How to Check If Your Brand Shows Up in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews

Last month I spent an afternoon typing my own brand name into every AI search tool I could find. ChatGPT. Perplexity. Google's AI Overviews. Claude. You name it.

Half the time, I wasn't there.

Not in a "we're ranked number seven" kind of way. In a "the model has literally never heard of me" kind of way. That stung, but it was also useful — because once I knew where the gaps were, I could start fixing them.

If you run an online store or any kind of brand, you should do this audit too. Most people don't, and that's a problem. Your customers are increasingly asking AI tools where to buy things instead of Googling them. If the AI doesn't mention you, those customers don't know you exist.

Here's exactly how I check brand visibility across the major AI search platforms — including the specific prompts I use, what to look for in the responses, and what to do if you come up empty.

Why you can't just search your brand name

Here's the mistake most people make: they type their exact brand name into ChatGPT, see that it knows who they are, and call it a day.

That's like checking if your SEO works by searching for your own domain name. Of course you show up — the model is just regurgitating what it already knows about you from your name alone.

The real question is whether you show up when someone asks a category question. "What's a good brand for waterproof hiking boots?" "Best minimalist wallet for men." "Sustainable activewear for women." These are the queries that actually drive new customer discovery. If you only show up for branded searches, you're only reaching people who already know you exist.

So your audit needs to cover three types of queries:

1. Branded queries — "Tell me about [your brand]"
2. Category queries — "Best [product type] for [use case]"
3. Comparison queries — "[Your brand] vs [competitor]"

All three matter, but the category and comparison queries are where new customers find you. Branded queries are where existing customers validate you.

Checking ChatGPT

ChatGPT is tricky because it uses a mix of training data and (with Browse enabled) real-time web results. The answers can vary depending on whether you're using GPT-4 with browsing or an older model without internet access.

Here's what I do.

First, open a fresh chat. Context from previous conversations can influence answers, so start clean. Then run these prompts one at a time:

• "What are the best [product category] brands in [current year]?"
• "Can you recommend [product type] for [specific use case or audience]?"
• "Compare [your brand] with [two competitors]. What are the tradeoffs?"
• "Tell me about [your brand]. What do they sell and how are they reviewed?"

For each prompt, note three things:

Are you mentioned at all? If not, that's a visibility gap. The model doesn't have enough citable information about your brand to include you.

If you are mentioned, where do you appear? First recommendation? Third? In AI search, position matters less than in traditional search because people read the whole answer, but being first is still better than being an afterthought.

What does the model say about you? Sometimes you'll be mentioned but described inaccurately — wrong product categories, outdated pricing, or even facts pulled from a similarly named company. I've seen this happen to brands with generic names. The AI confidently describes a completely different business.

If you have ChatGPT Plus or Team, run the same prompts with Browse enabled and without. The discrepancy can be revealing. With browsing, the model pulls real-time information and might find content that isn't in its training data. Without browsing, it relies on what it already knows — which reflects your long-term content footprint.

Checking Perplexity

Perplexity is different from ChatGPT because it's built around search. It pulls in real-time sources and cites them, which means you can actually see where it's getting its information about your brand. That makes it incredibly useful for an audit.

Use the Pro Search mode for the most thorough results. Try these prompts:

• "Best [product category] available online right now"
• "What are the top-rated [product type] according to reviews?"
• "[Your brand] reviews — what do customers actually say?"
• "[Your brand] alternatives and competitors"

Pay close attention to the sources Perplexity cites. This is the gold. If it's citing your competitors' sites but not yours, that tells you something. If it's citing review sites that don't mention you, you know where you need to get coverage. If it cites Reddit threads where people recommend other brands, that's a signal that word-of-mouth in communities matters for AI visibility.

I also like to check the "People Also Ask" style follow-up questions Perplexity generates. Those give you more query ideas to test, and they often reveal the specific angles customers care about — angles you should be creating content around.

Checking Google AI Overviews

Google's AI Overviews (formerly Search Generative Experience) are the AI summaries that appear at the top of some search results. They're important because they're integrated directly into the search engine most people already use. You don't need a separate app or account — people see these answers just by Googling.

The challenge is that AI Overviews don't appear for every query, and they roll out differently by region and device. But here's how to check:

Search Google (logged out or in incognito mode to reduce personalization) for the same category and comparison queries you used in ChatGPT. Look for the AI-generated summary block at the top of the results.

Ask yourself:

• Does an AI Overview appear at all for this query?
• If so, which brands or sources does it mention?
• Does it link to your site or cite your content?
• Does it pull information from third-party reviews or comparison articles that feature you?

One thing I've noticed: Google AI Overviews tend to favor established, well-structured content from authoritative sources. If your product pages are thin and your blog hasn't been updated since 2023, you're unlikely to appear. Google also heavily favors its own ecosystem — YouTube videos, Google Reviews, and Google Merchant Center listings can all influence what shows up in the Overview.

What to look for across all platforms

After running these prompts across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews, you should start to see patterns. Here's what I track:

Platform coverage. Are you mentioned on all three, or just one? Being visible on Perplexity but not ChatGPT means the model's training data is missing you, even if search results find you. Being on ChatGPT but not in AI Overviews suggests Google isn't picking up your content the way you'd expect.

Query coverage. Which types of queries get you mentioned? If you only show up for branded searches, you have a discoverability problem. If you show up for category queries but not comparison queries, you might lack content that positions you against alternatives.

Sentiment and accuracy. When you are mentioned, is it accurate and positive? AI models sometimes hallucinate details or pull from outdated sources. If ChatGPT confidently states that you sell a product you discontinued two years ago, that's a problem — potential customers are getting wrong information.

Source quality. On Perplexity especially, check what sources the model uses. If it's citing low-quality affiliate sites over your own product pages, that means your content isn't considered authoritative enough for the model to cite directly.

If doing this manually across three platforms sounds exhausting, it is — at least at first. That is exactly why I built My GEO Check to automate the process: you enter your URL once and it runs the same audit across all the major AI engines, saving you from typing the same prompts into five different tools every week.

What to do if you're invisible

Let's say you run the audit and — like I did the first time — you barely show up. Don't panic. This is fixable, and the fact that you're checking puts you ahead of most of your competitors.

Start with the basics. Make sure your site has detailed, factual product descriptions that go beyond marketing fluff. AI models need specifics they can cite: materials, dimensions, use cases, pricing, availability. "Premium quality leather wallet" means nothing to a language model. "Full-grain leather bifold wallet with 8 card slots, RFID-blocking lining, and a 2-year warranty" is citable, specific, and useful.

Then look at your content footprint beyond your own site. AI models pull from the entire web, not just your domain. Are people reviewing your products? Are comparison articles mentioning you? Are there Reddit threads or forum discussions where customers recommend your brand? These third-party signals matter enormously because they give the model multiple independent sources to reference.

Add structured data to your site. Schema.org markup for products, reviews, FAQs, and organizations gives AI systems a clear, machine-readable way to understand what you sell and how customers rate you. Most Shopify themes support basic product schema, but review schema and FAQ schema often require extra setup.

And honestly? The fastest way to get a read on where you stand is to use a tool that automates this. I built mygeocheck.com precisely because doing this manually across every AI platform is tedious. You enter your store URL, and it checks your visibility across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and more — then gives you a GEO score with specific recommendations. It takes about a minute and beats typing prompts into five different tools for an afternoon.

However you do it, the important thing is that you do it. AI search isn't some distant future scenario. People are asking these tools for buying recommendations right now, and every query where your brand doesn't appear is a customer who just found a competitor instead.

Check your visibility today. Fix the gaps tomorrow. Your future self — and your revenue — will thank you.