How to Track Competitors in ChatGPT: Benchmarking Guide

A leaderboard of who ChatGPT mentions most is nice to have. What you can act on is shorter: the prompts where competitors appear and you don’t, and the pages that put them there.

We’ll start with a free manual method you can run in a spreadsheet. Then come the metrics that matter, a worked example from our own data and the point where a competitor tracking tool saves you time.

What does tracking competitors in ChatGPT mean?

A complete benchmark compares five things for every brand:

Our glossary covers AI competitor analysis in more detail.

Who are your competitors in ChatGPT?

Don’t start with your sales battlecards. ChatGPT may name brands you rarely meet in deals, such as a large suite, a free tool or a review site.

Run 20 unbranded category prompts and write down every brand each answer names. The three to five brands named most often are your ChatGPT competitor set.

Also note which third-party domains ChatGPT cites again and again. Review sites and directories aren’t rivals, and neither are forums. They still decide which rivals get named.

How to track competitors in ChatGPT manually

The manual method works for about 30 prompts and five brands. You need ChatGPT, a spreadsheet and the same setup on every check.

Step 1: Fix one prompt set for all brands

Use category, problem, "best tool for" and alternative prompts. Add a few comparison prompts, such as "[your brand] vs [competitor]".

Step 2: Keep settings identical

Use a Temporary Chat with personalization off, the same plan and the same country for every run.

OpenAI’s help article on ChatGPT web search says saved memories and approximate location can shape search results. Different settings can create fake gaps.

Step 3: Run each prompt several times

Run every prompt three times per check, each in a new chat. One run can show a rival that never appears again.

Step 4: Log every brand and every source

For each run, record all brands named, the brand ChatGPT recommends first, and every cited domain. Mark cited domains as yours, a competitor’s or third-party.

Step 5: Build a prompt gap matrix

Put prompts in rows and brands in columns. In each cell, enter how many of the three runs named that brand, from 0 to 3.

Then sort the rows into four groups:

Step 6: Read the sources behind each gap

For every competitor gap, open the pages ChatGPT cited. Note whether they’re the rival’s own pages or third-party ones: review sites, forums, media articles.

Which metrics show how you compare with competitors in ChatGPT?

Read how AI share of voice is defined, and our full guide on measuring AI share of voice across platforms.

Why list position is a weak competitor benchmark

It’s tempting to track who ChatGPT lists first. The data says that number moves too much to be useful on its own.

Its appearance rate was stable at 97%, while its position kept changing. Benchmark competitors on how often they appear, then use position only as a tiebreaker.

The GEO paper on generative engine optimization also found that what works for visibility varies by domain. So compare against rivals in your own category, not against general benchmarks.

Worked example: our competitor benchmark

Ansvisor, an open-source AI search intelligence platform, benchmarks itself against other AI visibility tools on a fixed prompt set.

In our tracking data, a brand’s share of voice can differ several-fold between AI engines in the same month.

The most cited third-party domains were reddit.com at a 14.5% citation share, youtube.com at 11.6% and github.com at 11.5%.

How to act on competitor gaps

Track how ChatGPT describes each rival as well. Our guide to tracking ChatGPT brand mentions covers context and sentiment labels.

Manual tracking vs a tool to track competitors in ChatGPT

Keep your own trend in view too. Our ChatGPT visibility tracking guide shows the scorecard behind your own numbers.

How Ansvisor helps you benchmark competitors in ChatGPT

FAQ

How can I compare my ChatGPT visibility with competitors?

Run one prompt set for all brands, with the same settings and the same number of runs. Count how often each brand is named and divide by total runs. Then compare share of voice and the prompts each brand wins.

How do I track what AI engines like ChatGPT say about my company vs competitors?

Log every answer that names you or a rival, with the context and sentiment of each mention. Add comparison prompts such as "[brand] vs [competitor]". Review the exact wording each week, because it shows how ChatGPT positions each brand.

Which competitors should I track in ChatGPT?

Start with the three to five brands that ChatGPT names most often for your category prompts. They can differ from the rivals your sales team meets. Add review sites or directories that dominate the citations, because they shape answers too.

What is share of voice in ChatGPT?

Share of voice is your brand’s mentions divided by all mentions of you and your tracked competitors on the same prompts. It shows your relative presence. It’s only fair when every brand is measured on the same prompts and runs.

How can I monitor my competitors’ performance in AI search?

Use one prompt set across ChatGPT and other AI platforms, and score each brand per platform. A brand can lead in one assistant and trail in another. Review the cited sources for prompts where a competitor gains ground.