What 270 AI answers show about which local businesses get recommended
15 audits, 270 answers: being famous did not mean being named, small practices were named least, and the 3 AIs often disagreed.
We asked ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini 6 customer questions each about 15 local businesses in 12 cities, on Oct 16 and Oct 18, 2026. That is 270 answers. The businesses were named in 139 of them.
The counts ranged from 2 of 18 to 18 of 18. Here is what the 270 answers showed.
How we ran it
Each audit asks 6 questions a customer would type, such as "best bakery in San Francisco" or "emergency vet open late in New York NY". None of them names the business. Each question goes to ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini through their official APIs with web search on, so every audit has 18 answers. We count an answer when it names the business, and we record who else it names and which sites it cites. The methodology page has the details.
Each business was audited once, on one day. AI answers change from day to day, so read these as one snapshot, not a ranking.
Being well known did not guarantee a mention
Some famous places were named in almost every answer. Curry 36 in Berlin was named in 18 of 18, Powell's City of Books in Portland in 17 of 18.
Others were not. The Ned was named in 3 of 18 answers about hotels in London; Claridge's was named in 9. Ichiran Shibuya was named in 5 of 18 answers about ramen in Tokyo; Fuunji was named in 10.
In 8 of the 15 audits, another business was named more often than the one we audited.
Small practices were named least
The two lowest counts were small dental practices, one in Austin and one in Madrid. Each was named in 2 of 18 answers. The middle of all 15 audits was 7 of 18.
The 3 AIs often disagreed
Across all 15 audits, ChatGPT named the business in 40 of its 90 answers, Claude in 50 and Gemini in 49. The totals hide bigger gaps for single businesses:
- Café Central in Vienna: Claude named it in 4 of 6 answers, ChatGPT in none.
- A cafe in Belgrade: Gemini named it in 3 of 6 answers, ChatGPT and Claude in none.
- The Ned: Gemini named it in 2 of 6 answers, ChatGPT in none.
Checking one AI tells you about that AI only.
The AIs cited review sites more than the businesses' own websites
Review and directory sites such as Yelp, Tripadvisor and Facebook were cited in 103 of the 270 answers. The business's own website was cited in 38.
For 5 of the 15 businesses, no answer cited their own website at all. Local guides and city "best of" lists came up again and again instead: travelportland.com was cited in 12 of 18 answers about bookstores in Portland, and timeout.com in 5 of 18 answers about hotels in London.
If you want to know why an AI picks a rival, the cited sources are the place to start.
Check a business you care about
Every number above comes from a report like the one RecoRadar builds in about 60 seconds: 6 questions, 3 AIs, 18 answers, with each answer and its sources one click away. Run one on your business or a client's and see who the AIs name instead.