Benchmark · updated September 6, 2026
Four AI engines, the same question, different answers.
We asked ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity the same 240 local recommendation questions across 20 US cities and 12 industries, and recorded every business each one named.
240
questions asked
960
engine answers recorded
2528
business mentions
58%
named by only one engine
The finding
58% of the businesses named were named by a single engine. Only 6% were named by every engine that answered. Asked the same question on the same day, the four engines largely recommend different companies.
So "being recommended by AI" is not one status. A business can be the first name ChatGPT gives and be absent from Perplexity entirely. Checking one engine tells you almost nothing about the others, and a business that only checks ChatGPT is measuring roughly a quarter of the surface its customers use.
How generous each engine is
Engines differ in how many businesses they are willing to name at all — which changes how hard it is to appear in each.
| Engine | Questions answered | Businesses named | Average per answer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Perplexity | 240 | 1181 | 4.9 |
| ChatGPT | 240 | 1123 | 4.7 |
| Gemini | 240 | 1107 | 4.6 |
| Claude | 240 | 993 | 4.1 |
Method
Stated in full so anyone can reproduce or dispute it.
- Questions. One question per industry and city, phrased the way a customer would ask it — for example "Who is the most reliable emergency plumber in Phoenix, AZ for a burst pipe?". Every question is printed on its own city page.
- Engines. ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity, each queried with live web retrieval enabled. Without retrieval a model answers from training data and names no local business at all, which measures memory rather than recommendation.
- Extraction. Business names are taken from the engine's own answer. Directories, review sites and marketplaces — Yelp, Google, Angi, Thumbtack and the like — are excluded, because they are not businesses a customer hires.
- Sampling. Each figure is a single-sample snapshot taken between September 6, 2026 and September 6, 2026. Engine answers vary between runs; asking the same question tomorrow can return a different set. These numbers describe what was said on those dates, not a long-run average.
- Scope. 20 US cities, 12 local service industries, 240 questions, 960 engine answers. No comparison against Google Maps rankings was made, and none is claimed.
Check your own business
The same four engines, the questions your customers actually ask, and the competitors named instead of you. Free, no account.
Run a free scanPer-city results, including the exact question and every business named: browse all industries and cities.