For restaurant owners
How do ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity decide which restaurants to recommend?
Short answer: when someone asks for a place to eat, these assistants usually look it up in that moment, through web search or a maps index, and then write an answer from the places those sources describe clearly and consistently. None of them publishes a ranking formula, and none sells a guaranteed spot in its answers. Below is a plain summary of what each company says in its own public docs, with links, so you can check it yourself.
TableWatch's dated brief checks ChatGPT and Gemini. It does not test Perplexity or Google AI Overviews; Perplexity is covered here because owners ask about it.
Sources checked .
Do AI assistants search the web before recommending a restaurant?
Often, yes. OpenAI says ChatGPT may search the web on its own when a question needs current information, and can use an approximate location for local results. Google says Gemini uses public information from Google Search and Google Maps. Perplexity runs its own crawler to surface and link websites in its answers.
- What matters most is what the web and map listings say about you at the moment someone asks.
Source: OpenAI Help Center; Gemini Apps Help; Perplexity docs
Where does ChatGPT get restaurant information?
From web search. OpenAI says ChatGPT sometimes sends a rewritten query to partner search providers, for example turning “good restaurants near me” into a city-level search, along with a general location but not your IP address. Reservation times, when shown, come from OpenTable, Resy, or Yelp.
- A site can appear in ChatGPT search answers only if it lets OpenAI's search crawler, OAI-SearchBot, read it.
- OpenAI says it ranks results on several factors and that placement is not guaranteed.
Source: OpenAI Help Center; OpenAI Platform docs
Where does Gemini get restaurant information?
From Google's own services. Google says Gemini automatically uses public information from Google Search and Google Maps, so your Google Business Profile and the pages Google has indexed about you are the raw material.
- For local results on Search and Maps, Google says ranking is based mainly on relevance, distance, and popularity.
- Google says complete, accurate profile details (address, hours, category) make a business more likely to show up.
- Google does not publish how Gemini itself weighs those signals; treat this as the closest public description.
Where does Perplexity get restaurant information?
From its own web crawl. Perplexity says its crawler, PerplexityBot, is built to surface and link websites in Perplexity's search results, and recommends allowing it in robots.txt if you want to appear.
- Because answers link to the pages they draw on, a page that plainly states your hours, address, and what you serve gives it something to cite.
Source: Perplexity docs
Can a restaurant pay to be recommended?
Not in the regular answer. Google says there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking, and OpenAI says placement in ChatGPT search is not guaranteed. OpenAI's crawler docs say a separate crawler, OAI-AdsBot, checks pages submitted as ads on ChatGPT.
Source: Google Business Profile Help; OpenAI Help Center; OpenAI Platform docs
Why do different assistants name different places?
They read from different sources and phrase the search differently. Gemini leans on Google Search and Maps, ChatGPT on its search partners, and Perplexity on its own crawl, and each uses your location in its own way, so the same question can return different lists.
When ChatGPT and Gemini name different places
Source: OpenAI Help Center; Gemini Apps Help; Perplexity docs
Why might an assistant skip my restaurant?
None of the companies lists every reason. These are general, checkable gaps that follow from the docs above, and fixing them is not a guarantee of being named.
- Your site blocks the crawlers (robots.txt or a firewall rule that turns away OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot, or Googlebot).
- Hours, address, or phone differ between your site, your Google Business Profile, and booking or review listings.
- Your Google Business Profile is unverified or missing hours or a category.
- Your site says what you serve and where only inside images or a PDF menu, not in page text.
- Few other sites link to the business, which Google says feeds popularity.
Source: OpenAI Platform docs; Perplexity docs; Google Business Profile Help
What can I check this week?
Ask the question yourself, then fix the basics the docs point to. None of these steps costs anything.
- Ask ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity a real neighborhood question, such as where to get dinner near you, and note who is named.
- Open yoursite.com/robots.txt and make sure it does not block OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot, or Googlebot.
- Make hours, address, and phone match on your site, Google Business Profile, and any OpenTable, Resy, or Yelp listing.
- Put cuisine, neighborhood, hours, and phone in plain text on your homepage.
- Reply to recent Google reviews.
Is my restaurant on ChatGPT? A self-check
Source: OpenAI Platform docs; Perplexity docs; Google Business Profile Help
How does TableWatch fit in?
TableWatch asks ChatGPT and Gemini a set of neighborhood questions about your restaurant and gives you a dated brief of who got named, whether hours and a phone came through, and what to fix. One report is $29. Includes a second run one month after your purchase, so you can see what changed.
Sources
Public documentation from each company, read on October 17, 2026. These pages change; check them for the latest wording.