How to check if ChatGPT mentions your brand (free, 10 minutes)

More buyers now ask an AI assistant what to buy before they ever open Google. So it is worth knowing whether ChatGPT mentions your brand, and what it says when it does. You do not need a paid tool to find out. Here is a free check that takes about ten minutes, and a simple way to track it month to month.

Step 1: write five buyer questions

Do not ask "what is [your brand]". Buyers rarely do. Write the questions they actually ask before they know you exist. For a skincare brand, that might be:

1. What is the best vitamin C serum for sensitive skin under $40?
2. Which skincare brands are good for acne-prone skin in their 30s?
3. Is [your brand] any good? (the one branded question)
4. [Your brand] vs [your biggest competitor]
5. What is a good alternative to [a well-known competitor]?

Keep the exact wording in a note. You will reuse it every month, because changing the wording changes the answer.

Step 2: run them in three places

• ChatGPT. Use a fresh chat, or a private window logged out, so your own history does not shape the answer.
• Perplexity. It shows its sources, which tells you which pages it is reading about your category.
• Google. Search the same question and note whether an AI answer appears at the top and who it names.

If you sell in more than one country, add the country to the question. "Best vitamin C serum in Canada" can name different brands from the US version.

Step 3: log three things for every answer

A simple spreadsheet with one row per question per assistant is enough:

• Named? Yes, no, or "named but not recommended".
• What it said. Copy the sentence about you. Is it accurate? Is the price right? Is the product still sold?
• Who it named instead. These are the brands the web currently explains best in your category, and your real competition in AI search.

For Perplexity, also copy the sources it cites. Those pages are exactly where you want to be mentioned.

Step 4: read the results

You are not named anywhere

Common for small brands, and fixable. It usually means the web does not say enough about you yet. Start with the steps in does ChatGPT recommend your products: a page that answers the buyer's exact question, reviews, and a few third-party mentions.

You are named, but something is wrong

An old price, a discontinued product, a competitor's claim attached to you. This is often the faster fix, because you are correcting sources rather than creating them. See how to fix wrong information ChatGPT says about your brand.

You are named in some answers but not others

Look at the questions where you were missing and the brands named instead. Their pages, reviews and roundup mentions show you the gap to close. Our playbook for getting recommended by ChatGPT covers each piece.

Step 5: repeat it monthly

AI answers change as the web changes, so a one-off check goes stale fast. Put a monthly reminder in your calendar, run the same five questions, and add a new column. After three months you will see whether what you are publishing is moving the answers.

When a paid tracker makes sense

Once AI search is a real source of buyers, checking by hand gets tedious, and a tracker that runs more questions across more assistants is worth considering. We compare the options and their prices in AI visibility tools for DTC brands and Lantern vs Torvio. If you would rather have someone watch it alongside the rest of your marketing, Kova checks how you show up in AI search as part of the same morning brief that covers your content, competitors and email.

Frequently asked questions

How do I check if ChatGPT mentions my brand for free?

Write five questions your buyers would ask, run them in a fresh ChatGPT chat, in Perplexity and in Google, and note whether you were named, what was said, and who was named instead. Repeat monthly with the same wording so you can compare.

How can I track brand mentions in ChatGPT over time?

Keep a simple spreadsheet with the same questions each month and one column per month. Log whether you were named and copy the sentence about you. Consistent wording is what makes the trend meaningful.

Why does ChatGPT give different answers each time?

Answers vary with wording, location, chat history and whether the assistant searches the web. Use a fresh chat, keep the exact wording, and run each question more than once if the answer looks unusual.

Do I need a paid tool to track AI brand mentions?

Not at first. A monthly manual check is enough for most small brands. A paid tracker makes sense once AI search is sending you real buyers and you want more questions, more assistants and weekly updates.