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To check if your business shows up on ChatGPT, ask it the questions your customers ask, such as “best plumber in Tampa” or “emergency AC repair near Mesa”, and see whether your business is named. Do it in a logged-out or private session, ask several questions, and repeat on different days, because answers change. Or run our free check, which asks real customer questions for you.
That’s the short answer. The rest of this guide explains how to run the test properly, why a single question can mislead you, how to read what you find, and what to fix if ChatGPT doesn’t mention you.
Want the quick version? Check your AI visibility free. Enter your business name, city and category, and we’ll ask ChatGPT (live web search) and Gemini (AI knowledge, no live search) real customer questions and show you who they recommend.
Why it matters whether ChatGPT mentions you
People use ChatGPT for the same jobs they used to type into Google: finding a dentist, comparing roofers, picking a lawn service. When ChatGPT answers with live web search, it reads pages it finds online and usually names a handful of businesses, often with links to its sources.
Being one of those names is a lot like being in the Google map pack: the businesses that appear get considered, and the rest may not. Nobody outside OpenAI knows exactly how ChatGPT picks which businesses to name, and nobody can promise you a mention. What you can do is find out where you stand today and make your business easier for AI tools to find and understand.
How to check manually in about 2 minutes
You don’t need a paid tool to get a first read. Here’s the manual method.
1. Use a clean session
Open ChatGPT in a private or incognito window, logged out if you can. If you test while logged in to your own account, past chats and memory may influence the answer, and you might see your business simply because you’ve talked about it before.
2. Make sure web search is on
ChatGPT can answer from its training data or by searching the web. For local questions it usually searches on its own, and you’ll see sources or links in the answer. If it doesn’t, ask it to search the web. Recommendations based on a live search are closer to what a new customer sees today.
3. Ask the questions customers actually ask
Write 5 questions the way a customer would, not the way you describe yourself. Mix them up:
- “Best [service] in [city]”
- “[Service] near [neighborhood] with good reviews”
- “Who should I call for [specific job] in [city]?”
- “Affordable [service] in [city] open on weekends”
- “[Service] company in [city] that does [specialty]”
Avoid using your business name in the question. If you ask “Is Acme Plumbing good?”, ChatGPT will talk about you, but that doesn’t tell you whether it recommends you to someone who has never heard of you.
4. Record what you see
For each question, note:
- whether your business was named (yes/no)
- its position in the list (1st, 3rd, not listed)
- which other businesses were named
- which sources ChatGPT linked to (your website, Google, Yelp, a local directory, a news article)
5. Repeat on another day
AI answers aren’t fixed. The same question can give a different list tomorrow. One test is a snapshot, not a ranking, so repeat a few times before drawing conclusions.
Why a single manual check can mislead you
Manual checks are useful, but they have limits worth knowing:
- Answers vary. ChatGPT doesn’t return a fixed list. Wording, timing and location can all change who’s named.
- Your own account skews results. Memory and chat history can make your business look more visible than it is to strangers.
- One question isn’t enough. You might appear for “best dentist in Austin” and not for “dentist near me open Saturday”, which is the question your next patient may ask.
- It’s easy to stop at “yes”. Being named 5th of 5 is very different from being named 1st, and the competitors named above you matter.
That’s why we built a checker that asks a fixed set of customer-style questions through the official APIs and records the results the same way every time.
How the free AI Visibility Checker works
Our free AI visibility checker does the manual test for you, consistently:
- You enter your business: name, city and category, or paste your Google Business Profile or website link.
- We ask real customer questions. ChatGPT answers with live web search. Gemini answers as Gemini (AI knowledge, no live search), meaning it answers from what the model already knows rather than searching the web.
- You see the results: whether each assistant mentioned you, your position, the competitors it named instead, and the gaps we found.
We only show what the assistants actually said in your scan. If they named competitors, those names come straight from the answers, not from a list we made up. Free public checks are limited each day, and if they’re used up you can leave your email and we’ll send the report once checks reset.
Run it now: Check whether ChatGPT and Gemini mention your business. It’s free and takes about a minute.
How to read your results
ChatGPT mentioned you
Good. Look at your position and which sources were cited. If ChatGPT linked to your website or a profile you control, that’s working for you. If it named you but placed you below competitors, compare what they have that you don’t: more reviews, a clearer website, mentions on local sites.
ChatGPT didn’t mention you, but Gemini did (or the other way round)
The two work differently. ChatGPT with live web search relies on what it finds online right now. Gemini (AI knowledge, no live search) relies on what the model learned before its training cut-off. A mismatch often means your business is fairly new online, or that recent changes haven’t spread across the web yet.
Neither mentioned you
That’s common, especially for newer or smaller businesses, and it’s fixable. It usually comes down to how clearly the web describes your business. We cover the most common causes in our guide to why a business isn’t showing up on ChatGPT.
What to fix if ChatGPT doesn’t mention you
You can’t make ChatGPT recommend you. But you can make your business easy to find, understand and trust:
- Make your website clear about who you are. Name, services, the areas you serve and contact details in plain text, not just inside images. Site Fix runs a free website check and flags what’s missing.
- Add structured data. LocalBusiness schema and FAQ markup tell machines exactly what you do and where. Google’s LocalBusiness structured data guide lists the fields that matter.
- Answer real questions on your site. A short FAQ written in your customers’ words gives AI tools something quotable.
- Keep your Google Business Profile complete and active. Many sources AI tools read pull from it, and Google’s own tips to improve your local ranking start with complete, accurate information. Keyword Boost checks where you rank on Google Maps for free.
- Earn and reply to reviews. Reviews on Google and other sites are a public signal of trust. Review Booster gives you a free review scan.
- Get your name, address and phone consistent everywhere. Mismatched listings make it harder to confirm you’re one business.
- Let AI crawlers in. Check that your site doesn’t block OpenAI’s search crawler (OAI-SearchBot) in robots.txt or at your host. OpenAI’s overview of its crawlers explains what each one does.
If you’d rather have this done for you, our AI Visibility Fix is a one-time $79 setup of schema, FAQs and an llms.txt file on your website, in 48 hours. It doesn’t guarantee a mention (nobody can), but it removes the most common technical gaps.
How often should you check?
AI answers change, so treat AI visibility like rankings: something to watch, not check once. A sensible rhythm for most local businesses:
- Now: run a baseline check so you know where you stand.
- After changes: re-check 2 to 4 weeks after you update your website, schema or profile, since it takes time for changes to be crawled.
- Monthly: a quick check of your main 3 to 5 customer questions.
Check where you stand today. Run the free AI visibility check and see whether ChatGPT and Gemini mention your business, who they name instead and what to fix. We’ve helped 350+ clients since 2017 get found online.