To check if AI recommends your business, ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google the question a customer would ask — “best [your category] in [your city]” — and see whether you're named. A free AI-visibility audit does this across engines at once and adds your score, the cited sources, who got named instead, and a fix plan.
The manual check (5 minutes)
You can do a rough version yourself right now. The key is to ask the question the way a customer would — not “is {your business} good,” which just confirms you exist, but the open question a buyer actually types when they don't know who to pick.
- 1. Write your customer's exact question
For example: “best {category} in {city}” or “who's a good {category} near {neighborhood}.” Use the words a customer uses, not your branding.
- 2. Ask each engine
Run it through ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google's AI. Note whether you're named in each. Expect them to disagree — that's normal and important.
- 3. Record who got named instead
Write down the competitors each engine recommended and, where shown, the sources it cited. That list is your competitive gap and your roadmap.
The manual check tells you the headline — named or not. What it doesn't give you reliably is the why: which sources drove the answer, how big the gap is, and what to fix first. That's where a structured audit earns its keep.
Recommd runs the live query across engines and returns your 0–100 score, the AI's verbatim answer, the competitors named instead of you, the exact sources cited, and a personalized fix plan — no signup.
Run my free AI-visibility audit →How to read your result
Once you have a result — manual or from an audit — here's how to make sense of it:
- Named on all engines: you're in strong shape. The work shifts to holding the position, because answers move and competitors are improving too.
- Named on some, missing on others: the most common result. It means your representation is uneven — strong on the sources one engine reads, weak on another's. Fix the shared signals to even it out.
- Not named anywhere: not a verdict on your business — it means the sources the AI trusts don't have enough consistent, recent information about you yet. This is the most fixable state, and the fix plan tells you where to start.
Whatever the result, the levers are the same: a complete Google Business Profile, a steady flow of recent reviews, consistent name/address/phone everywhere, and presence on the directories and “best of” lists your category trusts. Our guide on how to show up in ChatGPT for your business walks through each fix.
Why one check isn't enough
AI answers are rebuilt continuously from sources that change. A clean result today can quietly reverse in weeks if a competitor earns a burst of reviews or lands a “best of” feature. Checking on a schedule — monthly at minimum — is the only way to know your fixes landed and to catch a slide before it costs you customers. Recommd's paid report and 90-day monitoring automate that re-checking across engines.
Keep reading
- Why the AI engines rarely agree on the best business (2026 data)
- Why AI recommends your competitor instead of you
- What is Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)?
- See a sample audit report
Frequently asked questions
- How do I check if AI recommends my business?
Open ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google, ask each the question a customer would ask — 'best [your category] in [your city]' — and read whether your business is named. For a reliable, repeatable check across engines that also shows the sources cited and a fix plan, run the free Recommd AI-visibility audit. - What is an AI-visibility audit?
An AI-visibility audit checks whether AI answer engines name your business when customers ask for the best in your category. A good audit runs a live grounded query, returns a 0–100 visibility score, shows the AI's verbatim answer, lists who got recommended instead of you, surfaces the sources the AI cited, and gives you a prioritized fix plan. - Is there a free tool to check AI visibility?
Yes. Recommd offers a free AI-visibility audit with no account required — you enter your business and category, it runs a live query, and it returns your score, the AI's actual answer, the competitors named instead, the cited sources, and a step-by-step fix plan. A $49 report and ongoing monitoring add per-engine detail and tracking over time. - What's a good AI-visibility score?
Being named clearly and consistently across engines is the goal; scores in the higher range mean the AI reliably recommends you. A low score means you're being out-represented on the sources the AI trusts — which is fixable by completing your profile, earning recent reviews, keeping details consistent, and getting listed where your category's AI sources look. - How often should I check my AI visibility?
AI answers shift week to week as sources re-index, so a one-time check goes stale fast. Checking monthly is a reasonable minimum for most businesses; competitive categories benefit from continuous monitoring so you catch the moment a competitor starts overtaking you.