ChatGPT search queries shift between identical prompts
Running identical, hash-verified ChatGPT prompts over several weeks, Seer Interactive SEO associate Hoa Cong found two runs made eight minutes apart on Sept. 17 shared zero matching search query strings. Between Sept. 3 and Sept. 16, the same prompt’s underlying pipe-language query data dropped from four lines to zero while the number of unique URLs it retrieved rose from 14 to 40, per Seer Interactive.
Why it matters: SISTRIX already showed ChatGPT rotates 74% of its cited sources every week; this finds the same instability one layer down, in the search queries and retrieved data behind a single prompt, on a timescale of minutes rather than weeks.
The record: ChatGPT
Glossary: SEO
Posted to the wire October 22, 2026. Edited by Joe Balewski.