Since the launch of GPT-5 in August 2025, OpenAI’s web crawling activity has sharply increased, with data indicating a shift towards live retrieval for fast-moving search queries, although overall crawl volume remains modest compared to Google.
OpenAI’s web crawling activity has risen sharply since GPT-5 arrived in August 2025, according to an analysis by Botify and guest author Chris Long, with the company’s search-related bot now appearing more active than its training crawler in the firm’s enterprise log data. The shift suggests that OpenAI is leaning more heavily on live retrieval for some prompts, even as its overall crawl footprint still trails the biggest search engines by a wide margin.
Long, who co-founded the SEO consultancy Nectiv, examined about 7 billion OpenAI-bot log events drawn from Botify’s enterprise customer base between November 2024 and March 2026. In that dataset, OAI-SearchBot, which is used when ChatGPT searches the web, increased to roughly 3.5 times its previous level after August 2025, while GPTBot, OpenAI’s training crawler, rose by about 2.9 times. Botify says that before GPT-5 the two crawlers were running at near parity, but after the launch search activity moved ahead.
The strongest growth was concentrated in sectors where users are more likely to want current information. Healthcare sites recorded about 740% more OAI-SearchBot activity after the launch, while media and publishing saw a 702% increase. Marketplaces, software and retail also posted substantial gains, while travel showed a much smaller rise. Long and Botify say the pattern points to a split in how prompts are handled, with news and other fast-moving queries more likely to trigger live search, and health or product queries often drawing more on trained knowledge.
The dataset also showed a decline in ChatGPT-User log events, which fell 28% between December 2025 and March 2026. Because that user agent is triggered when ChatGPT fetches a page on behalf of a user, the drop may indicate fewer real-time page requests, though Botify’s team also suggested OpenAI could be relying more on stored or indexed material instead. Long did not choose between those explanations.
Even with the post-GPT-5 surge, OpenAI’s crawl volume remains far below Google’s. In Botify’s latest 30-day window, Googlebot accounted for 18.2 billion events, compared with 887 million from OpenAI’s crawlers combined, or about 4% of Google’s volume. A year earlier, OpenAI’s share was closer to 1.38%, which indicates the gap is narrowing, albeit from a very low base. Bingbot still logged far more traffic than OpenAI as well.
The findings fit with other recent reports suggesting that AI search crawling and AI training crawling are diverging. Earlier analyses from Alli AI, Hostinger and Akamai pointed to different patterns in how OpenAI’s bots are behaving across the web, while CNBC reported in August 2025 that GPT-5’s release boosted enterprise use cases and helped accelerate adoption in developer tools. Taken together, the reports suggest website owners may need to treat search-oriented AI crawlers as a distinct class of visitor rather than assuming that blocking training bots alone is enough.
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Source: Noah Wire Services
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The draft above was created using the information available at the time the story first
emerged. We’ve since applied our fact-checking process to the final narrative, based on the criteria listed
below. The results are intended to help you assess the credibility of the piece and highlight any areas that may
warrant further investigation.
Freshness check
Score:
10
Notes:
The article was published today, ensuring high freshness. The analysis is based on data from November 2024 to March 2026, with a focus on the period after GPT-5’s release in August 2025, indicating timely and original reporting.
Quotes check
Score:
10
Notes:
The article does not contain direct quotes, relying instead on data analysis and expert interpretation, which is appropriate for this type of reporting.
Source reliability
Score:
8
Notes:
The article is published by Search Engine Journal, a reputable source in the SEO and digital marketing industry. The analysis is based on data from Botify, an enterprise SEO and crawl intelligence platform, and insights from Chris Long, co-founder of Nectiv. While these sources are credible within their niche, they may not be as widely recognized as major news organizations.
Plausibility check
Score:
9
Notes:
The findings align with industry trends, such as increased AI bot web traffic and changes in user engagement patterns. However, the article’s reliance on data from a specific enterprise client dataset may not fully represent the broader web landscape, potentially limiting the generalizability of the conclusions.
Overall assessment
Verdict (FAIL, OPEN, PASS): PASS
Confidence (LOW, MEDIUM, HIGH): MEDIUM
Summary:
The article provides a timely and original analysis of OpenAI’s increased web crawling activity post-GPT-5 release, supported by data from Botify and insights from Chris Long. While the sources are credible within their niche, their potential biases and the limited scope of the dataset used may affect the generalizability of the findings. The absence of direct quotes and reliance on data analysis enhances the article’s objectivity. Given these considerations, the content passes the fact-check with medium confidence.
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