Get named in ChatGPT answers.
KailxLabs gets brands named in ChatGPT by earning places in the sources ChatGPT cites and by making the facts it reads on your site correct. We measure it on chatgpt.com, the app your buyers use, asking each question several times and reporting a count and a likely range. It starts with the AI visibility baseline at $1,500, and programs start at $2,000 a month.
How ChatGPT builds an answer.
What is known on 26 Sep 2026, with the date and the kind of source for each line. Vendor findings are labelled, and nothing unconfirmed is stated as fact.
| What we know | Source and date | Kind |
|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT decides question by question whether to search the web. When it searches, the brands it names come from the pages it reads. When it does not, they come from what the model already holds. | Graphite, prompt tracking study, Sep 2026 | Vendor |
| ChatGPT runs its own search indexes for the web, news, local, shopping and more, and caches the pages it reads. It uses them alongside outside providers that include Microsoft, Yelp and Tripadvisor. "Win Bing to win ChatGPT" is out of date. | Peec, reverse engineered from answer traces, 4 Sep 2026. Not confirmed by OpenAI | Vendor |
| Since 8 Aug 2026 ChatGPT reads more pages per answer and runs more searches aimed at named brand sites. Brand sites and regulators gained reading share. Affiliate review sites and Reddit lost it. | Searchable, 19 Aug 2026; Seer, 24 Sep 2026 | Vendor |
| Yelp ratings and reviews began powering ChatGPT's local answers in relevant categories. ChatGPT also books tables through OpenTable, Resy and Yelp. | Yelp shareholder letter filed with the SEC, 6 Aug 2026; Yelp and OpenAI, 10 Aug 2026 | Official |
| Product feed onboarding for ChatGPT shopping is open to approved partners. Discovery feeds are separate from ads and from checkout. | OpenAI commerce documentation, checked 26 Sep 2026 | Official |
| ChatGPT now shows ads in many markets, and OpenAI began testing Sponsored Agents on 16 Sep 2026. No evidence shows that ads buy organic mentions, so we report paid and organic apart. | OpenAI news feed, Aug to Sep 2026 | Official |
| Models change under the same product name. GPT 6 models reached ChatGPT through September 2026, and each swap can move citations overnight for reasons that have nothing to do with you. | OpenAI news feed, Sep 2026 | Official |
The crawlers that matter
| Crawler | What it does | Our advice |
|---|---|---|
| OAI-SearchBot | Builds the search index ChatGPT answers from. ChatGPT caches the pages it reads, so this access matters more than it did. | Allow it, and check that your CDN bot settings do not block it. |
| ChatGPT-User | Fetches a page when a person in ChatGPT asks about it or opens it. | Allow it. |
| GPTBot | Collects content for training future OpenAI models. It does not decide whether ChatGPT search can cite you. | A licensing choice. Blocking it does not remove you from ChatGPT answers. |
OpenAI crawler documentation; page caching from Peec, 4 Sep 2026, vendor.
What gets you named in ChatGPT.
Outside sources that vouch for you, and your own facts stated clearly. The evidence points the same way across studies, though none of it is a controlled test yet.
The lists and reviews it cites
ChatGPT names brands that outside sources vouch for: best of lists, comparisons, review sites and press. Placement in the lists AI already cites is the strongest lever the evidence supports. We pick targets from the sources ChatGPT cites for your own questions, not from a generic list.
Peec, 14 May 2026, observational; Scrunch, 24 Sep 2026; both vendor
The same facts everywhere
ChatGPT now reads brand sites directly, so the facts on your pages become the answer. Price is the fact AI gets wrong most often. We put prices, plans, policies and locations in visible text and make them match on your site, your profiles and the review sites.
Searchable, 23 Sep 2026; Profound, 17 Aug 2026; both vendor
Reviews in customers' own words
For local questions ChatGPT reads Yelp, and Yelp forbids asking for reviews. We improve the profile and the replies instead. On platforms that allow asking, we help you ask every customer. We never script review wording or offer anything for a review.
Yelp SEC filing, 6 Aug 2026; Yelp and Google review policies
Disclosed answers only
ChatGPT cites Reddit far less since August, so forums matter less here than on Google. Where a community thread does count, your own named team answers and says who they are. We never plant threads or post for you.
BrightEdge and Promptwatch, Aug to Sep 2026, vendor; FTC Endorsement Guides
What does not work?
Some work is hygiene: worth keeping tidy, never the reason AI names you. Some advice is simply out of date.
| Tactic | Status | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Placement in the sources ChatGPT cites | Lever | Observational evidence is consistent across studies. It is the core of our citation engineering. |
| Correct brand facts and prices | Lever | ChatGPT reads your own pages more since August, and wrong prices are the most common AI error. |
| Allowing OAI-SearchBot | Eligibility | Required to be found. No evidence that access alone makes ChatGPT name you more. |
| Schema and JSON LD | Hygiene | In a controlled study, adding it showed no citation lift in ChatGPT (Ahrefs, 11 May 2026). We keep it tidy and never sell it. |
| llms.txt | Hygiene | Almost nothing requests it, and Google says Search ignores it. Useful only for developer documentation. |
| Allowing GPTBot "so ChatGPT can cite you" | Out of date | GPTBot is training. OAI-SearchBot governs ChatGPT search. |
| Winning Bing first | Out of date | ChatGPT runs its own indexes alongside several providers (Peec, 4 Sep 2026, vendor). |
| Chunking, word counts, rewriting for AI | Out of date | Structure only redistributes credit once a page is already retrieved (CITECHOICE, arXiv, 14 Sep 2026). |
| Seeding Reddit or planting mentions | Refused | It breaks platform rules and US endorsement law, and ChatGPT's Reddit citations fell away in August. |
How we measure ChatGPT.
On the app buyers open, with enough answers to report a range.
chatgpt.com, not the API
We measure ChatGPT in the consumer app. Developer API readings are labelled as API and never pooled into a headline, because the two cite different sources.
Repeated runs, daily
Priority questions checked daily on ChatGPT, several runs each time. A share becomes a percentage only once eight answers stand behind it, and it always carries a likely range.
ChatGPT gets its own row
It is never blended with other apps. Model changes are logged beside the trend, so an overnight swap is not mistaken for our work or yours.
A control group
An untouched half of your questions is held back. A change counts only when the before and after ranges separate on the worked half and not on the control.
of cited domains overlap between the ChatGPT API and the ChatGPT app on the same questions (Gemini: 14.8%). The ChatGPT and Gemini apps share 5.4%.
arXiv 2609.18729, academic audit · 1,536 answers · 16 Sep 2026
the ChatGPT share of voice of the brands shoppers chose, against the brands they passed over: 24% against 11%.
Profound, "The Shortlist is the New Shelf" · 56 participants, 224 shopping tasks · 14 Jul 2026 · vendor data
of AI search volume sits in categories with no clear leader. In 53.7% of 1,094 categories, no brand led even 3 of 5 prompts.
Growth Memo research, cited by Seer Interactive · 1,094 categories, ChatGPT · Jan to Jun 2026, published 31 Aug 2026 · vendor data
The work, with its price.
Every engagement starts with a measured baseline. The rest depends on what the baseline shows.
AI visibility baseline
$1,500 one time
Your buyer questions asked on chatgpt.com and the other apps, with who ChatGPT names instead of you and the sources behind each answer.
The baselineCitation engineering
In the Growth program, $3,500 a month
Placements in the lists, reviews and pages ChatGPT cites for your questions, pitched and tracked one source at a time.
Citation engineeringBrand facts
In every program, from $2,000 a month
Prices, plans and policies made identical on your site, profiles and review sites, and corrected at the source when ChatGPT gets them wrong.
Brand factsAnswer ready build
$4,995 one time
Pages ChatGPT can quote, with facts in visible text and crawler access checked for OAI-SearchBot and ChatGPT-User.
Answer ready websiteAI shopping readiness
$4,995 one time
Product data and policy pages ready for ChatGPT shopping, and an application where you qualify as a partner.
AI shopping readinessLocal program
$2,000 a month
Yelp for ChatGPT, Business Profile for Google, and the best of lists AI cites for your city.
Local visibilityNobody controls what an AI says. We never promise a fixed spot or a rank. Compare every option on the pricing page.
ChatGPT questions, answered.
How do I get my business recommended by ChatGPT?
Get into the sources ChatGPT reads for your buyers' questions, and make your own facts correct and easy to read. In practice that means placements in the lists and review sites it cites, prices and policies in visible text that match everywhere, and nothing blocking OAI-SearchBot. KailxLabs measures which of those sources matter for your questions before doing any of it.
Does ChatGPT use Bing?
Not only. Reverse engineered answer traces show ChatGPT running its own search indexes and caching pages, alongside outside providers that include Microsoft, Yelp and Tripadvisor (Peec, 4 Sep 2026, vendor, not confirmed by OpenAI). Being strong on Bing helps, but it is no longer the whole route.
Should I block GPTBot?
That is a licensing choice, not a visibility one. GPTBot collects training data. ChatGPT search runs on OAI-SearchBot, and page fetches for a user run on ChatGPT-User. Allow those two if you want to be cited.
Will schema or llms.txt get ChatGPT to cite us?
No study shows it. A controlled Ahrefs study (11 May 2026) found no citation lift in ChatGPT from adding JSON LD, and almost nothing requests llms.txt. We keep both tidy as hygiene and never sell them as the reason ChatGPT names you.
Can you guarantee ChatGPT will recommend us?
Nobody controls what an AI says. We never promise a fixed spot or a rank. Local builds carry a refund rule: If you are not named on an agreed buyer question, on two agreed AI apps, within 45 days of launch, you get a full refund and keep the work. Named means at least 6 of 10 answers, measured the same way before and after.
What does it cost?
It starts with the AI visibility baseline at $1,500. Programs start at $2,000 a month, and the Growth program with citation engineering on 50 questions is $3,500 a month.
Other AI apps: Perplexity · Google AI Overviews · Google AI Mode · Gemini
- 26 Sep 2026: page rebuilt from the September 2026 evidence. The old claims about Bing, GPTBot, schema and llms.txt are retired.
Talk to the founder.
20 minutes with Kailesk Khumar. You leave knowing where AI names you today, and what it would take to become the answer.
- A live look. We ask five of your buyer questions on ChatGPT, Google and Perplexity while you watch.
- The reasons. The three biggest reasons AI names a rival instead of you.
- The plan. A clear next step and its price, whether or not you hire us.
Pick a time that suits you. The calendar invite arrives straight away. Prefer a link? Book on Cal.com.