Readable
The assistant’s search can reach and index your pages.
Show up in ChatGPT
Being named when the customer asks.
To show up in ChatGPT and other AI assistants you need pages their search can read, facts stated explicitly on your site and independent sources that confirm them. Find out where each assistant reads and how to check the result over time.
In brief
Showing up in ChatGPT: the three conditions.
An assistant names a brand when it finds it in the pages it reads and when those pages say clearly who it is, what it offers and for whom. None of the three conditions can be bought: they are built on sources.
Explicit
Your site states the facts you want repeated, without ambiguity.
Confirmed
Independent sources say the same things about you that you say.
Assistant by assistant
Where assistants read when they search.
When an assistant searches the web, it uses an index: its own, a search engine’s or one built by a dedicated agent. Knowing which index it reads tells you where to check first.
Each row summarises the provider’s public documentation: OpenAI, Perplexity, Microsoft Bing, Anthropic and Google Search Central, consulted in October 2026. The rules change: reread the provider’s page before changing your site.
Five assistants and search features with the index they use when they search the web, according to the providers’ documentation, and the check to run on your own site.
| Assistant | When it searches the web | What to check on your site |
|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | ChatGPT search, fed by the OAI-SearchBot agent. | That robots.txt does not exclude OAI-SearchBot: excluded sites do not appear in answers that use search. |
| Perplexity | Its own index, fed by the PerplexityBot agent. | That PerplexityBot can read the pages you want to see cited. |
| Copilot | Bing search, which grounds answers in indexed pages. | That Bing indexes the pages; Bing Webmaster Tools shows which ones are cited. |
| Claude | A web search helped by the Claude-SearchBot agent. | That Claude-SearchBot is not blocked: Anthropic warns that blocking it can reduce visibility. |
| AI Overviews and AI Mode | The Google Search index. | That the page is indexed and eligible for a snippet, and that Search Console does not exclude the site from AI features. |
The facts on your site
State the facts you want to hear repeated.
An assistant composes its answer from the sentences it finds. If your site describes the brand vaguely, or with data that differ from one page to the next, the answer stays vague or takes its data from others.
The parts of an example company page for a fictitious brand, written in direct sentences that an assistant can repeat without interpreting them.
northstar-audio.example/about-us · demo brand
- What it does
- Lightweight travel headphones, designed and sold in Europe.
- For whom
- Frequent travellers looking for long battery life at a low weight.
- Where to buy
- On the website and in the electronics stores listed for each country.
- Verifiable data
- Year founded, headquarters and warranty, the same on every page.
Third-party sources
What others write about you.
Your site says who you are; independent sources confirm it. An assistant looking for a recommendation also finds magazines, reviews and platform listings, and takes some of the names from there.
Four types of source outside the site that can confirm a brand’s facts, with why they matter and the work they call for.
| Source | Why it matters | What to look after |
|---|---|---|
| Trade magazines and sites | They compare the alternatives in a category. | Up-to-date news and product data, offered to editors. |
| Customer reviews | They tell the experience in other people’s words. | Precise replies and problems solved, not just the rating. |
| Platform listings | They show addresses, opening hours and categories. | The same data as your site, on every listing. |
| Encyclopaedias and databases | They summarise the history and the essential facts. | Facts verifiable with a published source, never written by yourself. |
The check
The same questions, repeated over time.
A single answer does not tell you whether you show up: the same question can give different answers. You watch a set of fixed questions at regular intervals and compare the collections.
The steps a brand takes to check its presence in the answers of ChatGPT and other assistants and to link a change to its sources with the result.
Choose the questions
The ones customers ask before choosing, without the brand name.
Collect the answers
Same assistants, same language, same market.
Note names and sources
Who is named, who is recommended and which pages are cited.
Work on a source
A page on your site or an external listing, with the date.
Repeat the collection
The same questions, to see what has changed.
Frequently asked questions
Frequently asked questions about showing up in ChatGPT.
How long it takes, whether you can pay, whether llms.txt is needed, why a competitor gets recommended and how to know whether you show up.
How long does it take to show up in ChatGPT?
There is no stated time for new content. For changes to robots.txt, OpenAI indicates about 24 hours for its systems to adjust.
Can you pay to show up in ChatGPT’s answers?
The organic answer is not for sale. Where the provider offers them, there are ads, shown as advertising and kept separate from the answer.
Do you need an llms.txt file to show up in ChatGPT?
It is not among the conditions listed in the OpenAI documentation cited here. Google writes that AI Overviews and AI Mode need no text files dedicated to AI.
Why does ChatGPT recommend a competitor and not me?
Usually because the sources it reads name the competitor for that need and not you. Look at the pages cited in the answer: they show where to work.
How do I know whether I show up in ChatGPT?
Ask the same questions several times and on different days, and note mentions, recommendations and cited sources. A single answer is not a measurement.
Related paths
After “Show up in ChatGPT”, the next step.
The guides explain the concepts with examples on fictional brands. From here you continue with the other guides, the methodology and the features that apply them to your brand.
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