How to Check Whether ChatGPT Mentions Your Business: A Repeatable 15-Minute Test

By CiteMonthly editorial team · CiteMonthly · Published 21 October 2026

Short answer: Write down five or six questions your customers actually ask, including your town. Open a temporary chat set to Unpersonalized (or use ChatGPT logged out where that is available), turn on Search, and ask each question with the city written out. For every answer, note whether you are named, who else is named, and which sources ChatGPT cites. Repeat the same questions the same way each month. A clean setup matters because OpenAI says ChatGPT can use your approximate IP location and, if Memory is on, your saved memories when it rewrites a search [1] [2]. Temporary chats can be started without memory or custom instructions [3]. Treat the result as a snapshot, not a ranking: OpenAI says placement in ChatGPT search “is not guaranteed” [1].

Why do two people get different answers to the same question?

OpenAI's Help Center documents three things that can change an answer.

Location. ChatGPT “may use an approximate location based on your IP address to provide relevant local results.” Device location sharing is optional and off by default [1]. OpenAI also notes that a VPN or network location may affect the approximate location it infers [1]. Its own example: for “What are some good restaurants near me?” from the San Francisco area, ChatGPT may search for “top restaurants San Francisco” [1].

Memory. If memory is enabled, ChatGPT “may use relevant saved memories when rewriting a search query.” OpenAI's example is a vegan user in San Francisco getting a search for “good vegan restaurants San Francisco” [1]. The Memory page says the same thing in its FAQ: location or dietary preferences can help refine a restaurant search [2].

Whether it searched at all. ChatGPT “may search the web automatically when your question would benefit from current information,” and you can also start a search by hand [1]. Responses that use web search may include citations you can open [1], which is what lets you see where the names came from.

Our inference (not an OpenAI quote): if you test from your own everyday account, you may be testing your context, not your customers'. The aim of the method below is to remove what you can, keep the rest constant, and write it down.

What do you need before you start?

About three minutes of preparation:

A list of five or six customer questions. Use the words customers use on the phone or in reviews, not your marketing words. Mix three types:
- Category + place: “Who are the best emergency plumbers in Leeds?”
- Problem + place: “My boiler is leaking. Who can fix it today in Leeds?”
- Name check: “What do you know about [Your Business] in Leeds?”
One competitor you already know ranks well locally, so you can see whether ChatGPT knows them and you.
A simple sheet with these columns: date, question, setup used, searched (yes/no), were you named (yes/no), who else was named, sources cited, anything wrong about you.

Write the town or postal area into every question. OpenAI's own tip for wrong-area results is to include your city, neighborhood, or postal code in the question [1]. That also makes your test less dependent on where you happen to be sitting.

How do you set up a clean test?

Pick one setup and use it every time. There are two documented options.

Option 1: a temporary chat set to Unpersonalized

OpenAI's steps are: open a new chat, select Temporary, choose Personalized or Unpersonalized before you send your first message, then enter your message [3]. Choose Unpersonalized: it “does not use memory, custom instructions, or plugins” [3]. You cannot change that choice after the conversation starts [3].

Temporary chats do not create or update memories, and they stay out of your history unless you save them [3]. So your test questions will not quietly feed your own account's memory. OpenAI notes it may keep a copy for up to 30 days for safety purposes [3]. If you do not save the chat, you cannot reopen it from history later [3], which is why you copy results into your sheet as you go.

Option 2: ChatGPT without logging in

OpenAI says ChatGPT “can now be accessed before creating an account at chatgpt.com,” and that people who are not signed in can also use web search [4] [1]. Two limits matter for a test: while logged out you can only have one conversation at a time, and starting a new chat makes the previous one inaccessible [4].

Check your region first. The same Help page says this logged-out feature “is not yet available for users in Europe, except for users in the UK” [4]. If you are in the EU and get a sign-in prompt, use Option 1.

Then turn on Search

Do not rely on ChatGPT deciding to search. To start a web search manually, OpenAI says to select View all tools, then Search, then send your question; you can also type / in the message box and select Search [1]. If an answer came back without web results, OpenAI says you can use the refresh control and choose Search the web, when available [1].

What should you ask, and in what order?

This is our own method, not an OpenAI procedure. About eight minutes:

Start with the broad category + place question. This is the closest to what a new customer types. Note every business named, in the order shown.
Ask the problem + place questions. These often surface different names than the category question, so ask them in their own words rather than as follow-ups.
Ask the name check last. “What do you know about [Your Business] in [Town]?” This tells you whether ChatGPT can find you at all, and whether what it says is correct (hours, services, area, phone).
Open the citations. Responses that use web search may include citations; select one to open its source, or select Sources to see cited sources and other relevant links [1]. Write down which sites are cited: your own site, a directory, a review site, a local news page.

Ask each question once, in its own message, and copy the answer before moving on. Don't tell ChatGPT about your business during the test: you are measuring what it says on its own.

How do you record and read the results?

About four minutes. For each question, fill in one row of your sheet. Then look across the rows:

Named for the name check but not for category questions: ChatGPT can find you, but other businesses come up first for the questions that bring new customers.
Not found even by name: start with the technical basics below.
Named, but with wrong details: note which cited source carries the wrong information. That is usually the page to fix or update.
Competitor named on every question: look at which sources ChatGPT cites for them. That shows you where it is finding local businesses in your trade.

Check the facts, too. OpenAI says search results and citations “can be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect,” and recommends opening a cited source to check it supports the answer [1].

What we do not claim: that the order of names is a fixed rank, or that one run tells you what every customer sees. OpenAI describes ranking as using “multiple factors intended to help users find relevant, reliable information” and says placement is not guaranteed [1].

How often should you repeat the test?

Our suggestion is once a month, on roughly the same date, with the same questions, the same setup, and the same town wording. Change one thing at a time. If you add a new service page, keep the old questions and add one new question about that service, so you can compare like with like.

Keep every month's rows in one sheet. After a few months you can see which questions you started appearing for and which sources started citing you.

What if ChatGPT never mentions you?

First rule out the things you control on your website.

Allow OpenAI's search crawler. To make a website eligible for inclusion, OpenAI says to allow OAI-SearchBot to crawl the site and confirm your host or CDN allows traffic from its published search bot IP addresses [1]. Sites opted out of OAI-SearchBot “will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers, though can still appear as navigational links” [5]. After a robots.txt change, it can take about 24 hours for OpenAI's systems to adjust [5]. Our checklist is in Is your website blocking ChatGPT?.
Do not confuse the bots. GPTBot (training) and OAI-SearchBot (search) are separate settings, and ChatGPT-User “is not used to determine whether content may appear in Search” [5].
Then look at your sources. Compare the sites ChatGPT cited for competitors with where your business is listed. For how local recommendations work more broadly, see How does ChatGPT decide which local businesses to recommend?.

Then rerun the same test next month and compare.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a paid ChatGPT plan to run this test?

No. OpenAI lists web search on ChatGPT Free as well as paid plans, and says people who are not signed in can also use web search [1]. Usage limits for your plan still apply [1].

Will testing in a temporary chat change what ChatGPT remembers about me?

No. Temporary chats do not create or update memories while they remain temporary, and an Unpersonalized temporary chat does not use existing memories or custom instructions [3]. If you save the chat, it becomes a regular chat and follows your normal settings [3].

Why can't I use ChatGPT without logging in from my country?

OpenAI's Help page says logged-out access is not yet available for users in Europe, except the UK [4]. Use an Unpersonalized temporary chat instead [3].

Does ChatGPT know where I am?

It may use an approximate location based on your IP address; sharing precise device location is optional and off by default [1]. Writing the town into each question keeps your test consistent wherever you are [1].

If ChatGPT named me once, will it always name me?

Not necessarily. OpenAI says placement is not guaranteed, and answers can be shaped by location and memory [1] [2]. That is why the method repeats the same questions monthly instead of relying on a single check.

Want to know what ChatGPT and Perplexity say about you?

CiteMonthly runs a free "Does ChatGPT mention you?" check. We ask ChatGPT and Perplexity the questions your customers ask, then email you their answers: who gets named, which sources they cite, and whether you're one of them. No card, no account. Email citemonthly@gmail.com to request your free check.

Sources

OpenAI Help Center, "Searching the web with ChatGPT". https://help.openai.com/en/articles/9237897-chatgpt-search (opened 21 Oct 2026)
OpenAI Help Center, "Memory in ChatGPT". https://help.openai.com/en/articles/8590148-memory-faq (opened 21 Oct 2026)
OpenAI Help Center, "Temporary chat in ChatGPT". https://help.openai.com/en/articles/8914046-temporary-chat-in-chatgpt (opened 21 Oct 2026)
OpenAI Help Center, "The ChatGPT home page". https://help.openai.com/en/articles/9125172-the-chatgpt-home-page (opened 21 Oct 2026)
OpenAI, "Overview of OpenAI Crawlers". https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/bots (opened 21 Oct 2026)