What does ChatGPT say about your business? A free 10-minute test

In this article

1. Why should a business owner check what ChatGPT says about them?
2. What does ChatGPT say about my business, and where does it get that?
3. Which questions should you ask the AI assistants?
4. How do you score the answers?
5. What do the results mean?
6. How accurate is ChatGPT about small businesses?
7. Why do the answers change every time you ask?
8. How do you fix wrong details in ChatGPT’s answer?
9. What should you do if the AI doesn’t mention you?
10. Frequently asked questions

Why should a business owner check what ChatGPT says about them?

Because a growing share of customers ask AI assistants for recommendations before calling anyone. BrightLocal’s 2026 survey found AI tools like ChatGPT rising to third place as a source of local business recommendations. If an assistant names three competitors and not you, or lists an old phone number, you lose those customers without ever seeing them on your website.

Source: BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey 2026.

What does ChatGPT say about my business, and where does it get that?

ChatGPT answers from what it learned in training and, when web search is on, from live web results. For a small business that means your website, your Google and Bing listings, Yelp and review sites. When those sources disagree or are out of date, the answer can be incomplete or wrong, and it may name a competitor instead of you.

You can’t see this from your own site analytics, because the customer never visits. The only way to know is to ask the questions your customers ask and write down what comes back. The test below takes about ten minutes and costs nothing.

Which questions should you ask the AI assistants?

Ask the five questions a new customer would type, in their words, with your city: a “best” question, a price question, a specific-need question, a comparison question and your business name. Ask each one in ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google’s AI Mode, in a private or logged-out window so your own history doesn’t change the answer.

How do you score the answers?

For every answer, write down four things: whether your business is named, its position in the list, which websites the assistant cites as sources, and whether your details are correct. Two points if you’re named first, one if named later, zero if missing; minus one for wrong details. Twenty answers give you a score out of 40 you can repeat monthly.

What do the results mean?

The sources the assistant cites tell you where it reads about businesses like yours. If it cites Yelp, a directory or a competitor’s page and never your site, that is where you need to be listed or what your pages need to answer. Wrong details usually come from an old listing somewhere online, not from the assistant inventing them.

One more prompt is worth adding: after any answer, ask “Which sources did you use for that?” The list shows you which websites to fix first. Our AI visibility checker covers the technical side, such as whether AI crawlers can reach your site, so you don’t have to check that by hand.

How accurate is ChatGPT about small businesses?

One vendor study of 10,000 U.S. businesses reported that ChatGPT could identify 93% of them when asked by name, but described only 55% of those accurately, and 41% were not recommended for unbranded “who should I use” questions. It is the vendor’s own data, so treat it as a reason to check yours, not as a benchmark.

Source: Insites, “The 10 best ChatGPT prompts to check a local business’s AI visibility” (figures are the vendor’s own, reported in its blog post; we did not open the underlying report).

Why do the answers change every time you ask?

AI assistants rebuild each answer from fresh searches, so the same question can name different businesses an hour later. BrightLocal found only 20% to 33% overlap between identical AI searches in September 2026. That is why one screenshot proves nothing; asking the same questions every month and counting how often you appear shows the real trend.

Source: BrightLocal local AI visibility study (Sep 2026).

How do you fix wrong details in ChatGPT’s answer?

Fix them at the source, not in ChatGPT. Assistants repeat what pages and listings say, so make your name, address, phone number, hours and prices match exactly everywhere you appear. Then run the same questions again after a few weeks and compare your score. Start with the sources the assistant cited, since those are the ones it reads.

What should you do if the AI doesn’t mention you?

Start with what the assistants read: get your site indexed by Bing, claim matching listings on Bing Places, Apple Business Connect, Yelp and Google Business Profile, and make your key pages answer customers’ questions in the first two sentences. Then ask every customer for a review with text. Our guide to getting recommended by ChatGPT covers the seven steps in order, and GEO vs SEO explains how this differs from ranking on Google. If you would rather hand it off, our AI search service does this work monthly.

Frequently asked questions

These are the questions owners ask most after running the test. The short version: you can check for free, the answers vary from day to day, and the fix is to correct the sources an assistant reads rather than the assistant itself.

Can I just ask ChatGPT what it knows about my business?

Yes. Type “What do you know about [your business] in [your city]?” in a logged-out window, then ask which sources it used. Keep in mind it may confuse you with a similarly named business, so check the address and phone number it gives.

Do I need a paid tool to track this?

No. Five questions across four assistants is twenty answers, and a notepad or spreadsheet is enough. Paid trackers only save time once you want to repeat the test often or watch many locations.

How often should I repeat the test?

Monthly, with the same five questions, so the scores are comparable. Answers change from run to run, so look at the trend over several months, not one result.

If I rank well on Google, will ChatGPT name me?

Not automatically. Each assistant reads different sources, which is why the test checks several. A strong Google Business Profile helps, but also check Bing, Apple and Yelp.

Can I ask ChatGPT to change what it says about me?

Not in a way you can rely on. What works is changing what it reads: correct your listings, update your website, and collect reviews from real customers.