Where does ChatGPT get its information? What we saw in 409 answers
By Matvei Belov, founder of Glowsearch · Updated
ChatGPT answers some questions from what it learned in training and others by searching the web first. For "best X near me" or "which tool should I use", it usually searches, and the pages it finds decide what it says. We collected about 400 ChatGPT answers to customer questions in 2026 and looked at every link under them. Here's where that information came from.
The short version
- Two sources: what the model learned in training, and what it finds when it searches the web. For recommendations, current pages matter most, because that's what it searches.
- OpenAI says ChatGPT search uses "third-party search providers" and content from partners, and only shows sites its crawler, OAI-SearchBot, is allowed to read.
- In our answers, ChatGPT mostly linked to businesses' own websites. About two in three of the sites it linked in our September scan of local services were the businesses themselves. Directories and review sites made up the rest.
- Which directories depends on the trade: Houzz for remodelers, Avvo for injury lawyers, RealSelf for med spas, MoveBuddha for movers, Birdeye's review pages for hair salons.
- ChatGPT never linked to Yelp in our 409 answers. Google's AI Mode linked Yelp in about one answer in seven.
Does ChatGPT search the web or answer from memory?
Both. The model behind ChatGPT learned from a large body of text up to its training cutoff. Ask it what a word means or how a recipe works and it can answer from that alone.
When the answer depends on current facts, like who's open, what something costs or who's good in your city, ChatGPT can search the web, read the pages it finds and answer from them, with links. In our answers to customer questions, almost every answer was searched: in September, all 209 ChatGPT answers about local services had links, and in October, 174 of 200 answers across five business types did.
That's why you can change what ChatGPT says about you. You can't edit what a model learned last year, but you can change the pages it finds today.
What does OpenAI say about where ChatGPT search gets results?
OpenAI says ChatGPT search "leverages third-party search providers, as well as content provided directly by our partners". It doesn't name the providers on that page.
OpenAI's crawler for search is OAI-SearchBot, and OpenAI says sites that block it "will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers". GPTBot, its training crawler, is a separate setting: blocking GPTBot keeps your pages out of training, but not out of search. A third agent, ChatGPT-User, fetches a page when someone asks ChatGPT about it. Our OAI-SearchBot guide shows how to check and fix your robots.txt.
Does ChatGPT use Bing?
When ChatGPT first got web browsing in 2023, it searched with Bing. OpenAI's current help page only says "third-party search providers", and the answers don't show which index a link came from, so we can't tell you which engine it uses today.
What's worth doing either way: add your site to Bing Webmaster Tools, which takes a few minutes and can import your Google Search Console setup. If an index ChatGPT draws on can't find your pages, ChatGPT can't link to them.
What sites does ChatGPT link to?
In September 2026 we asked ChatGPT the questions customers ask about movers, home remodelers, med spas, auto repair shops, hair salons and tattoo studios in six US cities, three times each, and collected 209 answers. Each had links to about three sites on average.
About two in three of those sites were businesses' own websites. The rest were directories, review sites and forums. The ones ChatGPT linked most:
| Site | What it is | Share of ChatGPT answers with a link to it |
|---|---|---|
| Birdeye | Review pages for local businesses | 13% |
| MoveBuddha | Mover reviews and guides | 12% |
| Houzz | Remodelers and designers | 10% |
| Angi | Home services marketplace | 7% |
| Forum threads | 6% | |
| Carfax | Car repair shop reviews | 6% |
| BBB | Better Business Bureau profiles | 5% |
September 2026, 209 ChatGPT answers about six local trades in Charlotte, Nashville, Tampa, Denver, Kansas City and Columbus. Signed out, in a real browser, from the US. "Linked" means the site appeared in the answer's links; we didn't check which sentence each link supports.
Most of these sites matter for one or two trades. MoveBuddha's links all came from mover questions, Carfax's from auto repair, Houzz's and BBB's from remodelers, and most of Birdeye's from hair salons. Across all trades, the common thread was the businesses' own sites.
Which sites does ChatGPT link to in each trade?
In October we asked 20 questions per business type, in Denver, Charlotte, Tampa and Phoenix for the local ones, twice each, and collected 200 ChatGPT answers. The third-party sites it linked most:
| Business type | Sites ChatGPT linked most (share of its answers) |
|---|---|
| Home remodelers | Houzz 35%, Arizona and Florida licence lookups 15–20%, Angi 13% |
| Personal injury lawyers | Avvo 28%, Expertise.com 10%, state bar sites 8–10% |
| Med spas | RealSelf 10%, product sites like Hydrafacial 10% |
| Dentists | Mostly the practices' own websites |
| Small business software | The vendors' own sites: Zoho 25%, Shopify 20%, Intuit and Square 15% each |
October 2026, about 40 ChatGPT answers per type, so the shares are rough. ChatGPT also linked Google Maps and Google search pages for places in 16% of its answers.
Two things stand out. For remodelers and lawyers, ChatGPT linked credential pages: state licence lookups, bar associations and the Colorado Supreme Court's attorney registration. 27 of its 80 answers for those two types linked one; Gemini and AI Mode never did in these answers. And for software, it linked the vendors' own pages far more than review blogs. Gemini and Google's AI Mode leaned on Zapier's blog, YouTube and Reddit for the same questions; see how ChatGPT, Gemini and AI Mode compare.
Does ChatGPT use Yelp?
Not in our answers. ChatGPT linked Yelp in none of its 409 answers, September and October together, even for hair salons, tattoo studios and auto repair, where Yelp has plenty of listings. Google's AI Mode linked Yelp in 18% of its September answers and 10% in October.
That doesn't mean Yelp reviews don't matter. Assistants can repeat what review sites say without linking them, and Yelp listings show up in other places the assistants read. But if you're deciding where to put your effort for ChatGPT specifically, your own site, Google reviews and the directory that leads your trade come first.
How much does ChatGPT's answer change?
Less than the other assistants', but still a lot. We asked each question three times. Of all the businesses ChatGPT named for a question, 53% were named in all three answers and 27% in only one. On Gemini and AI Mode, only about a quarter were named every time.
ChatGPT also named more businesses per answer: about 12 on average, against about 6 for AI Mode and 4 for Gemini. A longer list means more room for you, but it also means being named once tells you little. To know where you stand, ask several times and count.
How do I get ChatGPT to use my site?
- Let OAI-SearchBot in. Check robots.txt, and any firewall or bot protection, with our ChatGPT access checker.
- Say what you do, where, in plain text. A page per service, your city and service area, prices or price ranges, and answers to the questions customers ask. ChatGPT linked these pages more than anything else.
- Get onto the directory that leads your trade, like Houzz, Avvo or RealSelf, with a complete profile.
- Keep your Google reviews coming. In our data, businesses with more reviews were named much more often; see what 2,035 businesses' reviews showed.
- Measure by asking repeatedly. One answer is a sample.
The step-by-step guide covers each of these. Glowsearch asks your customers' questions on ChatGPT, Gemini and AI Mode every week, from $19.99 a month, and shows the pages linked for each one, including the ones that leave you out.
How we collected this
We make Glowsearch, and we collected these answers with the same setup it uses: ChatGPT in a real browser, signed out, through US connections, a new chat for each question.
- September 2026: 6 local trades, 11 trade-and-city lists, 70 questions (6 per list, 10 for tattoo studios), each asked 3 times. 209 ChatGPT answers.
- October 2026: 5 business types, 20 questions each, asked twice; local types in four cities. 200 ChatGPT answers.
A link counts once per answer, however many times it appears. We grouped links by site, not by page. These are customer questions about local services and small business software, so other topics will look different. Signed-in ChatGPT, with memory and location, can answer differently too.
Questions people ask
From two places: what its model learned in training, and the web pages it finds when it searches. For current questions, like recommendations, prices or opening hours, it searches and links the pages it used. OpenAI says ChatGPT search uses third-party search providers and content from partners.
OpenAI doesn't say ChatGPT search uses Google. It names "third-party search providers" without listing them. In our answers, ChatGPT did link Google Maps and Google search pages for places in 16% of its October answers, but that's links to Google, not proof of searching with it.
When it searches, it reads current pages, so the answer can be as fresh as the page. When it answers from training alone, it only knows what it learned before its cutoff. For a business, the risk is old pages: if an old page still lists your former prices or hours, ChatGPT can repeat them.
Look for the links and the Sources button under the answer. ChatGPT shows the sites it drew on when it searched. If there are no links, it probably answered from training.
Block OAI-SearchBot in robots.txt to stay out of ChatGPT search answers, and GPTBot to stay out of training. They're separate settings. Most businesses want to block neither: OpenAI says sites that block OAI-SearchBot are left out of search answers, though they can still appear as plain navigational links.