How ChatGPT reads your content and sees the web

ChatGPT does not browse your content top to bottom. Instead, it reads small sequential chunks using a sliding window.

Most people think ChatGPT loads websites the same way a browser do. Open a page, see everything, scroll through the content. That is not what happens. Dan Petrovic shared his research into how ChatGPT actually processes web content, and the mechanics are surprisingly constrained.

When you ask ChatGPT a question that requires current information, it triggers a four-phase process. It searches the web, analyzes results, reads content in chunks, and then generates an answer. Each phase has limitations that affect whether your content gets seen.

Phase 1: The Search Trigger

Everything starts when a user submits a query. Imagine someone asks ChatGPT "What is the best credit card if I have a low credit rating and want to earn points towards international flights?"

ChatGPT does not immediately visit websites. First, it processes the question and generates what is called a fan-out query. This is an optimized version of the user's question designed for a search engine.

Then ChatGPT triggers a web search using Bing. It does not go directly to any URL. It searches the broad internet to find relevant sources, just like you would type a question into Google.

Phase 2: Analyzing Search Results

The search engine returns a list of results. Think of this as the familiar list of blue links you see when you search Google.

The model scans the metadata of each result to decide which ones are worth reading. At this stage, it sees five pieces of information for each result.

What ChatGPT Sees	Example
Unique ID	An internal reference to retrieve more data
Title	The page headline from search results
URL	The full web address
Snippet	A brief preview, typically a few sentences
Updated at	When the page was last modified

This is the critical part. At this stage, ChatGPT has no access to the actual article. No body text, no formatting code, no menus or sidebars. Just these five metadata fields from search results.

Your page title and meta description determine whether ChatGPT decides to read further. If your metadata does not clearly signal relevance to the query, ChatGPT may skip your page entirely.

Phase 3: The Sliding Window

Once ChatGPT identifies a relevant result based on the metadata, it triggers a read command using the unique ID. But it does not inhale the entire webpage instantly. It uses something called a sliding window to read through content in chunks.

How the sliding window works

ChatGPT reads specific lines of text at a time. It might start at line 0, then jump to line 30, then line 50, then line 80. Each read operation returns a fixed window of text.

The model strips away all visual design. It reads only plain text content. Headers, paragraphs, lists. No images, no CSS, no JavaScript interactions.

As ChatGPT identifies relevant sections, it adds these specific slices to its memory context. If your page has a section called "Best for Airport Lounge Access" or "Best for Cabin Upgrades" that matches the query, those chunks get pulled into context.

What the sliding window cannot do

Despite multiple read operations, ChatGPT cannot reconstruct or reproduce entire pages. Two hard limits prevent this.

• Retrieval limits. The system caps how much text any single read request can return. A 5,000 word article might only yield 200 words per chunk, no matter how many times ChatGPT requests more.
• Output limits. ChatGPT cannot reproduce large blocks of text from what it has read. Even after scanning multiple sections of your page, it can only summarize and paraphrase what it found.

ChatGPT builds understanding from disconnected fragments of your page. It never holds the whole picture at once. The information in your first few paragraphs matters most because that is what the early windows capture.

Context size settings

Developers building with the Assistants API can choose how large each window should be. ChatGPT itself cannot choose this setting.

Setting	What It Does
Low	Returns narrow chunks with minimal surrounding text
Medium	Returns broader chunks with more context per request
High	Returns the widest possible chunks per read request

Higher context settings mean ChatGPT can see more of your page in each read operation. But even the largest setting has hard limits that prevent reading entire pages.

Phase 4: Synthesis and Response

After gathering content chunks, ChatGPT assembles its final answer. The model combines three inputs.

1. The user prompt. The original question about credit cards and flights
2. Web context. The specific text slices extracted during the sliding window phase
3. Pre-training data. The model's internal base knowledge from training

The large language model synthesizes facts from the sliding window phase to answer the question directly. It might mention specific cards like "Barclaycard Avios" or "Amex Gold" because those terms appeared in the text chunks it read.

What This Means For Your Content

Knowing how ChatGPT reads your pages changes how you should structure content is essential for understanding AI search visibility.

Front-load your key information

ChatGPT may only see the first few hundred words of your page. Put your most important points at the top. Do not bury critical information below long introductions.

Write clear metadata

Your page title and meta description determine whether ChatGPT decides to read your content at all. Make them specific and relevant to the queries you want to rank for.

Use descriptive headings

ChatGPT reads plain text without visual styling. Clear headings like "Best Credit Card for Low Credit Scores" help the model understand your content structure better than generic headings like "Our Recommendations."

Answer questions directly

The sliding window captures text in chunks. If your page clearly answers a question in the first few paragraphs, ChatGPT is more likely to extract and cite that answer.

If you are optimizing for AI search, these structural choices matter. ChatGPT does not read your page the way a human visitor does. It reads chunks, and your job is to make those chunks count.