You ask ChatGPT what a homeowner would ask about a new heat pump in your town. A competitor comes up with its Google star rating and review count right beside its name. You've spent years earning your own reviews, and now you wonder where that number came from.
We counted what ChatGPT does with Google reviews. In October 2026 we asked ChatGPT nine buyer questions about six home service trades in four US metros. We asked each question twice in each city and trade: 432 answers, all outside the ChatGPT app.
The full numbers are in our comparison of ChatGPT and Claude. Reviews are one part of what AI assistants read about you, and our guide to AI search for home service companies covers the rest.
Does ChatGPT link to your Google Business Profile?
Not in our test. In October 2026, 0 of 432 ChatGPT answers linked a Google page, and 0 of 432 Claude answers. That covers Maps, Business Profile pages and every other Google page.
Google still came up by name. ChatGPT named Google in the text of 87 of its 432 answers and linked it in 0. Its links went elsewhere: across the same 432 answers, nearly half of ChatGPT's links led to a website of a company it named.
This is about ChatGPT's links. Buyers on Google Search and Maps still see your Business Profile, with your rating and reviews. If you haven't looked at yours in a while, our Google Business Profile checklist takes about 20 minutes.
Does ChatGPT use Google reviews without linking to Google?
Yes, in its text. In 84 of 432 ChatGPT answers, the text gave a company's Google rating or number of Google reviews, against 173 of 432 for Claude.
Per company named, the two quoted Google ratings about as often. ChatGPT gave 9.4 such ratings for every hundred mentions of a company, and Claude 9.9. ChatGPT quoted fewer in all because it named fewer companies: 2.75 per answer on average, against 6.96 for Claude, in 432 answers each.
Claude's side, across all 864 of its answers, is in what Claude's text says about Google ratings. The reviews you earn on Google can show up in an AI answer without any Google link. So keep them coming.
Where did ChatGPT read the ratings it quoted?
On pages other than Google's, when it said where. ChatGPT's 432 answers held 111 sentences with a Google rating in them.
In 51 of those 111 sentences, it named a directory or a list page as the place it read the number. In 9, it named the company's own site. The other 51 did not say.
Almost every such sentence came with a link. ChatGPT put a link on the line of 110 of its 111 such sentences. In 35 of them, it was a link to the website of a company the answer named.
So a Google rating in its answers almost always sat beside a link to a page that wasn't Google's. Those pages can be out of date. OpenAI's own help page says search results and citations "can be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect."[1]
Here's the check I'd run. Search your company name with the word reviews, open the directories and list pages that come up, and note the rating each one shows. Ask for a correction where it's out of date, starting with the listings that matter most.
Which questions bring Google reviews into the answer?
In ChatGPT's answers, the question that asked about reviews did, and the ones about same-day visits and pricing didn't. Asked which providers are licensed and well reviewed, 28 of the 48 ChatGPT answers named Google reviews (Claude 33).
Asked about same-day appointments, 0 of 48 did (Claude 1), and asked about transparent pricing, 0 of 48 (Claude 19).
Your own customers ask both kinds. A family comparing heat pump quotes wants to know who is licensed and well reviewed. Someone whose AC quit on a July afternoon wants a tech who can come today.
So answer both on your own site. Show your license number and current Google rating, and also your hours, same-day policy and a price range for common jobs. Ratings and clear prices both carry weight in the trades:
For trades and home services, star ratings and review counts carry more weight than in any other industry, and 36% of trade customers weigh clear pricing or deals (vs 30% overall).
Source: BrightLocal consumer search behavior study · (opens in a new tab)
What should you do with your Google reviews now?
Keep earning them, and put the current numbers on pages you control. Reviews also feed the short summaries that AI tools write, and buyers read those:
82% of consumers read AI-generated review summaries; 23% would decide on those alone.
Source: BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey · (opens in a new tab)
- Keep asking. Ask every customer for an honest Google review after every job, with a direct link. Our review request scripts sound like a person, not a form.
- Say it on your homepage. That's our study's own advice: your current Google rating and number of reviews, in plain words, with the month you checked.
- Make it text. Type the line into the page itself, not only into a badge image or a review widget.
- Keep it current. When the rating or the count changes, change the line and the month. Copy the number Google shows, and don't round it up.
A homepage line for an HVAC company
- Under the main heading: Rated 4.8 on Google from 212 reviews, checked October 2026.
- Beside it: a link to your Google reviews, so a buyer can read them.
- Once a month: open your Business Profile, copy the rating and the count, and change both numbers and the month.
Illustrative examplemade-up numbers · use your own
Don't buy reviews, pay for them with a discount, ask only the customers you know are happy, or tell customers what to write. Google's Maps policy bans incentives such as payment or discounts for reviews, selectively asking for positive ones, and requests for specific content.[2] The FTC's 2024 rule bans fake reviews, and pay or other rewards that depend on a review being positive or negative.[3]
The same work serves Google and AI: a complete Google profile, steady reviews, a clear website and listings that match. On our AI search optimization plans, every month we run the same buyer questions across the AI assistants we test (currently ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity). When an answer repeats an old rating or a wrong detail, we correct it at its source.
To make the fixes yourself, the Expert Action Plan ($149) is our complete report plus a 30-minute consultation on what to fix first.
Does the ChatGPT app answer the same way?
Not necessarily. We asked outside the ChatGPT app (and outside the Claude app). The apps can answer differently: they may know where you are, remember earlier chats and use other settings.
OpenAI's help page says ChatGPT may estimate your general location from your IP address. If memory is on, it may also use saved memories when it rewrites a search. On iOS and Android, results may also include a map, and the page doesn't say whose.[1]
So check what your customers see. On your phone, ask the ChatGPT app what a homeowner would ask, with your town in the question. Then open the source next to any rating it gives.
For a monthly routine, step 7 of how to get recommended by ChatGPT has a simple log you can keep. Ask more than once, because ChatGPT gives different answers to the same question.
What 432 answers can't tell you
They show what ChatGPT's text said, not how it came to know a rating. A rating counted when a sentence named Google with a word such as review, rating or stars and gave a number.
The study covers four metros and six home service trades, so other cities, trades and wordings can give other lists. What a web search finds also changes over time, so read these counts as a picture of October 2026.
They also don't say whether the companies ChatGPT named do good work. The method, and Claude's side in full, are on How Claude picks contractors.