Where does ChatGPT get local business information?

By the Pickgap team · Updated Oct 15, 2026 · 1 min read

Mostly from a live web search: OpenAI's own crawler and third-party search providers find pages, and ChatGPT reads directories, review sites, local lists, news and business websites before answering. When it doesn't search, it falls back on what it learned in training, which is older and thin for small businesses.

Two ways ChatGPT knows things

Training data. ChatGPT's model learned from a large snapshot of the web, frozen at a cutoff date. It knows famous businesses and big brands this way. For a small local business, training data is usually thin or out of date.

Live search. For questions about local businesses, ChatGPT usually searches the web and reads current pages. This is where almost all local recommendations come from. You can tell it searched when the answer shows sources.

What live search draws on

OpenAI says ChatGPT search uses its own crawler, OAI-SearchBot, and third-party search providers. In practice, the pages behind local answers are typically:

• Directories and review platforms for the trade (health, legal, home-services directories and general ones).
• "Best of" lists from local magazines, newspapers and comparison sites.
• Local news and community sites.
• Forum threads, such as Reddit, where people ask for recommendations.
• Business websites, especially pages that clearly describe a service in a place.

For some questions ChatGPT also shows a list of places with addresses and a map. OpenAI hasn't published every source behind that data.

Location

ChatGPT search may use an approximate location based on the user's connection, so the same "near me" question gives different results in different places.

What this means for you

You influence ChatGPT through the web it reads: be listed and accurate on the directories cited for your trade, earn reviews and mentions, keep your website clear, and let OAI-SearchBot crawl it. See how to get recommended by ChatGPT.