How to Check If ChatGPT Cites Your Website
We rank citation checks: SearchBot access, a stored prompt with source URL, then referrals. Mention tools sit below citation logs.
Citation check, ranked. If the tool cannot show the URL ChatGPT used, it is a mention toy. Google Search Console is out of this ranking. Wrong surface. Overviews are Google. ChatGPT Search is OpenAI.
Cited means the answer pointed at a URL you control. Named without a link is a mention. Traffic from utm_source=chatgpt.com is a referral. People mash all three into "does ChatGPT cite us?" and then screenshot a chat they ran once.
Access
Allow OAI-SearchBot. The Publishers and Developers FAQ is the snippet and referral page. Robots.txt changes can take about 24 hours. Check logs against published IPs. A 403 on that URL means you are checking a firewall, not citations.
GPTBot is training. Independent. Do not fail a citation audit because legal blocked training and accidentally blocked Search.
ChatGPT-User hits can appear when someone (or the model on their behalf) opens a page. That is not your Search index proof. SearchBot is. OpenAI also notes robots.txt may not apply to User because a user asked.
If a disallowed URL still shows as title plus link in Atlas after a third-party pickup, that is not a citation you earned. The FAQ's noindex path still requires the crawler to read the tag.
The answer object
You need the prompt, the engine, the date, and the cited host. Run ChatGPT Search, not only the logged-in chat that never browses. Include "Brand vs Brand." Note: named / cited to you / cited to a third party / absent. One session is noise. Answers move. That is why a tracker exists.
We rank Promptwatch first in the directory for that object plus chatgpt.com referrals. Explore has 10 ChatGPT prompts for free, enough to see a hole. Essential is $95/mo for a working list, while Professional or an agency plan adds crawler logs. Citation analytics to page, Reddit, YouTube. Trends beat a Tuesday screenshot. Paid checks are daily.
Otterly.AI from $29/mo counts mentions. Possible week lag. Fine. Not the same as page-level citation analytics on our listing. Profound Starter $99/mo annual is ChatGPT-only with 50 prompts. Peec AI last: screenshots, three models on Starter, extra models billed.
HubSpot AI Search Grader: free snapshot, three engines, scores not guaranteed. Not a citation ledger.
Referrals
OpenAI says publishers who allow SearchBot can track utm_source=chatgpt.com. Put that in GA4 or Promptwatch visitor analytics (script or GTM). A session without a stored citation can still happen. A citation without a session can still happen. Rank traffic next to the log. Never as a replacement. Do not average them into an "AI score."
Fail states we score
Blocked SearchBot. One incognito chat. Treating an Overview impression as a ChatGPT cite. Invented real-time alerts (Promptwatch paid checks are daily). Fetch, mention, no URL: you are a name in a roundup. Fetch, Reddit cited: offsite ticket. Fetch, your old /blog/2019 cited: fix that URL, do not publish a fourth clone.
Content Agents only after the citation miss is a missing claim on a crawlable page. Webflow or Framer, review inbox. 5 articles on Essential. WordPress publishing is not live.
Pass: two weeks of the same prompts, cited URL column, fetch evidence when the cite is missing. That is the check. Product: promptwatch.com.