To check whether ChatGPT recommends your business, ask it the question a real buyer would — “who’s the best [your trade] in [your city]?” — in a logged-out or private window, repeat it across ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity, and note whether you’re named or a competitor is instead. That’s the free manual method, and it takes about ten minutes.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth behind why it matters: your customers are already asking ChatGPT who to hire — and you have probably never seen what it tells them. This guide shows you that honest manual method in detail first, then the 60-second shortcut.
The manual method (free, ~10 minutes)
Step 1: Ask like a buyer, not like an owner
Don’t type your business name. A buyer never does. Ask the questions a real customer asks:
- “Who’s the best [your trade] in [your city]?”
- “How much does [your main service] cost in [your city]?”
- “I need [your service] fast — who’s available in [your city]?”
- “Who’s a licensed and insured [your trade] in [your city]?”
Those four cover the big buying moments: choosing, pricing, urgency, and trust. Every trade has its own version of them — our industry pages list the exact ten questions buyers ask AI for each trade, from roofers to dentists.
Step 2: Use a logged-out or private window
AI tools personalize. If you’ve chatted about your own business before, the AI may flatter you with an answer no real buyer would get. Open a private/incognito window, or a logged-out session, so you see what a stranger sees.
Step 3: Check more than one engine
ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity each build answers differently, and buyers use all of them. Being named in one and invisible in the others is common — and it changes what you should fix. Ask the same questions in each.
Step 4: Write down who got named — especially if it wasn’t you
The names in the answer are your real competition for that question. Not the shop across town you’ve always watched — the businesses the AI trusts enough to recommend. Note who appears, how often, and for which questions.
Step 5: Repeat it monthly, not once
AI answers move as the engines re-read the web and your competitors publish. One check is a snapshot; a monthly check is a trend. Put a recurring reminder on the calendar — ten minutes, same questions, same engines.
The honest limits of the manual method
We’d rather tell you this up front. Asking AI by hand is a real test, but it has three blind spots:
- It’s a lottery ticket, not a report. Answers vary run to run, so one good (or bad) answer proves little. You need a spread of questions to see the pattern.
- It tells you what, not why. If you’re not named, the manual method can’t tell you whether the problem is that AI can’t read your site, can’t verify your facts, or can’t find proof it trusts.
- It’s easy to fool yourself. Owners naturally ask the questions they’d win and stop when they see their name once. Buyers aren’t that kind.
The 60-second version (free)
That’s exactly what we built the free AI Readiness Glimpse for. Drop in your web address and it reads your site the way AI systems do — crawlability, structure, whether your business facts are clear and consistent, whether there’s visible proof — and shows you where AI is likely getting stuck. No account, no card, about a minute.
When you want the full picture, the AI True Score Full Report ($79) runs 10 real buyer-intent questions across the ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, and Grok model families and checks 59 AI-visibility signals, then shows you the actual answers: whether your business was named, who was named instead, and the prioritized fixes. It’s the difference between guessing from a few chats and holding the evidence. And it comes with 90 days of watching — we re-run the whole report every week and email you what moved — so you can fix things and watch the number respond. A baseline, not a one-off snapshot.
We work with businesses in all 50 states — local, regional, or multi-location. See our service area.
What to do with what you find
- You’re named consistently: congratulations — now protect it. Keep your facts consistent and your proof visible, and keep checking monthly, because competitors are working on this too. Our playbook for getting recommended by ChatGPT covers the habits that keep you there.
- You’re named sometimes: you’re on the radar but not trusted enough to be the default. Small clarity fixes usually move this the most.
- You’re not named at all: this is more common than you’d think, and it’s usually fixable — the gap is almost always in your signals, not your work. Start with why your business isn’t in AI answers, then run the free scan to see your specific gaps.
If your check sends you looking for help, compare your options honestly before you spend: our roundup of the best AI visibility tools lays out real prices, and we break down AI True Score head-to-head against Otterly, the Semrush AI Toolkit, HubSpot’s grader, and hiring an agency.
One honest note to close: nobody can guarantee an AI will recommend you, and you should walk away from anyone who promises it. What you can do is measure where you stand and remove every reason AI has to name someone else. Checking is the first step — and now you know two ways to do it.
Keep reading: Get Recommended by ChatGPT: The Local Service Business Playbook · What is AEO? · GEO explained · Why isn’t my business in AI answers?