Visibility classifications changed
1 in 6
The API with web search and ChatGPT Search disagreed in 82 of 500 sampled business-market comparisons.
Published evidence · Reviewed 3 November 2026
AI search statistics you can trace to a source
A reference for writers and researchers. These findings come from studies already published by Outrigger. Each result keeps its sample, collection conditions and limitations.
The published v3 observational audit
Roughly seven in ten businesses (69.5% of 2,729) were not mentioned by any AI system they were tested on. Gemini and Google AI Overviews were tested for a subset of the sample only.
Businesses cited as a source by Perplexity were roughly six times as likely to be mentioned in that response.
Off-page presence (directories such as BBB, Yelp and Trustpilot, Wikipedia, LinkedIn company pages, and Reddit and Quora mentions) correlates with being mentioned by ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity after nine controls (v3 Tables 2–4).
Source: House, v3 paper, 2026-05-07; DOI 10.5281/zenodo.20076380. Collection: April–May 2026. Preprint, not peer reviewed. The 1,004-business Phase 1 sample is included in the full 2,729, not a separate confirmation.
These are observational associations. They do not establish that adding a citation or changing an off-page signal causes an increase in mentions. Results describe the systems and prompts tested at the time.
The API versus ChatGPT Search pilot
An exploratory engineering pilot published 2026-08-20 compared collection routes using 1,000 unique buying questions, with one run per question and route.
Named a different clear panel winner
22.9%
In the 48 contexts where both methods produced one clear winner, they selected different businesses 11 times. At a stricter threshold, the estimate was 16.3%.
Average recommendation overlap
32.1%
Across 800 unnamed buying questions, the two methods returned exactly the same recommendation set only 5.1% of the time.
The 82 of 500 business-market comparisons, 48 clear-winner contexts and 800 unnamed questions are different analysis subsets. Do not combine their percentages. The 32.1% figure is average recommendation overlap; 5.1% is exact-set agreement.
This pilot does not establish a universal disagreement rate for AI tracking tools. Its sample, one-run design and collection setup limit generalization.
Cite the version and the denominator
Use the authoritative v3 paper for the expanded observational audit. Earlier headlines from superseded versions are not current findings. Preserve coverage caveats whenever you quote a number.
House, J. (2026). Off-Page Signals Have Model-Specific Effects on Generative AI Search Visibility: Evidence from a Cross-Platform Audit of 2,729 Businesses Across Five Generative AI Systems (v3). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20076380
For the pilot: House, J., and Outrigger Research (2026). ChatGPT API vs. ChatGPT Search. Published 20 August 2026. Study and methods.
V6, Wave 2 is planned for 17–21 November 2026. Its numbers are pending and are excluded from this reference.
Research methodology and disclosures · GEO benchmark reference · Ask about a finding
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