OpenAI opened Businesses in ChatGPT as a beta on 10 November. Companies can now claim the profile ChatGPT shows about them and correct the details. They can also see how often ChatGPT mentions them and how many clicks it sends to their website. Claiming is open to eligible businesses wherever ChatGPT is available so businesses in the Netherlands can also claim their ChatGPT business profile, but the Business Agent, which answers customer questions inside ChatGPT, is limited to US companies for now.
OpenAI says ChatGPT reaches 1.2 billion people a week, yet until now a company could only guess what ChatGPT told them about it. Business Hub, the new dashboard, shows part of that traffic in OpenAI’s own figures and lets a company change the information ChatGPT works from.
You verify by phone, email, domain or Shopify, then pass an ID check
You open Business Hub from the ChatGPT sidebar and claim your business. To prove it is yours, OpenAI sends a code to the business phone or email, checks a DNS record on your domain or links your Shopify account. A second check by the identity service Persona follows before you can publish changes, connect a product feed, see the figures or build an agent. Persona may ask for a government ID, business registration details and proof that you may act for the company. The profile gets its blue check only after that step.
You do not need a ChatGPT Enterprise contract or an advertising account. Business Hub and Business Agents are free for now, Digiday reported after a briefing with Benji Shomair, OpenAI’s vice president of monetization. Shomair did not rule out charging later. Retailers can add a product feed with prices and stock, or sync these from a Shopify store.
A mention only counts when ChatGPT points to your website
The Insights dashboard covers the past 28 days and shows three things: mentions, clicks to your website and the topics of conversations in which ChatGPT cites you. The definitions are narrow. For an online business, a mention counts only when ChatGPT references its website. Naming the brand alone does not count, an OpenAI spokesperson told Digiday. For a local business, showing its location is enough. A click is a click on a link in ChatGPT, not a completed visit or purchase. Low numbers are held back, and you see themes, never individual prompts or chats.
So treat the figures as a minimum, not a full count. The tools agencies use to track AI visibility rely on estimates, one agency head told Digiday. Business Hub uses OpenAI’s own data, but it misses every answer that names you without a link. It also does not compare you with competitors.
Claiming a profile does not buy a better place in the answers
OpenAI says ChatGPT keeps making its own recommendations. A claimed profile carries no guarantee of better placement or more sales. Shomair told Digiday that claiming should not change how often a business appears, although better information can help ChatGPT show it in more relevant conversations. Paying is a separate route. A business can make its agent the target of a ChatGPT ad, but these sponsored agents are still in a small test with selected advertisers.
Which businesses outside the US can claim a profile?
Businesses with a website can apply wherever ChatGPT is available, if OpenAI supports the checks there. OpenAI publishes no country list. For a Dutch or other European webshop or software firm, the quickest test is to start a claim. Local shops and restaurants must wait: for now they can only claim an existing US listing.
- Claim and edit a profile: eligible businesses with a website, wherever ChatGPT is available and verification is supported
- Local shops and restaurants: existing US listings only
- Business Agent: eligible US ecommerce and online service companies
- Price: free during the beta, according to Digiday
The Business Agent answers questions about your products and policies with information you supply, in a labelled chat that stays separate from ChatGPT’s own answers. OpenAI says it does not share people’s conversations or agent chats with businesses. More markets and business categories will follow, without dates.
Claim the profile now and use the first figures as a baseline
If you sell online, claiming costs nothing for now. Skip it, and ChatGPT keeps describing you from whatever it finds on the web. Start by asking ChatGPT what it says about your company and your main products, then claim the profile and correct what is wrong. Agree beforehand who does the Persona check, because that person’s ID goes to an outside verification service. Write down the first 28 days of figures before you pay for a separate AI visibility tool. Do not expect the claim alone to move you up. Local businesses outside the US, and anyone who wants the agent, can wait until OpenAI names their market.
For more information, visit the official announcement of Businesses in ChatGPT on the OpenAI blog.
