We sent the same 20 "who should I call" prompts to ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude on one day in September 2026. Gemini named a local business in 20 of 20 answers, ChatGPT in 19, Claude in 18. Here is every name, and what each engine read before it picked.
Gemini named a local business in 20 out of 20 tests. ChatGPT named one in 19. Claude named one in 18, and opened seven of its answers by explaining what it could not do before it got to the names.
Every comparison on page one of this search is written for someone choosing a subscription. None of them asks the question a business owner cares about: when a customer types "who should I call", which engine puts a name forward, and what did it read to get there? So on 17 September 2026 we ran the same 20 prompts through all three engines and recorded every business named and every source cited. This post publishes the lot, including the full results table.
One disclosure before the numbers. We sell AI SEO for Australian service businesses, so read the action list with that in mind.
TL;DR
- Gemini named at least one local business in 20 of 20 answers, ChatGPT in 19, Claude in 18. Gemini named 103 businesses in total, Claude 102, ChatGPT 79.
- ChatGPT quoted a star rating and review count in 13 of 20 answers, and every one of those numbers came off a review aggregator page, not Google Maps. Gemini quoted a rating in zero answers.
- Gemini's citations resolved to the business's own website in 19 of 20 answers, plus Reddit threads in 6 and Facebook groups in 3.
- Claude opened 7 answers with a capability disclaimer and named nobody at all for the Geelong electrician and Newcastle builder prompts.
- We passed no user location to any engine, only the city inside the prompt. That is why ChatGPT asked "which Hobart?" five times. The consumer apps do pass approximate location, so a real customer rarely sees that question.
- Twelve businesses were named by all four engines we ran, and every one of them sits in a regional or mid-size market rather than a capital city field.
Which AI actually names a local business when you ask?
All three name businesses, but Gemini is the only one that did it every single time. ChatGPT missed once, on the Newcastle renovation builder, where it asked whether we meant Newcastle in New South Wales or Newcastle in England and handed back directories instead of names. Claude missed twice: the Geelong electrician and the same Newcastle builder, both times declining and offering a method for choosing one instead.
The method matters for reading these numbers. Each prompt was sent once per engine through the DataForSEO live endpoints with web search switched on, using gpt-5.5, gemini-3.8-flash and claude-sonnet-5 as exposed on the day. No user location was passed to any engine. The only location signal in the test was the city typed inside the prompt. All three accept one: OpenAI documents an approximate user location for web search, Anthropic's web search tool takes a city, region, country and timezone, and Google's grounding with Google Search runs its own searches with a separate Maps tool alongside. Perplexity's location filter guide says city and region significantly improve accuracy. Withholding all of it is why the hedging row below reads the way it does, and why a Hobart customer in the app is unlikely to be asked which Hobart.
| Measure | ChatGPT (gpt-5.5) | Gemini (3.8 Flash) | Claude (Sonnet 5) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Answers naming a local business | 19 of 20 | 20 of 20 | 18 of 20 |
| Local businesses named in total | 79 | 103 | 102 |
| Average named per answer | 3.95 | 5.15 | 5.1 |
| Answers that hedged on which city | 5 | 1 | 3 |
| Answers opening with a capability disclaimer | 0 | 0 | 7 |
| Answers citing an off target country | 2 | 2 | 0 |
The count you should care about as an owner is the second row. Gemini and Claude both put roughly five names in front of the customer. ChatGPT puts fewer than four. A shorter list is a harder list to get onto.
We ran Perplexity on the same 20 prompts as a fourth engine. That post compares the citation sources behind Perplexity and ChatGPT answers. This one compares the three assistants people actually open to ask.
What each engine reads before it names anyone
ChatGPT reads review aggregator listicles and repeats their star ratings. Gemini reads the business's own website plus Reddit and Facebook, and quotes adjectives instead of numbers. Claude reads listicles and directories, then quotes sentences out of customer reviews. Those three habits held across all 20 prompts and they are the most useful finding in the test, because they tell you which page has to carry your name.
| Engine | Sources it leaned on | Quoted a star rating? | Businesses named |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT (gpt-5.5) | Aggregator listicles: Starworks in 7 answers, Hipages in 5, Birdeye in 3, Home Done in 3 | Yes, in 13 of 20 answers | 79 |
| Gemini (3.8 Flash) | The business's own website in 19 of 20 answers, Reddit in 6, Facebook groups in 3 | No, in 0 of 20 answers | 103 |
| Claude (Sonnet 5) | Listicles and directories: Three Best Rated, Painters Hub, Localsearch, Yellow Pages, Oneflare | Rarely, but it quoted review text in 4 answers | 102 |
Here is the same prompt answered by two engines on the same day. We asked for a top rated solar installer in Toowoomba.
ChatGPT opened with "based on current review aggregators" and hung the whole shortlist off one Home Done page, quoting a rating and review count for each installer. Gemini never mentioned a number. It described in-house electricians, accreditation and how long each business had been trading, and its citations resolved to the installers' own websites, a Reddit thread in r/Toowoomba and a Darling Downs Facebook group. Two engines, one question, two different things to work on. That gap is what grounding means in practice: the model is not recalling your business, it is reading a page about you at the moment of the question.
Note what neither engine read. None of the three cited Google Maps directly in any of the 20 answers, a change from our August panel where ChatGPT built local answers straight out of Google Business Profile listings. Your profile still feeds the rating that ends up on the aggregator pages, so it has not stopped mattering, but it is no longer the page being quoted. Our explainer on how ChatGPT decides which businesses to recommend covers that mechanism. This post is the head to head test of it.
84% of top-rated service businesses are invisible to AI. Are you?
One report: who AI recommends in your suburbs right now, what they have that you don't, and the fastest path to being the name it gives. Sent within 72 hours.
See who AI recommends →The 20 prompts and who each engine named
Below is the complete result, exactly as answered on 17 September 2026, business names written the way the engine wrote them. One run per prompt. No ratings are reproduced here, and nothing in this table is an endorsement by us or by the engine.
| # | Prompt | ChatGPT (gpt-5.5) | Gemini (3.8 Flash) | Claude (Sonnet 5) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | best plumber in Hobart | Grant Chugg Plumbing, EGS Electric Gas Solar, Edmunds Plumbing & Gas, Howrah Plumbing | Howrah Plumbing, Glover Plumbing and Gas, King Plumbing, G.A. Davis Plumbing, BJS Plumbing & Maintenance | Bristow Plumbing, Overeem Gas & Plumbing, Glover Plumbing & Gas |
| 2 | good electrician in Geelong | CabledIN Electrical Solutions, LEKTRIX Property Solutions, JET Electrical and Data, Mr Electric, Super Home Services | CabledIN Electrical Solutions, Kings of Electrical, Lektrix, N-Tech Electrical, Luke Mitchell Electrical, Green Lead Electrical, VV Electrics | None named. Declined and gave a method |
| 3 | recommend a dentist in Parramatta | Parramatta Dentistry, Parramatta Dental Surgery, Parramatta Dental Studio, Lily's Dental, Parramatta Dental Clinic | Parramatta Dental Avenue, Pacific Smiles Parramatta, No Gaps Dental, Parramatta Dental Surgery, Infinity Dental Care | Parramatta Dental Avenue, Royal Dental Care, My Smile Doctors, Parramatta Dental Studio |
| 4 | best roofer in Adelaide | Roof Doctors, Hindmarsh Roofing, Adelaide Roofs, Dolphin Roofing, Master Roofing Adelaide | Hindmarsh Roofing, Roof and Render SA, Roof Doctors SA, All Roof Restoration, Advanced Roof Systems | Master Roof Restoration, GT Roofing and Guttering, Roof Doctors SA, Hindmarsh Roofing, All Side Roofing, Roof and Render SA, Roof Specialist SA |
| 5 | physio in Brisbane for back pain | The Brisbane Spine Clinic, BackSpace, Leaders Sports & Spine, Brisbane Physiotherapy, GymTherapy, Integrate Physio | The Brisbane Spine Clinic, BackSpace, PhysioTec, Barefoot Physiotherapy, Allsports, North West Physiotherapy, PEAK Sports & Spine | Brisbane Spine Clinic, Trilogy Physiotherapy, Refine Physiotherapy & Pilates, Get Better Physiotherapy, Brisbane Physiotherapy and Podiatry |
| 6 | good mechanic near Frankston | K&J's Garage, Frankston Tyrepower, Frankston Automotive Service Centre, Winifred Service Centre, BJK Service Centre | Frankston Automotive Service Centre, Amato Automotive, Kar-Fix Victoria, GS&M Automotive, Rapid Tune Frankston, AutoPlus, mycar Frankston | Rapid Tune Frankston, Advantage Mobile Mechanics, mycar Frankston, mycar Carrum Downs, Rapid Tune Langwarrin, Fabled Motorsport |
| 7 | best pest control in Perth | All-U-Need Pest Control, Rentokil Perth, Pest Relief, Core Pest Control, Chambers Pest Solutions | All-U-Need Pest Control, Pesti Pest Control, C4 Pest Solutions, Allpest, Stewarts Pest Control, Jim's Pest Control | Enviro Pest Control, Champion Pest Control, Chambers Pest Solutions, Stewarts Pest Control, Termico, Ecofriendly Pest Control, Best Pest Control Perth |
| 8 | blocked drain in Melbourne | Drainpro Melbourne | Drain Solutions, Drainpro, Drain Blast, Neighbourhood Plumbing | ATC Plumbing, Select Plumbing and Gas, Sven's Blocked Drains, Inner City Plumbing, Scott's Draincare, The Local Plumber |
| 9 | builder for a renovation in Newcastle | None named. Asked UK or New South Wales | Bull Building, Built by Eli, Ad-Built, Jedabuild | None named. Declined and pointed to directories |
| 10 | best landscaper on the Gold Coast | Brannelly Outdoor, Transforming Gardens, MJ Landscapes & Maintenance, LawnPride Australia | Brooke's Blooms, Nest Landscape Design, Gold Coast Landscape Creations, Bella Terra Group, All Gold Coast Landscapes, Red Dog Landscaping, Thrive QLD | Brannelly Outdoor, HMJ Landscapes, Red Dog Landscaping, Rockwalls on Gold Coast, JPL Landscaping |
| 11 | accountant for a small business in Canberra | Corporate Accounting Solutions, Prova Accountants, Business Innovations, Vivid Chartered Accountants, RSM Canberra | Aero Accounting Group, Callaghans, Comensoli & Co, DFK Everalls, MGI Joyce Dickson | Vivid Chartered Accountants, DFK Everalls, Nexis Accountants, Boyce Chartered Accountants, Clockwork Advisory, KLK Accounting |
| 12 | good family lawyer in Sydney | Lander & Rogers, Barkus Doolan Winning | Barkus Doolan Winning, Watts McCray, York Family Law Specialists, Mills Oakley, Pigdon Norgate, Unified Lawyers | Barkus Doolan Winning, Unified Lawyers, The Norton Law Group, Ramsden Family Law, Consort Family Law |
| 13 | bond clean in Darwin | Bond Cleaning Darwin, The Bond Cleaning Darwin, Spark Clean Darwin | Cyclone City Cleaners, Edna's Cleaning Services, Jim's Cleaning Darwin, Clean4You Darwin | Powerclean NT, Rental Bond Cleaning Darwin, Best Bond Cleaning Darwin, B1 Bond Cleaning Darwin, Bali Green Cleaners |
| 14 | top rated solar installer in Toowoomba | Airlec Australia, Electrical Sensations, Arctic Energy, Solahart Darling Downs, Proven Energy | Electrical Sensations, Arctic Energy, Solahart Darling Downs, Excel Power, Voltforce Electrical | Proven Energy, Solahart Darling Downs, Electrical Sensations, Excel Power, MC Electrical, PMS Electrical, Wiedman Electrical |
| 15 | best chiropractor in Ballarat | Precision Health Spinal & Sports Rehab, KAW Chiropractic, Ballarat Central Chiropractic, Ballarat Spinal Health, Brady Sports & Family Chiropractic | Ballarat Central Chiropractic, Ballarat Spinal Health, Foundation Chiropractic, KAW Chiropractic, PostureWorks, One Life Health Group | Ballarat Central Chiropractic, Ballarat Spinal Health, Ballarat & District Chiropractic Centre, Precision Health, KAW Chiropractic |
| 16 | best real estate agent in Bendigo | Bendigo Real Estate, Belle Property Bendigo, Ray White Bendigo | Bendigo Real Estate, McKean McGregor, Ray White Bendigo, Tweed Sutherland First National | Ray White Bendigo, PRD Bendigo, McKean McGregor, Bendigo Real Estate, Gavin Butler Real Estate, Team Real Estate Bendigo |
| 17 | emergency vet in Wollongong | Animal Referral Hospital Wollongong | Animal Referral Hospital Wollongong | Animal Referral Hospital Wollongong |
| 18 | air conditioning installer in Mackay | Hudson Air Conditioning, Climate Air Solutions, Airnorth, Hummingbird Refrigeration & Electrical | Hudson Air Conditioning, Climate Air Solutions, Summit Air Conditioning, Platinum Air-Conditioning, Chapman Air Conditioning | Hudson Air Conditioning, Platinum Air-Conditioning, Climate Air Solutions, J&C Electrical Services, Jay's Air Conditioning |
| 19 | exterior painter in Launceston | MPS McKay Painting Service, Premier Painting Tasmania, Corner Painting | Hudson's Painting & Decorating, Nathan Stokes Painting, Elevate Painting & Decorating, Duke's Painting, Corner Painting | GT Painters and Decorators, Premier Painting Tasmania, MPS McKay Painting Service, Sadler Painting |
| 20 | best SEO agency for a tradie in Australia | 8 agencies named, among them Tradie Web Guys and Dossis Digital | 5 agencies named, among them Tradie Web Guys, Top Rankings, TradiePad | 15 agencies named, among them Talons Marketing, Supple Digital, Webomaze |
Prompt 20 was the honesty check. Orkkid was not named by any of the three engines, or by Perplexity. We publish our own citation baseline for the same reason: on a 15 prompt panel in August 2026, exactly 1 of 30 prompt and engine pairs cited us, which is 3.3%.
A single run per prompt is the obvious limit of this test. To measure that limit, we asked the Toowoomba solar question a second time on the same day. Gemini returned the same five installers. ChatGPT returned four of its original five and swapped one name for a business it had not mentioned. So the shortlist wobbles. The sourcing habit does not.
The 12 businesses all four engines agreed on
Twelve businesses were named by ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity in the same run, and only one of them sits in a capital city market. They are Roof Doctors SA and Hindmarsh Roofing in Adelaide, Electrical Sensations, Solahart Darling Downs and Proven Energy in Toowoomba, KAW Chiropractic, Ballarat Central Chiropractic and Ballarat Spinal Health in Ballarat, Bendigo Real Estate and Ray White Bendigo in Bendigo, the Animal Referral Hospital in Wollongong, and Barkus Doolan Winning in Sydney family law.
What they have in common is dull and repeatable. Each one appears on the aggregator listicles for its town with a rating and a review count attached, each one has a plain website that says what it does and where, and each one competes in a field small enough that the same names keep resurfacing. That matches our AI visibility study of 151 Australian tradies, where 24 businesses were named by AI, Perth plumbers scored highest at 3 of 8, and Sydney plumbers and electricians scored 0 of 16. Regional and mid-size markets are the winnable ones, and Toowoomba is a good example of a field where five names cover the whole category.
One more thing they share: nobody needed an enormous review count. In that same study, businesses the engines named averaged 4.89 stars from 311 reviews, while the ones they ignored averaged 4.81 stars from 331. More reviews did not buy a mention. Being on the page the engine reads did.
Where the engines disagree, and why that is your opening
Hobart plumbers, Perth pest control and Darwin bond cleaning produced almost no overlap between engines, and that is the best news in this test if you work in one of those markets. In Hobart, ChatGPT named four plumbers, Gemini named five and Claude named three, and exactly one business appeared on two of the three lists. In Darwin, the three lists of bond cleaners shared nothing at all.
No overlap means no dominant source. When every engine is reading a different listicle, a different directory page and a different forum thread, none of those pages has established itself as the answer for that town, so a business that turns up across several of them at once can take the slot inside a quarter. Compare that with the Wollongong emergency vet prompt, where all four engines named the Animal Referral Hospital and nothing else. That slot is gone.
Check your own market before you spend anything. Run five prompts a customer would actually type, once per engine, and write down who gets named. Our free AI citation checker does the same job without the copying and pasting.
What to do if you want your business named
Work in this order, because the engines relied on these pages in this order.
- Get onto the aggregator pages ChatGPT quotes. Hipages, Localsearch, Oneflare, Word of Mouth and Birdeye AU carried the ratings in 13 of ChatGPT's 20 answers. Claim the profile, fill the service list, make sure the rating and review count display. Two hours for the lot.
- Make your own website answer the question in plain text. Gemini's citations resolved to the business's own site in 19 of 20 answers. One page per job type, the suburb names written out, the trading name and phone number in text rather than inside an image. Half a day per service page.
- Keep your Google Business Profile complete. None of the three engines quoted Google Business Profile directly this time, but the star rating that ends up on the aggregator listicles is taken from it. Categories, hours, service areas, photos. Thirty minutes.
- Earn one genuine local mention. Gemini cited Reddit in 6 answers and Facebook groups in 3, including a Darling Downs group for the Toowoomba solar question. Be a useful participant in your town's subreddit or trade group, never a customer you are not.
- Health businesses, leave the reviews where they are. Claude quoted customer review sentences in 4 answers, two of them about dental and physiotherapy care. Under the AHPRA advertising guidelines, testimonials about the clinical aspects of a regulated health service cannot be used in your own advertising. Patients posting reviews on review platforms is unaffected. The rule is about you republishing them, so do not copy those quotes onto your own site because an AI engine did.
- Re-test monthly and write the results down. Same five prompts, same three engines, one row per month. Ten minutes. Without a baseline you cannot tell a real gain from a re-roll, the trap our second Toowoomba run illustrates. If you would rather someone else kept that record, our free audit covers it.
ChatGPT vs Gemini vs Claude for everything else
For writing, coding, image generation and context windows, this test says nothing, because none of it changes whether a customer gets your name. If you are choosing a subscription, G2's hands on comparison runs ten documented tasks with screenshots, and PCMag's category by category review picks a winner for each of fifteen. The most read page on this search is neither: it is a Reddit thread asking why people prefer Gemini.
On plans, PCMag lists ChatGPT Go at USD 8 a month and Google AI Plus at USD 4.99, with ChatGPT Plus and Google AI Pro both at USD 20, as of 24 August 2026. Those are US dollars, not Australian, and none of the local recommendation behaviour in this test sat behind a paid tier. If Claude is the engine your customers use, our guide to optimising for Claude goes deeper on the sources it reads.
Be the business AI recommends
We tested 151 top-rated Australian tradies and 84% were never named by ChatGPT. Check your business before your competitor checks theirs.
Tested: 151 top-rated Australian tradies · 15.9% named by ChatGPT · Q3 2026 study
See who AI recommends →FAQ
Which is better, ChatGPT or Gemini, for finding a local business?
Gemini, on this test. It named a local business in 20 of 20 answers against ChatGPT's 19, put forward 103 businesses to ChatGPT's 79, and asked which city only once while ChatGPT asked five times. ChatGPT gives you a shorter list with star ratings attached. Gemini gives you more options described in words.
Does Claude recommend local businesses?
Yes, in 18 of our 20 tests, and it named 102 businesses in total, almost as many as Gemini. The catch is the preamble. Claude opened 7 answers with a note about what it could not verify, and for the Geelong electrician and Newcastle builder prompts it declined to name anyone and explained how to choose instead.
ChatGPT vs Gemini, which is more accurate?
They are accurate about different things. ChatGPT quoted a star rating and review count in 13 of 20 answers, and every one of those numbers was lifted from an aggregator listicle rather than from Google, so it is only as current as that page. Gemini quoted no ratings at all and described businesses in adjectives, which cannot go stale but also cannot be checked.
Which is better, ChatGPT Go or Gemini Plus?
For consumer use, PCMag lists ChatGPT Go at USD 8 a month and Google AI Plus at USD 4.99 a month, with ChatGPT Plus and Google AI Pro both at USD 20, as of 24 August 2026. Those are US dollar figures, not Australian. For the local recommendation job in this test, both engines behaved the same way regardless of tier.
How do I get my business named by ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude?
Get your name, rating and review count onto the aggregator listicles for your town, then make sure your own website states your services and suburbs in plain text. Those two kinds of page fed almost every answer in this test. After that, earn a real mention in a local Reddit or Facebook thread, and re-run your prompts monthly to see whether anything moved.