Claim your business in ChatGPT: why it matters as much as your Google Business Profile
On 10 November 2026, OpenAI launched Businesses in ChatGPT. For the first time, you can claim your business in ChatGPT, correct what it says about you and see how often it mentions you. It’s free.
If you’ve ever set up a Google Business Profile, this will feel familiar. And it deserves the same attention, because more of your customers are asking ChatGPT for a recommendation before they ever reach Google.
The short answer
ChatGPT is already talking about businesses like yours. Claiming your profile is how you make sure what it says is right. It takes a short while, it costs nothing and, if you get in early, you’ll be ahead of most of your competitors.
If you can’t claim yet (see below), there’s still plenty you can do now so you’re ready when it opens up.
What is a ChatGPT business listing?
When someone asks ChatGPT something like “who’s a good electrician near Brentwood?” or “where can I buy a gift hamper online?”, it can show businesses in its answer. Until now, you had no say in the details it showed.
Through a new area called Business Hub, which sits in the ChatGPT sidebar, a business owner can now:
- claim the profile ChatGPT already has for their business, or add one if it’s missing
- correct and update the information customers see
- see insights for the past 28 days, such as how often ChatGPT mentions the business, how many people click through to the website and the topics that come up
OpenAI doesn’t share people’s actual conversations with you. You see totals, not chats.
Why this matters for UK small businesses
OpenAI says ChatGPT now reaches around 1.2 billion people a week. Many of them are using it the way they once used a search engine: to find a product, compare options or pick someone local.
That changes things for small businesses in three ways:
- There’s often one answer, not ten blue links. When an AI recommends two or three businesses, being one of them matters far more than being on page two of Google.
- Wrong information costs you work. An old phone number, the wrong opening hours or a service you stopped offering years ago can send a customer somewhere else, and you’d never know.
- Your competitors will do it. The businesses that claimed their Google profiles early got a head start. The same is likely to happen here.
Just like your Google Business Profile
The easiest way to understand this is to compare it to something you probably already have.
Your Google Business Profile is the box that appears in Google Search and Google Maps with your address, opening hours, photos and reviews. For any business that serves local customers, it’s one of the most valuable free marketing tools there is. Keep it complete and up to date and Google is far more likely to show you to people nearby. Leave it half-finished and you’re handing those customers to someone else.
A ChatGPT business listing does the same job in a different place:
| Google Business Profile | ChatGPT business listing | |
|---|---|---|
| Where customers see it | Google Search and Google Maps | Answers and recommendations in ChatGPT |
| Cost | Free | Free |
| How you prove it’s yours | Usually a video, phone or postcard check | A code by business phone or email, a website check or Shopify, then an ID check |
| What you can see | Views, calls, direction requests and website clicks | Mentions, website clicks and common topics |
| Does it guarantee a top spot? | No | No |
Neither one is a choice between the other. Your customers use both, so you need both. And here’s the important bit: AI tools learn about your business from what’s already out there, including your website and your listings elsewhere. A complete, accurate Google Business Profile helps the whole picture hang together.
If your Google profile needs some attention, our Google Business Profile optimisation service can set it up properly and keep it working for you.
Can every UK business claim a profile yet?
Not quite. This is a beta, and it’s opening up in stages:
- Online businesses in the UK, such as online shops and businesses that sell through their website, can claim now.
- Local shops, restaurants and other businesses with a physical location can only claim existing US listings for the moment. UK owners checking their accounts are seeing this option marked “coming soon”.
- Business Agents, a separate feature where ChatGPT can answer customer questions on your behalf, are only available to US businesses so far.
So if you run a local service business in Essex, you may not be able to claim today. Have a look anyway, because it’s changing quickly, and use the time to get everything else ready.
How to claim your business in ChatGPT
If you’re eligible, the process looks like this:
- Sign in to ChatGPT and open Business Hub from the sidebar. Ideally use a company account rather than a personal one.
- Search for your business and select it. If you sell online and it isn’t there, you can add it.
- Prove you own it. You can choose a code sent to your business phone or business email, a small change to your website’s settings (your web person can do this in a few minutes) or, if you have a Shopify shop, connecting your Shopify account.
- Wait for OpenAI to approve the claim.
- Complete a short identity check. You may need photo ID and your business details. Your business name, address and company number need to match your official records, such as Companies House.
- Check every detail on your profile and update anything that’s out of date.
One thing to be clear on: claiming your profile won’t push you up ChatGPT’s recommendations. OpenAI says it keeps making its own choices. What claiming does is make sure that when you are mentioned, the details are right, and lets you see how often that’s happening.
What to do this week, even if you can’t claim yet
- Check your Google Business Profile. Make sure your name, address, phone number, opening hours, services and photos are complete and current.
- Make your details match everywhere. Your website, Google profile, social media, Companies House and directories such as Yell should all say the same thing.
- Make your website easy to understand. Clear pages that say what you do, where you work and who you help are what AI tools rely on.
- Ask ChatGPT about yourself. Try “tell me about [your business name] in [your town]” and note anything that’s wrong.
- Check Business Hub now and again to see whether claiming has opened up for your type of business.
Need a hand?
We help Essex businesses get found on Google and in AI tools like ChatGPT. If you’d like your Google profile sorted first, take a look at our Google Business Profile optimisation service. If you’d like to know how visible you are to AI, our mini AI visibility report is a good place to start.
Call Scott on 07812 738833 or email scott@dotscott.ai.
DotScott: joining the dots on your web & AI journey.
Sources
- Introducing Businesses in ChatGPT, OpenAI, 10 November 2026
- OpenAI lets you claim your business in ChatGPT, VentureBeat, 10 November 2026
- How to claim your business on ChatGPT (UK), BAW Creative
