ChatGPT Business Hub vs Google Business Profile and Bing Places

On 10 November 2026 OpenAI opened Businesses in ChatGPT, a free beta that lets owners claim a business profile inside ChatGPT, correct its details and see how often ChatGPT mentions them and sends clicks to their website. It works much like a Google Business Profile, but for AI answers. ChatGPT has 1.2 billion weekly users, according to OpenAI. For Indian businesses there is a catch: shops and restaurants can only claim existing US listings for now, and Business Agents are US-only.

This guide covers what OpenAI launched, who can claim a profile today, how verification works, what the new Business Hub numbers mean, and how it compares with Google Business Profile and Bing Places for Business. We checked every figure against OpenAI's own pages or named reporting and linked the sources at the end. The product is one day old, so expect details to change.

What OpenAI launched on 10 November 2026

OpenAI announced two things together (OpenAI):

• Business Hub, a dashboard at chatgpt.com/business-hub (also in the ChatGPT sidebar) where a business claims its profile, updates its website, description, category, logo, delivery and return policies, uploads a product feed with prices and stock, and sees insights.
• Business Agents, a branded chat assistant that answers customer questions about the business's own products and policies. A shopper opens it from the business's ChatGPT profile with a "Start chat" button. For now these are limited to eligible ecommerce and online service businesses in the United States.

A claimed and verified profile shows a blue check. Claiming is free, and Digiday reported after a briefing with OpenAI's vice president of monetisation that publishing an agent is free at launch too, with charges possible later (VentureBeat).

The names are confusing. ChatGPT Business is OpenAI's paid workplace subscription for teams. Businesses in ChatGPT is the free listing programme. Business Hub promotes the paid plan, but you do not need it to claim a profile (PPC Land).

A note for Indian businesses: local shops and restaurants in India cannot claim a ChatGPT profile yet. We will set yours up as soon as it opens, and get your Google Business Profile right in the meantime. Get a free site audit or message us on WhatsApp.

Can Indian businesses claim a ChatGPT profile?

Partly. OpenAI says any eligible business located where ChatGPT is available can claim through Business Hub, but its help centre adds that availability depends on the business's location and type (OpenAI Help Center). Here is how that works out today:

Early reports show the beta is uneven outside the US. A Brazilian agency was put on a waitlist on launch day (PPC Land), and an Indian growth agency reported finding three lookalike businesses and a greyed-out service option when it tried to claim its own name. Our advice for Indian businesses: search for your business in Business Hub now, claim it if the option appears, and do not pay anyone who promises a ChatGPT listing. The claim is free and only the owner or an authorised representative can make it.

How to claim your business in ChatGPT, step by step

1. Sign in to ChatGPT with the account you want as the admin. Use a company account rather than an employee's personal one.
2. Open Business Hub from the sidebar (or chatgpt.com/business-hub) and search for your business name.
3. Select the matching listing, or add your business if that option appears, and confirm the account that will manage it.
4. Verify your claim with one of the methods offered: a code by SMS or automated call to the business phone, a code to the business email, a DNS TXT record on your website domain, or a Shopify store connection.
5. Wait for OpenAI's review. You get the decision, or a request for more information, by email.
6. Complete identity verification with Persona. You may need a government ID, business registration details and proof that you can act for the business. Make sure the name, address and any GST or registration number match your official records.
7. Once Persona approves you, the blue check appears and you can publish profile changes, connect a product feed and view insights.

The admin can later add teammates and give an agency access, each using their own ChatGPT account. Do not forward a personal claim invitation to someone else. Each brand is managed separately, and claiming the main brand does not claim its branches (OpenAI Help Center).

If your website is on a domain you control, DNS verification is usually the quickest route. If a developer or agency manages your DNS, ask them to add the TXT record exactly as ChatGPT shows it.

What Business Hub insights show

Insights cover the past 28 days, with a 7-day view, and appear only after your claim and Persona check are approved (OpenAI Help Center):

• Mentions. For an online business, a mention counts only when ChatGPT references your website. Your brand name alone does not count. For a local business, a mention counts whenever ChatGPT shows a result for that location, even if nobody opens it.
• Website clicks. How often people click a link to your site in ChatGPT. OpenAI notes that a click does not confirm a visit or a sale.
• Profile views, shown in some dashboards.
• Discovery topics. Grouped themes from answers that mentioned or cited you, such as "gift for kids". These are not the actual prompts.

Businesses never see individual prompts or conversations, including chats with their own agent. Data appears only above a threshold that OpenAI has not published, so a blank tile does not mean zero activity.

The first real dashboards look very different from OpenAI's demo. OpenAI's example toy shop showed 15,356 mentions and 5,432 website clicks in seven days. A live dashboard shared on launch day showed 690 mentions and 24 clicks over 28 days, and a second showed 28 mentions and one click (PPC Land).

Two dashboards are not a benchmark, but they suggest planning for roughly 3 to 4 clicks per 100 mentions, not 35. That is close to the 4% to 7% of profile views that turn into website clicks on Google Business Profile, according to WebFX figures compiled by BizIQ.

For the first time, though, ChatGPT reports clicks from its unpaid answers. Google Search Console's AI reports, rolled out to every site on 31 August 2026, show impressions but no clicks or queries (PPC Land).

Business Agents and ChatGPT Ads

A Business Agent answers questions using the product details, policies and instructions you give it, such as "Can I return an item bought on sale?". OpenAI labels the chat clearly and keeps it separate from ChatGPT's own answers. The agent cannot take payments, make bookings or check orders yet. It explains and links to your website, where the customer completes the action (OpenAI Help Center).

Businesses can also sponsor their agent as the landing point for ChatGPT Ads. OpenAI said in October that ChatGPT ads were live in 89 countries and that more than 100,000 advertisers had used them since launch. Ads show only on the Free and Go plans. Their value is still debated: a working paper by Kaiser and Schulze found a paid ChatGPT ad visit earned US shops $0.89 in revenue, against $2.45 for a visit from a paid Google search ad (PPC Land).

OpenAI is clear that ads and claiming do not change ChatGPT's independent recommendations: "Claiming does not guarantee higher placement or sales" (OpenAI).

ChatGPT Business Hub vs Google Business Profile vs Bing Places

All three are free listing tools, but they reach different audiences and you control different things in each. Google Business Profile (still often called Google My Business) remains the most important for most Indian businesses, because Google handled 98.06% of search engine referrals in India in October 2026 and Bing 1.11% (StatCounter).

Google Business Profile verification can still take time. Google says most postcard codes arrive within 14 days and the review can take up to five more business days (UENI, citing Google). Its insights are the richest of the three, with calls, direction requests and the search terms that found you (Google Business Profile Help). Google's 2025 Trust and Safety report counted more than 13 million fake Business Profiles removed (PPC Land), which is why OpenAI's extra ID check makes sense.

Bing Places takes about 15 minutes if you already have a Google profile, because the rebuilt dashboard imports your name, hours and contact details from Google (Microsoft Bing Blog). Bing's share in India is small, but the listing also feeds Bing Maps, Windows search and Copilot. For website owners, Bing Webmaster Tools added AI visibility reports in 2026 with citation share and the topics where competitors get cited.

ChatGPT Business Hub is the only one of the three that measures your presence in a chatbot's answers. Of the three it also gives you the least control over whether you appear.

Where ChatGPT's local recommendations come from

Claiming a profile fixes the facts ChatGPT shows. It does not decide whether ChatGPT names you. In August 2026, Pluspoint analysed 210 ChatGPT answers to local "where should I go" questions across 11 US cities (Pluspoint). The businesses named in the answers came mostly from articles and roundups written by other people:

The address and hours card next to a named business came from a licensed data feed: 45 of 56 cards Pluspoint checked used Yelp data. Asking the same question twice gave identical sources only 8 times in 100, so one screenshot proves little. Pluspoint also cites Microsoft Advertising data showing that only about 4% of the source links in AI answers point to the business's own website.

This is US data and mostly restaurants. Indian answers are likely to lean on different publishers, such as local news sites, Justdial, Zomato and city guides, but the pattern holds. To get named, you need to be written about on pages ChatGPT trusts, and your details need to match everywhere.

ChatGPT also has to be able to read your site. OpenAI's documentation ties inclusion in ChatGPT search to allowing its OAI-SearchBot crawler. A firewall or bot-protection rule that blocks it can leave ChatGPT with nothing to read.

What Indian businesses should do this month

1. Finish Google Business Profile first. Pick the most specific primary category, add services, hours (including holiday hours), at least 10 real photos, and reply to every review. This is still where most Indian customers find you.
2. Import into Bing Places. Fifteen minutes from your Google profile, and it covers Bing, Bing Maps and Copilot.
3. Try to claim in ChatGPT Business Hub. If you run an online business, ecommerce store or Shopify shop, search for it now and verify through your domain or Shopify. If you run a local shop or clinic, check back each month.
4. Allow ChatGPT's crawler. Check robots.txt and any Cloudflare or firewall rules for OAI-SearchBot.
5. Keep your name, address and phone identical on your website, Google, Bing, Justdial, IndiaMART, Facebook and any directory. Contradictions make AI tools hedge.
6. Write one page per service, in the words customers use, with prices or price ranges, areas served and answers to common questions.
7. Get mentioned by others. Local roundups, industry directories, association listings and press coverage do more for AI answers than more posts on your own blog.
8. Ask for detailed reviews. "Great service" says little. A review that names the treatment, dish or job gives AI tools something to quote.
9. Check monthly. Ask ChatGPT five customer-style questions without your business name, twice each, and note who it names.

Our AI SEO service covers crawler access, entity consistency and getting cited in ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews, and our local SEO service handles Google Business Profile and Bing Places. For background on how AI answers are cutting clicks, read our guide to Google AI Overviews and clicks in 2026.

Our view

Business Hub is the first time any AI assistant has given businesses their own numbers for unpaid answers. That alone makes it worth claiming the day it opens to you. But it is a beta. Local Indian businesses cannot claim yet, the reporting thresholds are hidden, and claiming does not change how often ChatGPT recommends you. Treat it as a third listing to keep accurate, alongside Google and Bing, not a replacement for either.

Sources

• Introducing Businesses in ChatGPT, OpenAI, 10 November 2026
• Setting up your business on ChatGPT, OpenAI Help Center, 2026
• Businesses in ChatGPT, OpenAI, 2026
• Businesses gain ChatGPT click and mention counts in OpenAI's Business Hub, PPC Land, 11 November 2026
• OpenAI lets you claim your business in ChatGPT, VentureBeat, 10 November 2026
• How to get ChatGPT to recommend your business in 2026, Pluspoint, August 2026
• Search engine market share India, StatCounter, October 2026
• Introducing the new Bing Places for Business, Microsoft Bing Blog, October 2025
• Understand your Business Profile performance and insights, Google Business Profile Help, 2026
• Google Business Profile: the complete 2026 guide, UENI, 2026
• Google Business Profile statistics 2026, BizIQ, 2026

Frequently asked questions