ChatGPT Now Picks Local Businesses From Google Business Profile Data

ChatGPT answers local questions with a map and a shortlist

Ask ChatGPT for the best plumber to fix a frozen pipe in Toronto and you get more than a paragraph of advice. The answer usually includes a small map with a few businesses pinned on it, each with a name, an address and a rating like “4.9 from 25 reviews.” For a homeowner standing in a wet basement, that shortlist is often the whole decision.

The written part of the answer can cite web pages, but the businesses on the map come from local data feeds. ChatGPT’s response data labels each pick with the feed it came from, and that label tells you where ChatGPT got its information about your business.

Until recently, Yelp supplied most of those picks

On July 23, 2026, Axios reported that Yelp had signed a non-exclusive deal to license its reviews, photos and business details to OpenAI. About a month later, SteadyDemand ran 4,607 local prompts through ChatGPT over a 72-hour window. Yelp data was attached to the business cards in 95.8% of runs. Google data showed up in 4.6%.^1,2

BrightLocal saw the same pattern in its August 2026 study of local AI answers. Yelp appeared as a source in 80% of ChatGPT’s responses, more than any other local site.³

In October, most picks came from Google Maps listings

On October 17, 2026, we sent 200 home services questions to ChatGPT, such as “best roofer for ice dam leaks after a snowstorm in Oakville, ON” and “best electrician to upgrade a 100 amp panel in Seattle.” Half covered cities across the U.S. and Canada, and half covered the Greater Toronto Area. We could read ChatGPT’s full response data for 77 of the answers, and 71 of those included a map.

Those maps held 183 businesses. 139 of them (76%) came from a feed labelled “bright-feed,” and every business in it carried a Google Place ID, the code Google uses to identify a listing on Google Maps. Yelp’s feed supplied 40 (22%), and search results supplied the last 4. The Toronto-area questions leaned even harder on Google listings: 63 of 70 picks came from bright-feed.⁴

We can’t tell from the data who runs that feed or how OpenAI gets it. The businesses in it are Google Maps listings, though, so ChatGPT is reading the same name, category, rating and address that you manage in your Google Business Profile. SteadyDemand measured its numbers in a slightly different way, so treat the comparison as rough. Even so, Yelp went from nearly every card in August to about one in five in our October tests.

Your Google profile won’t show up as a citation

This shift is easy to miss if you only track which links ChatGPT cites. In BrightLocal’s data, Google Business Profile wasn’t among ChatGPT’s top cited sources, and in our tests ChatGPT almost never linked to a Google listing. The profile data still decides the name, rating and address a customer sees on the map card. It just arrives without a link.³

A business can look absent from ChatGPT’s source list and still be one of its top picks. When you check how ChatGPT treats your business, look at the map cards as well as the sources.

What to fix on your Google Business Profile

Start with the primary category. ChatGPT is answering a specific question, like a furnace that won’t ignite or a flat roof that leaks, so your primary category should match the work you most want, with every real secondary category added. Then list each service separately with a short description. A profile that only says “HVAC” gives ChatGPT less to match against a heat pump question than one that lists heat pump installation by name.

Reviews come next, because your star rating and review count print right on ChatGPT’s card. A 4.9 with recent reviews looks better there than a 4.3 that stopped growing years ago. Ask every customer for a review, and ask them to mention the job and the neighbourhood.

Then make your details match everywhere. Your business name, address, phone number and hours should be identical on your profile, your website and your other listings, and your photos should show your real crew and real jobs. Keep your Yelp listing current too. It still supplied about one pick in five in our tests, and its deal with OpenAI is still in place.¹