.txt as an example. The FAQ has more about the file.

What the checks do not tell you

These checks show only whether a crawler can read your site. They do not show whether an AI tool will name your business in an answer. AI tools decide their own answers. We cannot promise a result, and you should not trust anyone who does.

What to do next

Fix any block that you find in Check 1 or Check 2. Then run the crawler test again to confirm. For the full list of steps, read How to get your business recommended by ChatGPT. To learn the basics first, read What is GEO.