OpenAIAI FeatureConfirmedHigh impact
ChatGPT search opened to all free users
OpenAI made web search available to all logged-in ChatGPT users at no cost, greatly expanding the audience for AI-cited content.
What changed
Six weeks after launching search for paying subscribers, OpenAI extended it to all logged-in free users, taking the potential audience for cited web content from millions to hundreds of millions. It made citation in ChatGPT answers a materially significant visibility channel for publishers. Access controls remained governed by the OAI-SearchBot user agent in robots.txt.
Timing
Rollout began 16 December 2024. No completion date was announced. Rankings typically remain unstable for the whole rollout window, so measurements taken inside it are not a reliable read on the outcome.