FootnotelyHow to check if ChatGPT mentions your brand
You can check for free in about 20 minutes. The catch: AI answers change from one ask to the next, so a single screenshot tells you very little. Here's a method that gives you a number you can actually trust.
Updated October 19, 2026 · By the Footnotely team
The short answer
Write 10–20 questions a real buyer would ask (not your brand name), ask each one at least 3 times in a fresh chat on ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google, and count how often you're named. Divide hits by total asks. That's your mention rate.
Step 1: Write buyer questions, not brand questions
"What is Acme?" only tests whether the AI knows you exist. What matters is whether you show up when someone doesn't know you yet. Good questions look like:
- "best invoicing app for freelancers"
- "cheaper alternative to [biggest competitor]"
- "how do I [job your product does] without [pain]"
Pull wording from your sales calls, support tickets, Reddit threads and Google Search Console queries.
Step 2: Ask each question several times
Open a new temporary chat for every ask so memory and earlier messages don't leak in. Ask each question 3+ times per engine. Record: were you named (yes/no), which competitors were named, and which sources were cited.
Step 3: Do the maths honestly
Mention rate = times named ÷ total asks. With small samples the uncertainty is large. A rough way to see how much the number can swing is 1.96 × √(p × (1 − p) ÷ n). At 20 asks and a 30% rate, that's about ±20 points. So "30%" really means "somewhere between 10% and 50%". More asks shrink that range.
| Asks (n) | Rate seen | Approx. margin |
|---|---|---|
| 10 | 30% | ± 28 pts |
| 30 | 30% | ± 16 pts |
| 60 | 30% | ± 12 pts |
| 120 | 30% | ± 8 pts |
Calculated with the normal approximation above; it's a guide, not a guarantee.
Step 4: Check what the AI says about you
When you are mentioned, check the facts: price, plans, features, who it's for. AI answers often repeat old pricing pages, review sites or forum posts. Note any wrong claim and the source it cites.
Step 5: Make sure AI crawlers can read your site
If your robots.txt or CDN blocks OAI-SearchBot or PerplexityBot, those engines may struggle to cite your pages. Run our free AI crawler checker and read which bot does what.
What to do with the results
- Competitors named instead of you: look at the sources cited next to them. Those are the review sites, lists and threads to get onto.
- Never named for a question: publish a clear page that answers it directly, like a comparison or "best X for Y" page.
- Wrong facts: fix your pricing page, add structured data, and update third-party listings that are out of date.
Google explains how its AI features pick sources in its AI features documentation: the same SEO basics apply.
FAQ
Can I see how often ChatGPT recommends my product?
OpenAI does not publish brand mention data. The practical way is to ask the questions your buyers ask, several times each, and count how often you are named.
Why does ChatGPT give a different answer every time?
Language models sample their output, and with web search on they may pull different sources each time. That's why one answer is an anecdote, not a measurement.
Should I use a logged-in account?
Use a fresh chat or temporary chat with memory off, so your own history doesn't steer the answer toward your brand.
Track it every week instead of checking by hand
Footnotely asks your buyer questions on ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini several times per run and shows the mention rate with its sample size, the raw answers, and who gets named instead of you. Free plan, then from $29/mo.