How to see which competitors ChatGPT recommends instead of you

When ChatGPT doesn't recommend you, it recommends someone else. Knowing who, and why, is more useful than knowing your own score, because it tells you exactly who you're up against and what they have that you don't.

Why your AI competitors may surprise you

The products AI names are often not the ones on your competitor slide. ChatGPT builds its answer from what's written about a category online. A big brand from a nearby category, an old tool with lots of reviews, or a free tool that everyone links to can all show up ahead of your direct rivals.

For example, when we asked "tool to track whether Claude mentions my startup", the answers named Google Alerts, Mention and Brandwatch: general brand-monitoring tools, not AI visibility trackers. Those are the products a buyer is weighing up, so they're your real competition for that question.

Step 1: Pick the questions that matter

Start with 5 to 10 buyer questions, the ones people ask just before they choose a tool:

• "Best [category] for [type of customer]"
• "[Market leader] alternatives"
• "Cheapest [category] for small teams"
• "[Category] that works with [tool your buyers already use]"

Our guide to choosing buyer questions helps you find the right ones.

Step 2: Ask in a clean chat, several times

Use a temporary chat or a logged-out browser so your own history doesn't change the answer. Ask each question three times, because answers vary from run to run. Do the same in Gemini and Claude if your buyers use them.

Step 3: List every product named

For each answer, write down every product named, in order. Then count across all answers:

The rival named most often, highest up, is the one to study first.

Step 4: Find out why they're picked

AI assistants usually cite sources. Open them. You'll typically find one or more of these:

• "Best of" articles that list the rival and not you.
• Review sites where the rival has hundreds of reviews and you have a few.
• Reddit or forum threads where real users recommend the rival.
• The rival's own pages: a clear comparison page, a pricing page with real numbers, or a use-case page that matches the question word for word.

Each of these is something you can work on. Which websites AI assistants cite explains how to approach each type.

Step 5: Look for the gaps

Some patterns are worth watching for:

• A rival wins one question but not others. Usually that rival has a page that matches that question exactly. You can write one too.
• Nobody is named for a question. That question is open. A clear, honest page that answers it can win it quickly.
• The same rival wins on ChatGPT but not on Gemini. The engines are using different sources. Look at what Gemini cites and get onto those pages too.

A worked example

Say you sell a simple invoicing tool for freelancers. You ask "best invoicing tool for freelancers" three times each on ChatGPT and Gemini. Across the six answers:

• FreshBooks is named in all six, always first or second.
• Wave is named in five, usually second or third.
• You're named in two, both times fifth.
• A spreadsheet template site you'd never heard of is named in three.

The cited pages show why. FreshBooks and Wave are on every "best invoicing software" list that's cited, and both have hundreds of reviews. The template site has a popular free guide that answers the question directly.

So your to-do list writes itself: get onto the two most-cited lists, ask happy customers for reviews on the review site that keeps coming up, and publish a clear guide for freelancers that answers the question better than the template site does. Then check again in a few weeks.

Doing this every week, without the spreadsheet

Doing this by hand once is useful. Doing it every week gets tedious, and the answers change often enough that a monthly check misses a lot.

Citemark does it for you. Add your domain and it suggests your competitors and buyer questions, then puts them to ChatGPT and Gemini (and Claude on Pro). For every question you see:

• Which rivals were named, and in what position.
• Rivals that keep being named but aren't on your competitor list, so you can add them.
• The pages each answer cited, grouped by type.
• A Fixes tab with up to three suggestions per question, based on what the answers actually said.

You also get an alert when a rival enters an answer you were in, or you drop out of one.

Turn the list into wins

Once you know who's beating you and why, work through it one question at a time:

1. Pick the question with the most buyers and the rival you're closest to.
2. Get onto the pages cited for that question, or publish a page that answers it better.
3. Wait a few weeks and check whether you're now named.

The playbook for getting recommended by ChatGPT has more on what works. If a rival has a comparison page about you, write an honest one of your own.

See your rivals now

The free AI visibility check shows who ChatGPT and Claude name instead of you for 5 buyer questions, in about a minute. To track it daily, start a 7-day Pro trial with no card.