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What is Businesses in ChatGPT? How Does Business Hub Work?
Businesses in ChatGPT guide: claim your Business Hub profile and read mentions and clicks.
Businesses in ChatGPT is OpenAI's new program that lets companies claim their business inside ChatGPT, manage the information ChatGPT can use about them, and see aggregated data on how often ChatGPT mentions them. OpenAI launched it in beta on November 10, 2026. The management dashboard is called Business Hub.
For SEO and GEO teams, this is the first time ChatGPT itself reports first-party visibility numbers to brands. That is why many marketers already call Business Hub the "ChatGPT Search Console" and the claimed listing a "ChatGPT Business Profile." Neither name is official, but both describe what the product does.
This guide explains what Businesses in ChatGPT includes, how claiming and verification work, which metrics Business Hub shows, and what those metrics leave out. Every product detail below comes from OpenAI's announcement and its Business Hub setup guide, unless another source is named.
What Is Businesses in ChatGPT?
Businesses in ChatGPT is a set of business tools inside ChatGPT that lets eligible companies claim their listing, keep their details current, and understand how people engage with them in ChatGPT conversations. OpenAI frames it around the 1.2 billion people it says use ChatGPT each week.
The program has three parts:
Component | What it does | Who can use it at launch |
|---|---|---|
Business Hub (claim and manage) | Claim the business, verify it, update details, add product feeds with prices and availability | Eligible businesses located where ChatGPT is available |
Insights | Aggregated mentions, website clicks and discovery topics | Claimed businesses that completed identity verification |
Business Agents | A branded assistant that answers questions about the business's products and policies | Eligible ecommerce and online service businesses in the US |
In practical terms, Businesses in ChatGPT moves ChatGPT closer to what Google Business Profile and Google Search Console do for Google Search. A brand gets an editable listing on one side and a reporting dashboard on the other. The big difference is that ChatGPT answers are generated, so the brand supplies information rather than controlling how it is presented.
What is the ChatGPT Business Profile?
The ChatGPT Business Profile is the page people see when they click a business that appears in a ChatGPT answer. OpenAI simply calls it the business's profile. Once a company claims and verifies it in Business Hub, the company can manage what that profile shows.
After verification, a business can update its website, description, product or service category, logo, delivery policy and return policy, and add a cover photo. Businesses that sell products can also connect a product feed, either a Shopify feed or a CSV file that follows OpenAI's product feed specification.
Two details matter for expectations:
The blue check comes later. Claiming alone does not add a verified badge. The blue check appears only after a separate identity verification with Persona is approved.
Edits are reviewed. OpenAI reviews and publishes changes, and updates can take time to appear. ChatGPT may also keep using other sources when it answers questions about the business.
How Does Business Hub Work?
Business Hub works in two approval stages. First, OpenAI approves your claim to the business. Second, OpenAI approves your identity verification through Persona. You need both before you can publish profile changes, connect a product feed, view insights or create a Business Agent.
How to claim your business in ChatGPT
Sign in to ChatGPT and open Business Hub from the sidebar.
Search for your business by name and select the matching listing.
Confirm the ChatGPT account that will manage the business. The claim is tied to this account.
Verify the claim with one of the methods offered for your listing.
Wait for OpenAI to review the claim. The decision arrives by email.
Complete identity verification with Persona. You may need a government-issued ID, business registration details and proof that you can represent the business.
If your business is not listed, eligible online businesses may see an option to add it. Local stores and restaurants can currently claim only an existing US listing.
Which verification methods does Business Hub support?
Method | How it works |
|---|---|
Business phone | A code by SMS or automated call to the number shown |
Business email | A code sent to the email address associated with the business |
Website domain | A TXT record added to the domain's DNS, then Verify domain |
Shopify store | Connect the store and sign in to Shopify |
The domain method usually needs whoever controls DNS, often IT or a hosting partner. Plan for that before you start.
Can teams and agencies manage a business?
Yes. The admin who claimed the business can add teammates and give an agency access, each on their own ChatGPT account. Each brand is managed separately, and claiming a parent brand does not claim its locations.
No Ads account or ChatGPT Enterprise agreement is required to claim a business. Claiming, advertising and publishing an agent are three separate steps.
Is Business Hub a ChatGPT Search Console?
Partly. The Insights tab in Business Hub is the closest thing to a ChatGPT Search Console that exists today, because it reports first-party data from ChatGPT about how often a business appears and gets clicked. Unlike Google Search Console, it does not show queries, rankings or page-level performance.
Insights cover aggregate activity over the past 28 days. OpenAI defines the metrics this way:
Metric | What it counts | What it does not count |
|---|---|---|
Mentions (online business) | ChatGPT references the business's website | The brand name appearing without a website reference |
Mentions (local business) | ChatGPT shows a result for that location | Whether the user opened the listing |
Website clicks | Clicks through to the business's website | Confirmed visits or conversions |
Discovery topics | Common themes in answers that mentioned or cited the business | Individual prompts or direct customer intent |
Profile views | Shown on the dashboard in OpenAI's launch image | OpenAI's setup guide does not define it yet |
How should you read ChatGPT Search Console numbers?
Read them as presence and referral signals, not as a full picture of brand visibility. Three rules from OpenAI's documentation shape the interpretation:
A blank metric is not zero. Insights appear only above privacy thresholds. A blank field can mean low volume, data still being collected or reporting being unavailable.
Clicks will not match analytics. Business Hub counts link clicks. GA4 counts sessions. Expect a gap between the two and compare trends, not totals.
Claiming does not raise visibility. OpenAI states that claiming does not guarantee more visibility or control over ChatGPT's independent recommendations, and that advertising does not influence those answers.
ChatGPT is not the only AI platform that started reporting to site owners. Visby tested a similar first-party report in Bing's AI Performance report, which is useful if you want to compare how each platform defines its numbers.
What Can't ChatGPT Search Console Data Tell You?
Business Hub tells you how much ChatGPT activity involved your business. It does not tell you why that activity happened or who appeared instead of you. Those gaps are by design, since OpenAI does not share individual prompts or conversations with businesses.
Here is what stays outside Business Hub at launch:
Prompts. You see themes, never the questions people asked.
Competitors. There is no share of voice or competitor benchmark, so you cannot see which brands were cited in answers that skipped you.
Unlinked brand mentions. Answers that name your brand without referencing your website do not count as mentions for an online business.
Other AI platforms. The data covers ChatGPT only. Gemini, Claude, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews are separate surfaces.
How does prompt tracking fill the gap?
Prompt tracking runs a defined set of prompts across AI platforms on a schedule and records which brands, sources and competitors appear in each answer. It answers the "why" questions Business Hub leaves open.
A simple example: Business Hub shows that mentions dropped over the last 28 days. A prompt tracker can show that the drop came from comparison prompts such as "best running shoes for flat feet," where a competitor's review page started getting cited. The first number tells you something changed. The second tells you where to act.
This is the workflow Visby is built for. Visby tracks brand mentions across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Google AI Overviews, shows the exact prompts that trigger your brand and the ones that do not, and flags prompts where competitors appear but you do not. It also connects GA4, Google Search Console and Bing, so AI-referred traffic can sit next to visibility data.
If you are comparing options, our guide to AI search visibility tools covers the wider market. For platform-specific coverage beyond ChatGPT, see these tools for tracking visibility in Claude and our list of ChatGPT rank trackers.
What Are Business Agents in ChatGPT?
A Business Agent is an assistant a verified business can build, test and publish inside ChatGPT to answer questions about its products and policies. When the business appears in a ChatGPT answer, users can open its profile and choose to start a separate, clearly labeled conversation with the agent.
The current limits are specific:
Business Agents are available only to eligible ecommerce and online service businesses in the US.
The agent explains products and policies and links to the business's website. It cannot complete purchases, make bookings or check orders.
Businesses do not see chats with their agent, only aggregated insights.
How do Business Agents connect to ChatGPT Ads?
OpenAI says businesses can sponsor their Business Agent and use it as the destination for ChatGPT Ads. Sponsored placements are labeled and kept separate from ChatGPT's own answers. This makes the agent a shared endpoint for organic discovery and paid reach. Visby covered the ad side in more detail in what ChatGPT Ads mean for AI visibility and GEO.
Is Businesses in ChatGPT Available Outside the US?
Claiming is not limited to the US, but Business Agents are. OpenAI says any eligible business located where ChatGPT is available can claim its business in Business Hub. Availability still depends on the business's location, its type and whether the required verification method is supported there.
Feature | Availability at launch |
|---|---|
Claim an existing listing | Eligible businesses where ChatGPT is available |
Add a new online business | Eligible online businesses, where the option appears |
Local stores and restaurants | Existing US listings only |
Business Agents | Eligible US ecommerce and online service businesses |
OpenAI has not published a country list. For an online brand in Turkey or Europe, the reliable check is to open Business Hub and attempt the claim. OpenAI says it plans to expand to more markets and business categories over time, without giving dates.
What Should Brands Do Now?
Claim the profile early, but treat it as a data source and an information channel, not a ranking lever. These steps are our recommendations, based on how OpenAI describes the product.
Record a baseline before you claim. Note what ChatGPT says about your brand today for your most important prompts. Business Hub gives you 28 days of history at most, so your own baseline is what lets you measure change later.
Line up the verification owner. Decide who controls the business phone, business email or DNS. A blocked claim usually means the right person was not in the loop.
Prepare for Persona. Have registration documents ready, and make sure the business name and address match official records.
Clean up the information ChatGPT will read. Prices, availability, return and delivery policies in a product feed should match your website exactly.
Use discovery topics for content planning. Topics show which themes lead ChatGPT to cite you. Gaps between those themes and your target topics are content opportunities. Teams building this into an answer engine optimization workflow can turn each gap into a page or FAQ brief.
Pair Business Hub with cross-platform tracking. Business Hub covers one platform without prompts or competitors. GEO tools for AI visibility tracking cover the multi-platform, prompt-level side.
The website still matters most. Business Hub controls the profile, but whether ChatGPT references your site in the first place depends on content it can find and cite. Our review of SEO tools for AI search covers the crawlability and content side of that work.
Frequently Asked Questions about Businesses in ChatGPT
Do I need Shopify to claim my business in ChatGPT?
No. Shopify is one of four verification methods, next to business phone, business email and website domain. Shopify merchants can also connect their store from the Shopify admin.
Does Business Hub cost anything?
OpenAI's setup guide lists no fee for claiming, and it says you do not need an Ads account or a ChatGPT Enterprise agreement. Sponsoring a Business Agent is part of ChatGPT Ads, which is a paid product.
What if someone else already claimed my business?
Open the profile, select the more options menu, then Dispute ownership, and verify with Persona that you are authorized to represent the business. Disputing ownership does not change the profile's visibility in ChatGPT.
Can I see which prompts mention my brand in Business Hub?
No. Discovery topics group themes from answers that mentioned or cited your business. Individual prompts and conversations are never shared with businesses.
Final Thoughts on Businesses in ChatGPT
The practical next step is to open Business Hub, check how your listing looks today and start the claim while it is still in beta. Then decide how you will answer the questions Business Hub cannot: which prompts drive your mentions, which competitors take your place and how your visibility compares on other AI platforms. That second layer is where a prompt tracking platform such as Visby fits.
