Each AI search product retrieves and cites differently. Treat this chapter as a snapshot as of October 2026 and check platform documentation before acting on any detail, because these products change monthly.
Google AI Overviews and AI Mode
Both draw on Google's search index. Google's public guidance is that there is no special optimisation for them beyond normal SEO: pages must be indexed and eligible for a snippet. AI Mode uses query fan-out heavily, so supporting pages across a topic matter. Search Console reports this traffic within normal web search data rather than separately.
ChatGPT search
ChatGPT retrieves live results when it searches, and OpenAI uses the OAI-SearchBot crawler for search. That is separate from GPTBot, which relates to model training. Blocking GPTBot does not remove you from ChatGPT search. Blocking OAI-SearchBot can. Clicks often arrive tagged with utm_source=chatgpt.com.
Perplexity
Perplexity shows citations prominently and tends to cite many sources per answer. It uses its own crawler, PerplexityBot. Fresh, specific, well-structured pages are cited often.
Microsoft Copilot
Copilot grounds answers in Bing. Being well indexed in Bing, with a verified Bing Webmaster Tools account, is the practical starting point.
Gemini
The Gemini app can ground answers in Google Search. The Google-Extended token controls whether your content is used to improve Gemini models. Google states it does not affect inclusion in Google Search.
The practical summary
- Be indexed well in both Google and Bing. Between them they underpin most AI answers.
- Know which crawler does what before you block anything.
- Test the same prompts on each platform. The cited sources will differ, and those differences tell you where to work.