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AI shopping assistants, compared
Which assistants can shop, where the shopper pays, and the exact crawler names to allow so your products can be read and cited.
Short answer
To be read and cited by AI assistants, allow each company’s search crawler: OAI-SearchBot for ChatGPT, Googlebot for AI Overviews and AI Mode, PerplexityBot, Bingbot for Copilot, Amzn-SearchBot for Alexa, Meta-WebIndexer, Claude-SearchBot and Applebot. Training crawlers are separate settings.
- OpenAI3
- Google3
- Perplexity2
- Microsoft1
- Amazon3
- Meta3
- Walmartnone named0
- Anthropic3
- Apple2
Search and answers Training Fetches when a user asks
Where the shopper checks out
- Inside the assistant Google, Perplexity, Microsoft
- On the merchant or retailer site OpenAI, Meta
- On the retailer’s own store Amazon, Walmart
- Not in our sources Anthropic, Apple
The comparison table
Sort by a column heading, or filter by where checkout happens. Every row lists its sources.
Showing 9 of 9 assistants.
| Shopping inside it | How to stay visible | Sources | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenAIChatGPT | Product discovery with merchant catalogs; buyers go to the merchant's checkout. Virtual try-on and Favorites added Oct 2026. | Merchant site |
| Allow OAI-SearchBot. Opting out of it removes you from ChatGPT search answers (navigational links can still appear). Catalogs: Shopify connects automatically; others apply at chatgpt.com/merchants. | |
| GoogleGoogle AI Mode, AI Overviews and Gemini | Universal Cart (US, Oct 2026): one cart across Search, AI Mode and Gemini with price alerts and Google Pay checkout. AI Mode shopping ads now show promotions. | In the assistant |
| Allow Googlebot (it covers all Google Search features). Google-Extended controls Gemini training and grounding, and Google says it does not affect Search inclusion or ranking. Keep the Merchant Center feed clean. | |
| PerplexityPerplexity | Free US shopping experience with product cards and Instant Buy checkout through PayPal (launched Nov 25, 2025); the merchant stays merchant of record. | In the assistant |
| Allow PerplexityBot and its published IP ranges. Perplexity says PerplexityBot is not used to crawl content for AI foundation models. | |
| MicrosoftMicrosoft Copilot | Copilot Checkout (US, Jan 8, 2026): buy inside Copilot with PayPal, Stripe or Shopify; the merchant stays merchant of record. Shopify merchants are enrolled automatically after an opt-out window. | In the assistant |
| Allow Bingbot and verify in Bing Webmaster Tools. Bing's crawler page lists no separate Copilot crawler. Checkout needs a Microsoft Merchant Center account and a compliant feed. | |
| AmazonAlexa for Shopping | Replaced Rufus in May 2026; questions go straight into Amazon's main search bar. Amazon blocks outside shopping agents such as Meta's Muse. | On Amazon |
| On Amazon: complete attributes and fact-based bullets. On the open web: allow Amzn-SearchBot, which makes content eligible for search experiences such as Alexa. Amazonbot may be used to train Amazon AI models. | |
| MetaMeta AI and the Muse agent | Meta says about 25% of Muse users use it to shop, with an average purchase around $200 (Oct 2026). Muse shops on retailer sites that let it in. | Retailer sites |
| Allow Meta-WebIndexer to be cited and linked in Meta AI answers. Meta-ExternalAgent covers training and indexing. Meta-ExternalFetcher fetches at a user's request and may bypass robots.txt. | |
| WalmartSparky and the Agent Gateway | Agent Gateway (Oct 2026) gives assistants like ChatGPT and Gemini a sanctioned way to shop Walmart, with shopper-set limits through Agent Profiles. | On Walmart |
| Your Walmart listing content is what agents read. Our sources name no Walmart web crawler. | |
| AnthropicClaude | Not in our sources. | Not in our sources |
| Allow Claude-SearchBot and Claude-User; Anthropic says disabling them may reduce your visibility in search results and user-directed web search. ClaudeBot covers training. | |
| AppleSiri, Spotlight and Apple Intelligence | Not in our sources. | Not in our sources |
| Allow Applebot to appear in Spotlight, Siri and Safari. Applebot-Extended does not crawl; it only controls training use, and Apple says it is not considered in Search ranking. |
No assistants match those filters.
Crawler names come from each company's own crawler documentation. Shopping features come from the company's announcement or from news items in our log. 'Not in our sources' means we found nothing we could cite, not that the feature doesn't exist. Also as JSON.
A robots.txt block you can copy
Allows every search and user-triggered crawler named above. Training crawlers are left to your existing rules.
# Let AI search and assistant crawlers read your site
User-agent: OAI-SearchBot
Allow: /
User-agent: ChatGPT-User
Allow: /
User-agent: Googlebot
Allow: /
User-agent: Storebot-Google
Allow: /
User-agent: PerplexityBot
Allow: /
User-agent: Perplexity-User
Allow: /
User-agent: Bingbot
Allow: /
User-agent: Amzn-SearchBot
Allow: /
User-agent: Amzn-User
Allow: /
User-agent: Meta-WebIndexer
Allow: /
User-agent: Meta-ExternalFetcher
Allow: /
User-agent: Claude-SearchBot
Allow: /
User-agent: Claude-User
Allow: /
User-agent: Applebot
Allow: /Related tips: Are AI crawlers allowed to read your site? · How do you check whether AI crawlers visit your site? · Should you let AI shopping agents buy from your store?
Questions brands ask
Which crawler should a CPG brand allow to show up in ChatGPT?
OAI-SearchBot. OpenAI says sites that opt out of OAI-SearchBot are not shown in ChatGPT search answers, though they can still appear as navigational links. GPTBot is a separate setting that controls training, and OpenAI says changes take about 24 hours to apply.
Does blocking Google-Extended hurt Google Search rankings?
No. Google says Google-Extended does not affect a site’s inclusion in Google Search and is not used as a ranking signal. It controls whether your content is used for Gemini training and grounding. AI Overviews and AI Mode are part of Google Search, which Googlebot crawls for.
Which AI assistants let shoppers check out without leaving the chat?
In our sources: Google (Universal Cart with Google Pay, in the US), Perplexity (Instant Buy through PayPal) and Microsoft Copilot (Copilot Checkout with PayPal, Stripe or Shopify). In ChatGPT, shoppers finish on the merchant’s own checkout. Amazon and Walmart keep checkout on their own stores.
Do user-triggered AI fetchers follow robots.txt?
Not always. OpenAI says robots.txt rules may not apply to ChatGPT-User because a person asked for the page. Perplexity says Perplexity-User generally ignores robots.txt, Amazon says Amzn-User may not follow all robots.txt rules, and Meta says Meta-ExternalFetcher may bypass robots.txt.
Should a small brand block AI training crawlers?
That is your call. OpenAI, Google and Apple each document training tokens (GPTBot, Google-Extended, Applebot-Extended) separately from the tokens their search and answer features use, so blocking training does not by their own account remove you from those features. Most CPG brands want assistants to describe their products accurately, and this site allows all of them.