ChatGPT vs Google AI Mode vs Gemini: who each recommends, and why
By Matvei Belov, founder of Glowsearch · Updated
Ask ChatGPT, Gemini and Google's AI Mode the same question and you'll often get three different lists. In September and October 2026 we asked the three of them 170 customer questions, each two or three times, collected all 1,209 answers, and compared who each one named and which sites each one linked. Here's how they differ, and what the providers say about where the answers come from.
The short version
- They mostly name different businesses. For the same question, ChatGPT and AI Mode named 22% of the same businesses, ChatGPT and Gemini 15%. Only 8% were named by all three.
- ChatGPT is the most consistent. Asked the same question three times, it named 53% of its businesses every time. Gemini and AI Mode managed about a quarter.
- ChatGPT names the most: about 12 businesses an answer, against 6 for AI Mode and 4 for Gemini.
- They link different sites. ChatGPT links businesses' own websites, licence lookups and one directory per trade. AI Mode leans on Reddit, YouTube, Thumbtack and Yelp. Gemini links Houzz, Zapier's blog, Super Lawyers and RealSelf.
- So check each one. Being named on one tells you little about the others.
Google AI Mode vs ChatGPT vs Gemini at a glance
| ChatGPT | Google AI Mode | Gemini | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Businesses named per answer | About 12 | About 6 | About 4 |
| Named in all 3 of 3 asks | 53% | 24% | 25% |
| Named in only 1 of 3 asks | 27% | 52% | 51% |
| Answers with links (October) | 87% | 81% | 99% |
| Sites linked per answer (October) | 2.9 | 4.4 | 4.1 |
| Third-party sites among those linked (October) | 20% | 26% | 15% |
| Linked most | Businesses' own sites, Houzz, Avvo, state licence lookups | Reddit, YouTube, Thumbtack, Yelp | Houzz, Zapier, Super Lawyers, RealSelf |
Named and repeat figures: September 2026, 628 answers to 70 local-service questions, each asked three times on each assistant. Link figures: October 2026, 581 answers to 100 questions across five business types, each asked twice. "Third-party" means directories, review sites, forums, video and media, as opposed to the businesses' and vendors' own sites.
Do ChatGPT, Gemini and AI Mode recommend the same businesses?
Mostly not. For each question we pooled every business an assistant named across its three answers and compared the pools:
| Pair | Businesses named by both, of all named by either |
|---|---|
| ChatGPT and Google AI Mode | 22% |
| Gemini and Google AI Mode | 19% |
| ChatGPT and Gemini | 15% |
Of all the businesses named for a question by any of the three, 74% were named by only one assistant, and 8% by all three.
So "does AI recommend us?" has three answers. A business can be a regular on ChatGPT and missing from AI Mode for the same question, or the other way round.
Which assistant gives the most consistent answers?
ChatGPT. Of the businesses it named for a question, 53% were named in all three of its answers and 27% in only one. Gemini and AI Mode were far less settled: about a quarter named every time, half named only once.
| Named in all 3 asks | Named in only 1 of 3 | |
|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | 53% | 27% |
| Google AI Mode | 24% | 52% |
| Gemini | 25% | 51% |
For you, that means one check is a sample, especially on Gemini and AI Mode. Ask several times and count how often you're named.
What sites does each one link?
ChatGPT mostly links businesses' and vendors' own websites: in October, 80% of the sites it linked were the businesses' own. When it does link a third party, it's usually the directory that leads the trade (Houzz for remodelers, Avvo for injury lawyers, RealSelf for med spas) or a credential page. For remodelers and lawyers, 27 of its 80 answers linked a state licence lookup, bar association or attorney registration page; Gemini and AI Mode linked none. It never linked Yelp. More in where ChatGPT gets its information.
Google AI Mode leans on communities, video and marketplaces. In October it linked Reddit in 17% of its answers, YouTube in 15%, Thumbtack in 14% and Yelp in 10%. For software questions, YouTube appeared in 67% of its answers and Reddit in 62%. For med spas, it linked booking pages on Vagaro and Zenoti. In September it also linked Google's own pages in about half its answers.
Gemini almost always shows links, and the fewest of them are third parties. Most of its links were businesses' own sites, plus one big directory per type: Houzz in half its remodeler answers, Super Lawyers in a third of its injury-lawyer answers, RealSelf for med spas, Zocdoc for dentists, and Zapier's blog in 38% of its software answers. It linked Yelp in none of its 190 answers and Reddit in 2.
| Business type | ChatGPT | Google AI Mode | Gemini |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home remodelers | Houzz 35%, Angi 13% | Thumbtack 38%, Houzz 18% | Houzz 50%, Angi 13% |
| Injury lawyers | Avvo 28%, Expertise.com 10% | Thumbtack 29%, Justia 18% | Super Lawyers 32%, Justia 10% |
| Med spas | RealSelf 10% | Vagaro 25%, Zenoti 19%, Yelp 17% | RealSelf 23% |
| Dentists | Practices' own sites | Zocdoc 8%, Yelp 8% | Zocdoc 18% |
| Small business software | Vendors' own sites | YouTube 67%, Reddit 62%, Zapier 33% | Zapier 38% |
October 2026, about 40 answers per assistant per type, so treat the shares as rough. Share of that assistant's answers for that type with a link to the site.
ChatGPT vs Gemini: what's different?
They agree least of any pair: 15% of the businesses named for a question were named by both. ChatGPT named three times as many businesses per answer and repeated them more reliably. Gemini linked more sites per answer and nearly always showed them.
Their links point the same way, though: both mostly link businesses' own websites, and both lean on Houzz for remodelers. The differences are in the second tier. ChatGPT links Avvo and licence lookups; Gemini links Super Lawyers, Zocdoc and Zapier's blog.
Where does each assistant get its pages?
None of them publish how they choose. What they do say:
ChatGPT. OpenAI says ChatGPT search "leverages third-party search providers, as well as content provided directly by our partners". Its search crawler is OAI-SearchBot, and OpenAI says sites that block it "will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers". GPTBot, its training crawler, is separate.
Google's AI Mode and AI Overviews. These are built on Google Search. Google says a page must be "indexed and eligible to be shown in Google Search with a snippet" to be a supporting link, with no other requirements. They may run several related searches for one question, which Google calls query fan-out, so pages can be linked for questions they don't match word for word.
Gemini. Gemini can ground its answers in Google Search. The Google-Extended setting in robots.txt controls whether your content is used for training and grounding in some of Google's AI systems, but not Google Search itself.
Claude. Anthropic's crawlers are ClaudeBot for training, Claude-SearchBot for search and Claude-User for pages fetched when someone asks. Blocking the last two can reduce how visible you are in Claude's answers. Claude wasn't part of these scans; it answers through its API in our product.
Perplexity. PerplexityBot indexes pages for Perplexity's answers, and Perplexity-User fetches pages when a user asks.
What this means for you
- Check each assistant separately. With 15–22% overlap, a result on one says little about another.
- Ask more than once, especially on Gemini and AI Mode, where half the businesses named appear only once in three asks.
- Your own site matters most for ChatGPT and Gemini. Say what you do, where, with a page per service.
- For AI Mode, be where it looks: a complete Google Business Profile, Yelp, the marketplace for your trade, and the Reddit threads it links, joined honestly.
- Get onto the directory that leads your trade. Houzz, Super Lawyers, RealSelf and Zocdoc each showed up on at least two assistants; Avvo mattered on ChatGPT.
- Let the search crawlers in: OAI-SearchBot, Googlebot, Claude-SearchBot, Claude-User and PerplexityBot. Our crawler checker tests them all.
Glowsearch asks your customers' questions on ChatGPT, Gemini and AI Mode, with Claude on Pro, from $19.99 a month, and shows who each one names and which pages it links.
How we collected this
We make Glowsearch, and we collected these answers with the setup it uses: real browsers, signed out, through US connections, a new chat for each question.
- September 2026: movers, home remodelers, med spas, auto repair shops, hair salons and tattoo studios in Charlotte, Nashville, Tampa, Denver, Kansas City and Columbus. 70 questions, each asked three times on each assistant: 628 answers. We counted businesses by name.
- October 2026: home remodelers, injury lawyers, med spas and dentists in Denver, Charlotte, Tampa and Phoenix, plus small business software. 20 questions per type, each asked twice: 581 answers. We counted linked sites, once per answer.
For links we use October. Our September collector recorded links on only 33 of 210 Gemini answers, against 189 of 190 in October with the collector Glowsearch uses today. We can't tell how much of that gap was Gemini and how much was our collector, so we don't rely on the September Gemini link counts.
A link means the site appeared among the answer's links; we didn't check which sentence each one supports. These are customer questions about local services and software. Other topics, and signed-in accounts with history and location, can look different.
Questions people ask
Neither is better in our data, they're different. ChatGPT named about twice as many businesses per answer and was more consistent from one ask to the next. AI Mode drew more on Google Maps, Reddit, Yelp and marketplaces like Thumbtack. If your customers use Google, AI Mode's answer may be the first one they see.
They search different indexes and favour different kinds of pages. AI Mode is built on Google Search and linked Reddit, YouTube, Yelp and Thumbtack far more often. ChatGPT uses third-party search providers and partner content, and mostly linked businesses' own sites. Both also change their answers from one ask to the next.
Not in our answers. They agreed on only 19% of the businesses they named, and their links differed: Gemini favoured businesses' own sites and directories like Houzz and Super Lawyers, AI Mode favoured Reddit, YouTube, Thumbtack and Yelp.
Look at the links under the answer, or the Sources button. ChatGPT, Gemini and AI Mode all show the sites they drew on when they searched. An answer without links was probably written from training.
For AI Mode, it's the requirement: Google says supporting links come from pages indexed in Google Search. For ChatGPT, it isn't the same index, so ranking on Google doesn't guarantee a link. Being indexed by Bing too is cheap insurance.