OpenAI launched “Businesses in ChatGPT” in beta on November 10, 2026. Companies can now claim their profile in ChatGPT, then see how often the assistant mentions them and how many clicks it sends to their website. Until now, brands could only estimate those numbers. OpenAI says 1.2 billion people use ChatGPT, its AI assistant, every week.
Once verified, a business manages its profile in Business Hub, a new dashboard for businesses inside ChatGPT. There it can correct its details and upload products with their prices. A LinkedIn post on November 6 had already hinted at this dashboard with a screenshot of a still-unreleased page.
The launch has limits. OpenAI’s Help Center, its online support site, says local stores and restaurants can currently claim only an existing US listing. OpenAI also introduced Business Agents, assistants that answer customers on a brand’s behalf. For now, they are limited to eligible e-commerce and online service businesses based in the US.
Two checks before a business gets access
Claiming a profile starts in Business Hub, which sits in the ChatGPT sidebar and at chatgpt.com/business-hub. A business searches for its name, picks its listing and proves that the listing belongs to it.
Depending on the business, OpenAI sends a code to a business email address or to the business phone number, by text message or automated call. A business can also connect its store on Shopify, an e-commerce platform. A third option is to add a TXT record, a short line of text, to the DNS settings of the business’s domain. DNS settings connect a domain name to its servers.
If OpenAI approves the claim, Persona, an identity verification company, runs a second check. According to the Help Center, Persona may ask for a government-issued ID, business registration information and proof that the applicant is authorized to represent the business.
Until that second check is approved, the business can’t edit its profile, upload products or see any numbers. The blue check mark that identifies a verified profile appears only after the Persona verification is approved.
The new offering is free at launch, Digiday reported after a press briefing with Benji Shomair, OpenAI’s vice president of monetization. Digiday is a trade publication that covers media and marketing. Shomair didn’t rule out charging for it later. Claiming also doesn’t require an ads account or a contract for ChatGPT Enterprise, OpenAI’s plan for large organizations.
Who can claim a profile?
OpenAI’s announcement says claiming is open to “any eligible business located where ChatGPT is available.” The Help Center sets narrower terms. It says the verification method has to be supported for the business, and that “availability depends on the business’s location and type.” OpenAI’s page for businesses adds that claiming “is initially available to eligible businesses with a website.”
The Help Center states the main limit in one line: “Local stores and restaurants can currently claim only an existing U.S. listing.” An eligible online business that can’t find its listing may see an option to add it.
On launch night, the French tech news site Blog du Modérateur wrote that claiming was open “in principle” in France (our translation). For local stores, the Help Center says otherwise, at least for now.
Stores that can’t claim a profile can still show up in ChatGPT. The Help Center says claiming a profile doesn’t change a business’s visibility in ChatGPT. When the assistant answers questions about a business, it may draw on other sources. For those businesses, local SEO, the work of showing up in searches tied to a city or neighborhood, still depends on those other sources.
Three counters, no access to conversations
Business Hub’s Insights tab shows three counters: mentions, profile views and website clicks. The counters cover either 7 or 28 days, according to screenshots published by Search Engine Roundtable, a news site about search engines. The Help Center mentions a 28-day period and defines mentions and clicks, but not views.
Mentions are counted differently for online and local businesses. For an online business, a mention counts only when ChatGPT references its website. The brand name alone doesn’t count. For a local business, a mention counts when ChatGPT shows a result for that location, even if nobody opens the listing.
The clicks counter tracks clicks on links to the business’s website. Search Engine Roundtable also showed a help note in the dashboard warning that “clicks don’t confirm website visits or conversions.” Conversions are purchases or other actions a business wants visitors to take.
“Discovery topics” group the common themes in ChatGPT answers that mentioned or cited the business. Businesses don’t see individual prompts (the requests people type into ChatGPT) or conversations, including chats with their own agent.
Counters show numbers only above thresholds that OpenAI doesn’t disclose. A blank metric “doesn’t necessarily mean zero activity.” Activity may not have reached the threshold, data may still be coming in, or reporting may be unavailable.
The beta also leaves out share of voice, the marketing term for how a brand’s visibility compares with its competitors’. “Share of voice isn’t part of this beta,” an OpenAI spokesperson told Digiday.
Until now, the Accuracast group, a digital marketing agency, has relied on third-party tools to estimate brand visibility in ChatGPT and other AI platforms. Those tools include Peec AI, Otterly.AI and Semrush. Farhad Divecha, Accuracast’s group CEO, told Digiday that all of them rely on approximations and have no access to the underlying data.
Business Agents start with US online businesses
To build, test and publish a Business Agent, a company has to be an e-commerce or online service business based in the US. It also needs a website and must work in an industry allowed under OpenAI’s Business Agents Policy. When the business appears in a ChatGPT answer, users can open its profile and start a separate conversation with its agent.
The agent answers using the information and guidelines the brand provides. OpenAI says the conversation is clearly labeled and kept separate from ChatGPT’s independent answers. According to Digiday, Shomair said at the press briefing that OpenAI isn’t letting businesses bring their own agents.
The agent doesn’t sell anything itself. According to the Help Center, it can’t complete purchases, make bookings or check a customer’s order. It links to the business’s website instead.
OpenAI’s announcement says a brand can also sponsor its agent, meaning it pays for an ad in ChatGPT that leads to the agent. Sponsored agents are set up in Ads Manager, OpenAI’s self-serve ad tool. A Help Center page updated on November 10 says they are “rolling out to eligible advertisers in Ads Manager over the coming weeks.”
For now, an agent built in Business Hub can’t be reused as is in Ads Manager and has to be set up again there. Blog du Modérateur noted that French advertisers, who have had self-serve access to Ads Manager since late August, are left out for the time being.
OpenAI says its recommendations stay independent
OpenAI says that claiming “does not guarantee higher placement or sales” and that ChatGPT “continues to make independent recommendations and comparisons.” The Help Center adds that advertising doesn’t influence ChatGPT’s independent answers. According to Digiday, Shomair said at the briefing that claiming a business “should not have an impact on how frequently it appears.” He added that more complete information could help ChatGPT show a business in more relevant conversations.
Those commitments rest on OpenAI’s word. The company doesn’t disclose its reporting thresholds or explain how ChatGPT picks the businesses it cites.
Barry Schwartz, founder of Search Engine Roundtable, said he was nervous about people hijacking business profiles. OpenAI offers a process for ownership disputes, which also runs through Persona.
What it means
For the first time, OpenAI itself is giving businesses numbers on how they appear in ChatGPT’s answers, separate from advertising. The change applies first to e-commerce sites and online services. Those based in France and Belgium can in principle claim their profile and then track mentions and clicks, if verification is supported where they are.
The numbers need careful reading. Mentions are counted differently for online businesses and local stores. A click doesn’t confirm a visit.
The dashboard covers only ChatGPT. It doesn’t track rival AI assistants such as Google’s Gemini, Perplexity or Anthropic’s Claude. Debra Aho Williamson, founder of the research firm Sonata Insights, told Digiday that ChatGPT is only one of several AI platforms. In her view, demand will remain strong for AI visibility companies, the firms that measure how brands show up in AI answers.
OpenAI calls the launch “an early step in bringing businesses more deeply into ChatGPT.” On November 2, Adam Fry, who leads ChatGPT’s consumer product, said ChatGPT’s volume of search-like queries is now roughly one-fifth of Google’s. He gave no details behind that figure.
Business Hub doesn’t measure that volume. It counts each business’s own mentions and the clicks to its website.
Several questions remain open. Shomair declined to share a timeline for a wider rollout. OpenAI has given no date for letting local stores outside the US claim a profile, or for offering agents outside the US. Any future price for the offering is unknown, and so are the thresholds that hide small numbers.
Another item to watch is a French version of the Help Center’s setup guide, which had not been published as of November 11.
Sources
- Introducing Businesses in ChatGPT, OpenAI, November 10, 2026
- Setting up your business on ChatGPT, OpenAI Help Center, accessed November 11, 2026
- Businesses in ChatGPT: Claim Your Business, OpenAI, accessed November 11, 2026
- Business Agents Policy, OpenAI, accessed November 11, 2026
- Setting up a Sponsored Business Agent in Ads Manager, OpenAI Help Center, accessed November 11, 2026
- OpenAI’s new business agents give brands a free way into the conversation it’s also selling as an ad, Digiday, November 10, 2026
- Businesses in ChatGPT Business Hub Live With Click Data, Search Engine Roundtable, November 10, 2026
- ChatGPT lance les fiches entreprises, avec statistiques de mentions et de clics, Blog du Modérateur, November 10, 2026
Header image: MACCUS diagram, based on OpenAI’s announcement and Help Center (November 10 and 11, 2026)
