Cloudflare and OpenAI: making AI discovery better for everyone

Optimizing your site for AI is of little use if AI can't find it. The answer to someone's question may already be on your website: the installation guide you spent a week writing, or a first-hand account of using a product, with the details that make the difference for whether they buy it. As more people turn to AI for help, you want those systems to find your work, represent it accurately, and send interested people your way. You also want control over how they access your site.

Cloudflare and OpenAI launched a research pilot in July 2026 with those interests in mind. We wanted to find out whether signals from Cloudflare’s network could help ChatGPT users discover new content more efficiently.

Today, we’re sharing early results. So far, the answer is a resounding yes: the pilot has brought previously unknown pages into OpenAI’s search index, giving ChatGPT more sources to draw on to help people find relevant, timely information. Along the way, we’ve learned more about what makes a page worth discovering and how AI systems use the web.

Finding more of the web

The web is full of specifics. Someone fixing a washing machine needs the manual for their exact model. Someone applying for a passport needs the current requirements and fees. Someone choosing a local restaurant needs its latest menu and opening hours. Finding the right page can be the difference between a wrong answer and one that actually helps. These pages can be valuable even if few other sites link to them.