We asked ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google the same 10 questions, twice each, then compared what they recommended and where the information came from. Six questions were about local businesses in Greenville, NC. Four were national B2B and software questions.
The short answer
AI recommendations are inconsistent, especially for local businesses: asking the same local question twice often produced a different list, and different AI tools frequently disagreed. When they cited sources, businesses' own websites made up about half of local citations, followed by review sites and directories. For national B2B questions, AI tools leaned heavily on "best of" lists, including lists published by the agencies they then recommended.
LG
Written by Latisha Gray, founder of Growth Rankers. Former Head of SEO at State Affairs, with SEO roles at CNN and Vox Media. Last updated
Key findings
Local answers changed from one ask to the next. Run-to-run overlap on local questions averaged 34% (Gemini), 53% (ChatGPT), 62% (Google AI Overviews) and 78% (Perplexity).
National answers were steadier for most tools: 87% overlap for ChatGPT and 90% for Perplexity.
AI tools disagreed with each other more on local questions (40–65% pairwise overlap) than national ones (55–86%).
AI picks matched Google Maps only about half the time. The AI answers included 7 to 9 of the 15 businesses in Google's top-three map results across five categories.
Business websites were the largest single source of local citations, about 55%, ahead of Yelp, Angi, Healthgrades and other directories.
Not every AI tool searches the web. ChatGPT searched in all 19 completed answers and Perplexity in all 20; Gemini cited a web search in just 1 of 20.
Google showed an AI Overview for all 20 of these "best" and "recommend" searches.
How we ran the test
On October 7, 2026, we asked 10 questions on four platforms, two separate times each, in a new chat or search every time: 79 AI answers with recommendations, plus 20 Google results pages.
Platform
Setup
ChatGPT
Logged out (no personalization), default settings
Gemini
Signed in, default model
Perplexity
Signed in, standard Search mode
Google
Standard search; AI Overview, top three map results and top three organic results recorded
Local questions: the best dentist, HVAC company, CPA for a small business, personal injury lawyer, plumber, and restaurant for a business dinner in Greenville, NC. National questions: the best SEO agencies for SaaS companies, accounting software for a small business, CRM for a small B2B company, and generative engine optimization (GEO) agencies.
"Overlap" compares the businesses named in two answers after normalizing names. It's an approximate measure, explained in the limitations below. Download the full dataset (CSV).
Finding 1: Ask twice, get a different answer
The same question, asked minutes apart in a fresh chat, often produced a different list of businesses. This was most pronounced for local questions.
Platform
Local: avg. overlap between runs
National: avg. overlap between runs
Perplexity
78% (4 of 6 identical)
90% (3 of 4 identical)
Google AI Overviews
62% (2 of 6 identical)
60% (1 of 4 identical)
ChatGPT
53% (0 of 6 identical)*
87% (1 of 4 identical)
Gemini
34% (0 of 6 identical)
48% (0 of 4 identical)
*One ChatGPT plumber answer returned an introduction but no recommendations, which lowers its local average.
What it means: a single check of "what does ChatGPT say about us?" isn't reliable. AI visibility has to be measured as a share of appearances across many questions and repeated runs, which matches earlier research from SparkToro on how rarely AI tools return the same list twice.
Finding 2: AI tools often disagree with each other, and with Google Maps
On local questions, any two AI tools shared an average of 40% to 65% of their recommendations. On national questions, agreement was higher: 55% to 86%.
We also compared AI answers to the top three businesses in Google's map results for five local categories (the restaurant search didn't show a map pack):
Category
ChatGPT
Gemini
Perplexity
Google AI Overview
Dentist
1 of 3
1 of 3
1 of 3
3 of 3
HVAC
2 of 3
1 of 3
2 of 3
0 of 3
CPA
2 of 3
0 of 3
0 of 3
0 of 3
Personal injury lawyer
3 of 3
3 of 3
3 of 3
3 of 3
Plumber
1 of 3
2 of 3
1 of 3
2 of 3
What it means: ranking in the map pack doesn't guarantee AI recommendations, and vice versa. Even Google's own AI Overview named none of its map pack's top three for HVAC and CPA searches. Local businesses need to be strong in both places.
Finding 3: For local businesses, your website is the biggest source
We categorized the 163 sources that Perplexity and Google AI Overviews cited for local questions:
About 55% were businesses' own websites, such as dental practice, law firm, HVAC and CPA firm sites.
About 45% were directories, review sites and community sites. Yelp was the most-cited single domain (19 citations), followed by sites including Angi, Healthgrades, Super Lawyers, Justia, Thumbtack, OpenTable and the Greenville-Pitt Chamber of Commerce's business directory.
ChatGPT's citations showed a similar mix, including Birdeye, Expertise.com and individual business websites.
What it means: the most practical lever is your own website. Clear service pages, accurate business details and real expertise give AI tools something to cite. Then make sure you're accurately listed on the directories and review sites in your industry.
Finding 4: For B2B, AI leans on "best of" lists, often written by the vendors themselves
For "best SEO agencies for SaaS" and "best GEO agencies," the sources Perplexity and Google cited were mostly listicles published by marketing agencies. Several agencies that published lists were also among the most-recommended: for the GEO question, Go Fish Digital (gofishdigital.com was the most-cited domain) appeared in 7 of 8 answers, and Onely and Omniscient Digital, whose sites were also cited, each appeared in 4.
For software questions (accounting software and CRM), citations came from a broader mix: review publishers such as PCMag and NerdWallet, vendor websites, and Reddit.
What it means: for B2B companies, being included in credible comparison content, whether third-party reviews, industry roundups or your own well-sourced comparisons, appears closely tied to AI recommendations. Self-published lists are evidently effective, which is also why buyers should read them critically.
Finding 5: Not every AI tool looks things up
ChatGPT (logged out) searched the web and showed citations for all 19 completed answers.
Perplexity searched and cited sources for all 20.
Google showed an AI Overview, with source links, for all 20 searches.
Gemini showed web citations for only 1 of 20 answers; the rest appeared to rely on what the model already knew.
What it means: tools that answer from memory favor businesses that are already widely mentioned across the web. Newer businesses depend more on tools that search, and on building mentions over time.
Who AI recommended in Greenville, NC
The most frequently named businesses across all eight answers per question (four platforms, two runs). This reflects what AI tools said on October 7, 2026. It is not our endorsement or a ranking of quality.
Question
Most frequently named
Dentist
Michels & Gauquie Cosmetic & Family Dentistry (5 of 8); Current Dental; Eastern Pines Dental; Pruitt & Earp Dentistry (4 of 8 each)
HVAC company
J & J Mechanical (6 of 8); Delta Air Conditioning and Electrical; Jackson & Sons (3 of 8 each)
CPA for a small business
Alex Pappas, CPA (6 of 8); Terry Ng, CPA (5 of 8); Aaron J. Sparrow, CPA; Sullivan, Shearin & Company (4 of 8 each)
Personal injury lawyer
Ricci Law Firm; Wayne Hardee Law (8 of 8 each); Hardee, Massey & Blodgett (7 of 8)
Plumber
Eastern Plumbing; Plumbs Up Plumbing (5 of 7 each)
Business dinner
Nino's Cucina Italiana (8 of 8); Ford+Shep; The Rickhouse; Native Fine Diner (4 of 8 each)
Only three businesses appeared in every answer across all four platforms: Nino's Cucina Italiana for the business dinner question, and Ricci Law Firm and Wayne Hardee Law for personal injury. For the other four local questions, no business was named by every tool in every run. Counts were checked by name across spelling variants.
What this means for local businesses
Make your website citable: a clear page for each service, your real business details, and plain answers to customers' questions.
Be accurate on the directories AI cites for your industry: Yelp, Google Business Profile, and industry sites like Healthgrades or Super Lawyers.
Keep earning reviews on the platforms customers use.
Join local directories such as your chamber of commerce.
Measure with repeated checks, not a single search.
Write 10 to 20 questions customers ask, from "best [service] in [city]" to "[your category] for [your type of customer]."
Ask each one at least twice on ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google, in a fresh chat or search each time.
Record who is named, in what order, and which sources are cited.
Calculate your share of appearances, and note which sources mention your competitors but not you.
Repeat monthly or quarterly to track progress.
Growth Rankers, a young site, wasn't named in any answer, including for the GEO agency question. We'll track our own visibility alongside the rest in future editions.
Limitations
Small sample: 10 questions, 2 runs, 1 day. Treat the results as directional, not statistically conclusive.
Accounts: Gemini and Perplexity were signed in; Perplexity's national answers showed some personalization. ChatGPT was logged out.
Name matching: businesses were matched automatically after normalizing names, so variants (for example "HubSpot" and "HubSpot CRM") may be counted separately.
Partial sources: some platforms hide additional sources behind a "more" link; we recorded the sources visible in each answer.
Location: local questions named Greenville, NC explicitly; results may differ for searchers in other places.
One incomplete answer: one ChatGPT run for the plumber question returned no recommendations.
SparkToro, research on AI recommendation consistency: sparktoro.com
FAQ
AI visibility: common questions
Do AI tools give the same recommendations every time?
Not reliably. In our October 2026 test, asking the same local question twice produced lists that overlapped by an average of 34% to 78% depending on the platform. National software and B2B questions were more stable for most platforms.
Where do AI tools get local business recommendations?
In our test, about 55% of the sources Perplexity and Google AI Overviews cited for local questions were businesses' own websites. The rest were mostly directories, review sites and community sites such as Yelp, Angi, Healthgrades, Super Lawyers, Justia and a local chamber of commerce directory.
Do AI tools recommend the same businesses as Google Maps?
Partly. Across five local categories with a map pack, the AI answers we collected included roughly half of the businesses in Google's top three map results. Google's own AI Overview didn't include any of its map pack's top three for two of the five categories.
How can I check my own AI visibility?
Write 10 to 20 questions your customers ask, run each one at least twice on ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google, and record who is mentioned and which sources are cited. Repeat monthly or quarterly. Our method section explains how we did it.
Is this data free to use?
Yes. The full dataset is available as a CSV download under a Creative Commons Attribution license. Please credit Growth Rankers and link to this page.
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