Can AI read
your website?
ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Google's AI can only recommend businesses they can read. This checker runs 11 technical tests — AI crawler access, server-rendered content, structured data, llms.txt, and more — and shows exactly what to fix.
Invisible websites don't get recommended.
When someone asks ChatGPT or Perplexity who to hire, the assistant retrieves and reads websites in seconds — but unlike Google, most AI crawlers don't execute JavaScript, don't wait for slow pages, and respect robots.txt rules that security plugins sometimes add silently. A site that renders beautifully in your browser can be an empty page to GPTBot.
This checker tests the technical layer: can OpenAI's, Anthropic's, Perplexity's, and Google's crawlers access your site (robots.txt), is your content in the raw HTML (server-rendered), and is it structured so machines can parse it (headings, schema markup, meta data, llms.txt)? Every check comes with the specific fix.
What it deliberately doesn't test: whether AI actually recommends you. Readability is the prerequisite; recommendations depend on reviews, consistent business data, and third-party evidence — the things AI cross-references before naming a business. That's what the free AI visibility report measures, with receipts. Together they answer both halves: can AI read you, and what does it say?
Can ChatGPT read a URL you paste into a prompt?
Yes — modern ChatGPT can browse the web, so when you paste a URL into a prompt and ask it to summarize the web page, it fetches and reads it live (in the free and Plus tiers alike). If ChatGPT says it "cannot access external websites," that usually means one of three things: the site blocks OpenAI's crawlers in robots.txt, the page requires JavaScript or a login to show content, or the request timed out. In other words: the same readability problems this checker tests are the reasons ChatGPT fails to read a webpage on demand.
That makes the paste-a-URL trick a handy manual spot check — ask ChatGPT to summarize your own homepage and see what comes back. If the summary is empty or wrong, run the checker above to find out exactly which layer is failing, and get the specific fix.
Frequently asked questions
Can ChatGPT read my website?
Only if three things are true: your robots.txt doesn't block OpenAI's crawlers (GPTBot for training, OAI-SearchBot for ChatGPT search, ChatGPT-User for live browsing), your content exists in the raw HTML rather than requiring JavaScript, and your pages respond reliably. The checker above tests all three in about ten seconds.
Do AI crawlers execute JavaScript?
Mostly no. Google's indexing pipeline renders JavaScript; GPTBot, ClaudeBot, and PerplexityBot generally read the raw HTML response only. If your services, prices, and contact details appear only after scripts run, AI tools see a skeleton. Server-side rendering or pre-rendering fixes it.
Which AI crawlers should I allow in robots.txt?
For visibility: GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, ChatGPT-User, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, Google-Extended, and Bingbot. Blocking any of them removes you from the corresponding assistant's reading list. Blocking is a legitimate policy for publishers protecting content — for a local business that wants customers, it's usually self-sabotage.
My site passed every check. Why doesn't ChatGPT recommend me?
Because readable and recommendable are different bars. Assistants recommend businesses they can verify across multiple sources: reviews with quotable themes, consistent name/address/services everywhere, directory presence, mentions. Our guide to why ChatGPT doesn't recommend your business walks the six causes.
Is this checker really free?
Yes — no signup, no email, no stored data. We run the checks live against your public site and show everything. It's free because businesses that see their technical gaps clearly tend to want the next measurement: what AI actually says about them.