Every table in the piece, the method, the files, and every business the assistants named.
Method
Run 2026-08-31. 64 prompts: 8 categories across 8 cities, each put to both engines with web search on. Every prompt ended: Search the web before answering. Name specific businesses.
Cities. San Francisco, California; Houston, Texas; Portland, Oregon; Dayton, Ohio; Boise, Idaho; Chattanooga, Tennessee; Bellingham, Washington; Missoula, Montana.
Prompts, by category.
- coffee: Where should I go for really good coffee in {city}? Give me specific places.
- lunch: I need a good gluten-free-friendly lunch spot in {city}. Which restaurants should I try?
- gym: What's the best gym to join in {city}? Name specific options and why.
- dog: Where should I board my dog for a week in {city}? Recommend specific businesses.
- plumber: My water heater is leaking in {city}. Which plumbing companies should I call?
- dentist: I'm new to {city} and need a dentist. Which practices do people recommend?
- bikeshop: Where should I get my bike tuned up in {city}? Name specific shops.
- taxprep: Who should I use for small-business tax prep in {city}? Specific firms please.
Classification. Each named business was tagged local / regional / national / platform by Claude Haiku as a neutral judge; a hand-kept list of national brands overrode the judge on conflict; 27 unclear calls got a second pass with a stronger model. YMCA counted as national.
Who the assistants named
Share of all business names, by class. Unrounded.
| ChatGPT | Gemini |
|---|
| Businesses named | 428 | 479 |
| Answers | 64 | 64 |
| Names per answer | 6.69 | 7.48 |
| Local independents | 83.6% | 81.8% |
| Regional operators | 3.5% | 5.2% |
| National chains | 12.9% | 11.3% |
| Platforms instead of a business | 0.0% | 1.7% |
| First-named business is local | 87.5% | 87.5% |
| Answers with any chain | 48.4% | 43.8% |
| Answers entirely local | 45.3% | 31.2% |
By category
| category | ChatGPT national | Gemini national | ChatGPT local | Gemini local | ChatGPT names | Gemini names |
|---|
| gym | 33.9% | 33.3% | 53.2% | 60.3% | 62 | 63 |
| plumber | 21.7% | 8.3% | 76.1% | 85.4% | 46 | 48 |
| dog boarding | 20.9% | 20.4% | 76.7% | 74.1% | 43 | 54 |
| bike shop | 15.7% | 20.0% | 84.3% | 78.2% | 51 | 55 |
| tax prep | 7.5% | 5.4% | 86.8% | 83.9% | 53 | 56 |
| gluten-free lunch | 5.7% | 2.7% | 90.6% | 83.6% | 53 | 73 |
| dentist | 0.0% | 1.6% | 100.0% | 91.8% | 55 | 61 |
| coffee | 0.0% | 1.4% | 100.0% | 95.7% | 65 | 69 |
By metro tier
| metro tier | ChatGPT national | Gemini national | ChatGPT local | Gemini local |
|---|
| large | 17.0% | 14.5% | 79.5% | 75.0% |
| mid | 12.7% | 11.1% | 85.4% | 82.8% |
| small | 10.1% | 9.1% | 84.8% | 85.7% |
By city
| city | ChatGPT national | Gemini national | ChatGPT local | Gemini local |
|---|
| Bellingham, Washington | 3.7% | 5.6% | 90.7% | 87.0% |
| Boise, Idaho | 9.4% | 8.2% | 88.7% | 82.0% |
| Chattanooga, Tennessee | 19.6% | 12.7% | 76.5% | 84.1% |
| Dayton, Ohio | 24.5% | 17.9% | 71.7% | 73.2% |
| Houston, Texas | 25.9% | 16.2% | 72.2% | 72.1% |
| Missoula, Montana | 7.5% | 8.6% | 86.8% | 86.2% |
| Portland, Oregon | 3.8% | 7.9% | 96.2% | 92.1% |
| San Francisco, California | 8.6% | 12.5% | 86.2% | 78.6% |
Most-named national brands
| engine | most-named national brands (count) |
|---|
| ChatGPT | YMCA (7), Roto-Rooter (7), REI (6), Life Time (3), Planet Fitness (3), Pet Paradise (2), Camp Bow Wow (2), Trek Bicycle (2), True Food Kitchen (1), P.F. Chang (1), Mellow Mushroom (1), Crunch Fitness (1) |
| Gemini | REI (5), YMCA (4), Trek Bicycle (4), Planet Fitness (3), Dogtopia (3), Camp Bow Wow (3), Roto-Rooter (3), Equinox (2), Life Time (2), Snap Fitness (2), Velofix (2), Stumptown (1) |
| engine | platforms recommended instead of a business (count) |
|---|
| ChatGPT | none |
| Gemini | Rover (3), Find Me Gluten Free (2), Zocdoc (1), Thumbtack (1), Thervo (1) |
Cross-engine agreement
| measure | value |
|---|
| prompts compared | 64 |
| mean overlap per prompt (Jaccard, 0 to 1) | 0.267 |
| Gemini names that ChatGPT also named | 37.0 |
| ChatGPT names that Gemini also named | 41.4 |
Files
Explore the rows
Every business the assistants named, with the class it was given. Filter, and the counts recompute from the rows you see. Nothing leaves your browser.