TL;DR — Different AI providers favor different competitors, so a rival that underperforms you on Perplexity might dominate on Gemini. Go to Overview > Compare > By Provider to see the score gap per platform, then open the GEO Matrix with provider columns to pinpoint which topic-provider combinations are weakest. Check the trend indicator to see if the gap is widening or narrowing over time. Pro tip: filter the GEO Matrix by a single topic cluster to determine whether a competitor’s provider advantage is broad or narrow enough to address with targeted content updates.
The Question
“Which competitors outperform me on specific AI providers?”AI providers do not all behave the same way. ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, and Copilot each have different training pipelines, retrieval mechanisms, and citation patterns — which means a competitor that underperforms you on Perplexity might dominate you on Gemini. Understanding which providers favor which competitors lets you target your GEO investment precisely instead of applying generic improvements across the board. This question is critical when you are deciding where to focus content, citation building, or technical optimization efforts. You might also be wondering:
- “Is there a specific provider where I have zero visibility while a competitor has strong presence?”
- “Why does one competitor outperform me on ChatGPT but not on Perplexity?”
- “How has the provider-level gap between me and a competitor changed over the last 90 days?”
Where to Go in Qwairy
Start here: Overview > Compare > By Provider
Navigate to Overview > Compare, then select the By Provider tab. Choose the competitors you want to benchmark against and select your analysis period.
Focus on the provider breakdown table, which shows each brand’s visibility score per AI platform in a single view. The gap between your score and each competitor’s score per provider is your primary data point.
Go deeper: Overview > GEO Matrix
Open Overview > GEO Matrix and set the columns to Providers. The matrix gives you a heatmap view — cells are color-coded by score intensity, making it immediately clear which provider-topic combinations are strong or weak for your brand relative to the competitive landscape.
Use the competitor toggle in the matrix to overlay a specific competitor’s scores alongside yours on the same grid.
Go deeper: Overview > Performance
In the Performance Dashboard, filter by a specific provider to see your brand’s trend line on that platform. Then open the same view for a competitor to visually compare the slope of improvement or decline over the same period.
This is the right view for answering “has the gap been widening or narrowing over the last 60 days?”
Complete the picture: Looker Studio
Connect the Qwairy Looker Studio connector using the Compare by Provider data source. Build a cross-provider competitive bar chart that refreshes daily. This is the most effective format for stakeholder reporting when you need to show provider-specific competitive positioning at a glance.
What to Look For
Compare > By Provider Tab
The By Provider view presents each AI platform as a column, with your brand and selected competitors as rows. This structure makes it straightforward to scan across platforms and spot where gaps are largest.| Element | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Score per provider | Your brand’s visibility score on each AI platform — 0 to 100 scale |
| Competitor score delta | The positive or negative difference between your score and a competitor’s score on the same provider |
| Provider rank | Your relative position among all brands appearing on that provider — useful when absolute scores are low across the board |
| Trend indicator | Whether the gap on each provider is growing, stable, or closing compared to the previous period |
GEO Matrix — Provider Column View
The GEO Matrix gives you two dimensions at once: providers across the top, topics or prompts down the side. This reveals not just where a competitor outperforms you, but on which type of question and on which platform the gap is most acute.| Element | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Red or amber cells | Provider-topic combinations where your score is significantly below average — prioritize these |
| Competitor overlay | When enabled, shows the competitor’s score in the same cell for direct comparison |
| Dark green cells | Areas of strength — useful for understanding what is working on a given provider |
Pro Tip: Combine the GEO Matrix provider view with the Topic filter to identify whether a competitor’s advantage on a specific provider is broad (across all topics) or narrow (only on specific query types). Narrow advantages are often addressable with targeted content updates.
Filters That Help
| Filter | How to use it for this question |
|---|---|
| Provider | Isolate a single platform to go from overview to deep-dive — start with the provider where the largest gap exists |
| Period | Use 90-day vs. 30-day comparison to distinguish between structural disadvantages and recent fluctuations |
| Topic / Tag | Narrow to a specific topic cluster to find the subject areas where a provider-specific gap is most concentrated |
How to Interpret the Results
Good result
Your brand scores within 10 points of the top competitor on at least 4 of the 6 major providers. Where gaps exist, they are concentrated in one provider and one topic cluster — meaning the problem is specific and addressable. The trend line shows you are gaining ground on the provider where you were previously weakest.Needs attention
One or more competitors score 20+ points higher than you on a major provider (ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Gemini). The gap is consistent across multiple topic clusters on that provider — suggesting a structural issue rather than a content gap. The trend shows the gap is widening over the past 60 days. If a competitor outperforms you on every provider, that is a signal to review both your content depth and your citation profile comprehensively.Example
Scenario: You are a fintech neobank offering personal and business accounts. You suspect a competitor is outperforming you specifically on Gemini. You want to confirm this and understand where to focus.
- Navigate to Overview > Compare > By Provider. Add your primary competitor, Revolut. The table shows your overall score at 38 and Revolut’s score at 64, but on Gemini specifically the gap is 21 vs. 73 — far larger than on any other provider.
- Open the GEO Matrix with provider columns. You can see that on Gemini, Revolut scores above 70 on the “best business banking apps” and “multi-currency accounts” topic rows, while you score below 25 on both. On ChatGPT, the same topics show scores within 10 points of each other.
- Navigate to Visibility > Prompts, filter by provider = Gemini and topic = “multi-currency accounts”. Inspect the actual responses. Revolut is cited alongside a Forbes fintech roundup and a NerdWallet comparison article. You are either absent or mentioned without a source link.
- Use Visibility > Citation Sources to identify which source domains Gemini cites for those prompts. Add the top domains to your backlink outreach priority list.
Go Further
Provider-by-provider gap chart
Build provider-level competitive gap charts in Looker Studio using the competitor-metrics data source
Automate competitive alerts
Use the competitors endpoint to set up automated alerts when a competitor overtakes you on a specific provider
Share the provider gap with your content team
Create a shared view filtered to the provider where competitors outperform you most for your content team
Related Questions
Why does ChatGPT recommend my competitor?
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Start with the full competitor landscape before drilling into provider-level gaps
Different scores across providers?
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How do competitors rank vs my brand at each funnel stage?
Add a funnel-stage lens to your provider-level competitive analysis