u/otterpasta

https://preview.redd.it/h4dcb5sgjtah1.png?width=1675&format=png&auto=webp&s=d9cf6effa0efa37508289b51793c0db097d2f2bb

Ran 50 best-tool prompts through ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini. Pulled every brand each one named. 150 answers, 277 brands.

All three agreed on the same brand only 21% of the time. Over half the mentions came from a single engine.

HubSpot showed up in 62% of all answers, so the big names dominate. But everyone else's visibility totally depends on which engine you ask. ChatGPT loves niche tools, Perplexity sticks to incumbents, Gemini stays mainstream and very Google flavored.

If you're doing GEO, optimizing for one engine tells you nothing about the other two.

Genuine question for the marketers here: are you tracking visibility per engine, or treating AI search as one thing?

https://preview.redd.it/voxart75itah1.png?width=1753&format=png&auto=webp&s=c0f8900184ad8dc84a901152e1de3defab644f54

I ran the same 50 best-tool prompts through all three and pulled out every brand they named. 150 answers later, they basically have different taste.

• ChatGPT is the over-sharer. Widest list every time, and it name-drops 59 obscure tools the other two never mention. It also recommended "ChatGPT" 16 times, very humble.
• Perplexity is the safe friend. Same well known names over and over, rarely takes a risk.
• Gemini is very on brand for Google. It pushed Canva more than twice as often as ChatGPT, leaned hard into the Google ecosystem, and quietly recommended Claude 13 times. Recommending a competitor more than itself is a choice.

The kicker: across everything, all three agreed on the same brand only 21% of the time. Same question, three different realities.

So "what does AI recommend" has no single answer. It depends entirely on which model you ask, and each one has a clear bias.

Which engine's taste do you trust most? And has anyone else caught Gemini recommending Claude in the wild?

https://preview.redd.it/voxart75itah1.png?width=1753&format=png&auto=webp&s=c0f8900184ad8dc84a901152e1de3defab644f54

I ran the same 50 best-tool prompts through all three and pulled out every brand they named. 150 answers later, they basically have different taste.

• ChatGPT is the over-sharer. Widest list every time, and it name-drops 59 obscure tools the other two never mention. It also recommended "ChatGPT" 16 times, very humble.
• Perplexity is the safe friend. Same well known names over and over, rarely takes a risk.
• Gemini is very on brand for Google. It pushed Canva more than twice as often as ChatGPT, leaned hard into the Google ecosystem, and quietly recommended Claude 13 times. Recommending a competitor more than itself is a choice.

The kicker: across everything, all three agreed on the same brand only 21% of the time. Same question, three different realities.

So "what does AI recommend" has no single answer. It depends entirely on which model you ask, and each one has a clear bias.

Which engine's taste do you trust most? And has anyone else caught Gemini recommending Claude in the wild?

I run a small SaaS and kept hearing "you need to rank in AI search now." So before sinking time into it, I tested how AI search actually picks brands.

I ran 50 "best tool" type prompts through ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini and pulled every brand they named. 150 answers, 277 brands.

The thing that matters for us as builders: the three engines agreed on the same brand only 21% of the time. Most brand mentions came from just one engine. So you can be the obvious pick in one and invisible in another.

https://preview.redd.it/6lklpfzhhtah1.png?width=1472&format=png&auto=webp&s=57d17e9af8b3bf33ab9dd5485c823899b51368d3

Two takeaways if you're small:

1. ChatGPT is your best shot. It named 59 niche tools that the other two never mentioned once. It rewards the long tail.
2. Perplexity does the opposite, it keeps recommending the same big incumbents, so breaking in there is much harder.
   • The big names already won the easy slots. HubSpot alone is in 62% of all answers. You're not displacing them, you're fighting for the niche and comparison queries where the engines are still flexible.

Net for me: GEO is not one game. I'd rather get cited consistently by one engine for my specific niche than spread thin trying to rank everywhere.

For those of you actually doing this, which engine has sent you real signups or traffic, not just a mention?

I run a small SaaS and kept hearing "you need to rank in AI search now." So before sinking time into it, I tested how AI search actually picks brands.

I ran 50 "best tool" type prompts through ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini and pulled every brand they named. 150 answers, 277 brands.

The thing that matters for us as builders: the three engines agreed on the same brand only 21% of the time. Most brand mentions came from just one engine. So you can be the obvious pick in one and invisible in another.

Two takeaways if you're small:

1. ChatGPT is your best shot. It named 59 niche tools that the other two never mentioned once. It rewards the long tail.
2. Perplexity does the opposite, it keeps recommending the same big incumbents, so breaking in there is much harder.
   • The big names already won the easy slots. HubSpot alone is in 62% of all answers. You're not displacing them, you're fighting for the niche and comparison queries where the engines are still flexible.

https://preview.redd.it/5o35ca2dhtah1.png?width=1472&format=png&auto=webp&s=b4cf566dc20094f153c89a4903078388f0be7f34

Net for me: GEO is not one game. I'd rather get cited consistently by one engine for my specific niche than spread thin trying to rank everywhere.

For those of you actually doing this, which engine has sent you real signups or traffic, not just a mention?

Setup
50 buyer intent prompts (best CRM, best email tool, Notion alternatives, what tools do startups use, and so on). Each prompt run once through ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini.

I pulled every brand named in each answer and normalized variants so HubSpot CRM and HubSpot count once. That gave me 150 answers and 277 distinct brands.

Headline
Across 1,257 brand-by-topic appearances, all 3 engines named the same brand only 21% of the time. 53% of mentions came from a single engine only.

Distribution is heavily top loaded. HubSpot appeared in 62% of all answers and 34 of the 50 topics. A small group of brands absorbs most of the total mentions.

https://preview.redd.it/vvu9f5xjftah1.png?width=1316&format=png&auto=webp&s=78ba040dd6b26c00cf55fbd0e8eaeb648707dbaa

Per engine behavior

• ChatGPT cast the widest net, 15.3 brands per answer, 253 distinct, 59 of them named by no other engine.
• Perplexity was the most conservative, 11.9 per answer, 172 distinct, leaning on established names.
• Gemini stayed mainstream with only 3 unique-to-it brands and skewed toward the Google ecosystem and design tools.

Limitations, because they matter.

Single run per prompt, no temperature control, my own prompt set, manual extraction.

Treat it as directional, not a benchmark.

Happy to share the prompt list and the full brand frequency table.

The implication for GEO

Optimizing for 1 engine tells you almost nothing about the other two. Visibility is per engine, not a shared leaderboard.

What's your read on the 21% agreement figure? It came in lower than I expected. Has anyone run something similar at larger scale?

Setup
50 buyer intent prompts (best CRM, best email tool, Notion alternatives, what tools do startups use, and so on). Each prompt run once through ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini.

I pulled every brand named in each answer and normalized variants so HubSpot CRM and HubSpot count once. That gave me 150 answers and 277 distinct brands.

Headline
Across 1,257 brand-by-topic appearances, all 3 engines named the same brand only 21% of the time. 53% of mentions came from a single engine only.

Distribution is heavily top loaded. HubSpot appeared in 62% of all answers and 34 of the 50 topics. A small group of brands absorbs most of the total mentions.

https://preview.redd.it/nzurndw2ftah1.png?width=1316&format=png&auto=webp&s=b0267dd23d3d36bc7c378ef763b937ddd8f714ce

Per engine behavior

• ChatGPT cast the widest net, 15.3 brands per answer, 253 distinct, 59 of them named by no other engine.
• Perplexity was the most conservative, 11.9 per answer, 172 distinct, leaning on established names.
• Gemini stayed mainstream with only 3 unique-to-it brands and skewed toward the Google ecosystem and design tools.

Limitations, because they matter.

Single run per prompt, no temperature control, my own prompt set, manual extraction.

Treat it as directional, not a benchmark.

Happy to share the prompt list and the full brand frequency table.

The implication for GEO

Optimizing for 1 engine tells you almost nothing about the other two. Visibility is per engine, not a shared leaderboard.

What's your read on the 21% agreement figure? It came in lower than I expected. Has anyone run something similar at larger scale?