TL;DR — ChatGPT recommends competitors when their content better matches its training and retrieval signals, not because of paid placement. Go to Overview > GEO Matrix filtered to ChatGPT to see exactly which prompts your competitor outranks you on, then check Visibility > Citation Sources to identify the source URLs driving the gap. Pro tip: a single authoritative third-party review or comparison page cited by ChatGPT can outweigh dozens of your own blog posts — prioritize earning those external citations first.
The Question
“Why does ChatGPT recommend my competitor instead of me?”You ran the same prompt on ChatGPT and your competitor’s brand appeared in the answer while yours didn’t — or appeared lower, described more negatively, or wasn’t cited at all. This is one of the most common and most frustrating observations teams report when they first start monitoring AI visibility. The answer is almost never random. ChatGPT surfaces brands based on signals it can infer from training data and, for Browse-enabled queries, from live web retrieval. Understanding which signals your competitor has and you lack is the first step toward closing that gap. You might also be wondering:
- “Is my competitor paying to appear in ChatGPT, or is this organic?”
- “Which specific prompts trigger my competitor’s name but not mine?”
- “Would improving my website content change how ChatGPT describes me?”
Where to Go in Qwairy
Start here: Overview > GEO Matrix
Navigate to Overview > GEO Matrix and focus on the ChatGPT column.
This gives you a row-by-row comparison across every tracked prompt: who appears, at what rank, with what score. Filter by Provider: ChatGPT and sort by score ascending to surface the prompts where you score lowest while competitors score highest.
Go deeper: Visibility > Responses
Cross-reference with Visibility > Responses, filtered to Provider: ChatGPT.
Open individual responses to read exactly what ChatGPT says about your brand and your competitor in the same answer. Pay attention to phrasing, positioning (first mention vs. last), and whether your competitor is cited as a primary recommendation or as a comparison point.
Dig into sources: Visibility > Citation Sources
Navigate to Visibility > Citation Sources and filter by Provider: ChatGPT.
This shows which external URLs ChatGPT pulls as sources. If your competitor’s blog, product pages, or third-party reviews are regularly cited and yours are not, that’s the structural gap. Cross-reference these URLs with Analytics > Page Performance to understand the content authority behind each cited page.
Benchmark head-to-head: Overview > Compare > By Provider
Use Overview > Compare > By Provider with ChatGPT selected to pull a direct side-by-side breakdown of your brand vs. your competitor across visibility score, sentiment, citation rate, and recommendation frequency. This is the single most direct answer to the question.
Complete the picture: MCP integration
Connect the Qwairy MCP server to your AI development environment or agent workflow for:
- Programmatic access to ChatGPT-specific scores per prompt
- Automated alerts when a competitor’s ChatGPT score exceeds yours by a defined threshold
- Direct integration into content workflows that respond to detected gaps
What to Look For
GEO Matrix — ChatGPT Column
The matrix gives you the most complete competitive picture at a glance. Each cell shows a score (0–100) representing how prominently and positively a brand appears in ChatGPT’s response to that prompt.| Element | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Your score < competitor score on same prompt | ChatGPT associates that topic more strongly with your competitor |
| Your score = 0 on a prompt | Your brand is absent from ChatGPT’s answer entirely for that query |
| Competitor score consistently high across all prompts | Systemic authority gap, not a topic-specific issue |
| Your score high on some prompts, low on others | You have topic-specific blind spots — addressable with targeted content |
| Sentiment indicator (color coding) | A high score with negative sentiment is worse than a moderate score with positive sentiment |
Responses — What ChatGPT Actually Says
Reading the raw ChatGPT responses is irreplaceable. The matrix score is derived from these responses, but the text itself reveals the narrative ChatGPT has constructed around your category. Look for: whether ChatGPT describes your competitor using superlatives (“best”, “leading”, “most trusted”), whether it names your competitor first, and whether it attributes specific capabilities to your competitor that you also have but ChatGPT doesn’t mention for you.Citations — The Source Problem
When ChatGPT uses Browse or retrieval, it pulls from specific URLs. If those URLs belong to your competitor’s site, industry publications reviewing them favorably, or directories where they appear but you don’t, those citations directly drive recommendation bias.Pro Tip: Cross-reference the top cited competitor domains in Qwairy Citations with your own backlink and content coverage. A URL that ChatGPT cites repeatedly is effectively an authority signal you need to match or acquire.
Filters That Help
| Filter | How to use it for this question |
|---|---|
| Provider: ChatGPT | Isolates ChatGPT behavior from other AI providers — essential since behavior differs significantly |
| Period | Compare this month vs. last month to detect if competitor momentum is recent or long-standing |
| Topic / Tag | Narrow to a specific product category or use case to find the exact thematic gap |
| Competitor | Pin to a single competitor for focused head-to-head analysis |
How to Interpret the Results
Good result
Your brand appears in ChatGPT responses for at least 60% of tracked prompts in a given topic area, scores above 55 in the GEO Matrix ChatGPT column, and citations include your own domain or authoritative third-party reviews mentioning you. Your competitor may still appear, but you appear alongside them or first.Needs attention
Your brand scores below 30 on more than half of tracked ChatGPT prompts, or you’re entirely absent (score 0) from prompts where your competitor scores above 70. Your citations list shows competitor domains and review sites that mention them but not you. ChatGPT response text consistently positions your competitor as the primary recommendation and mentions you as an alternative at best.Example
Scenario: You run an HR tech platform specializing in employee engagement and performance management. ChatGPT consistently recommends a competitor when users ask “What’s the best platform for continuous employee feedback?” but never names you — even though you have a robust 360-feedback module.
- Open Overview > GEO Matrix, filter to ChatGPT, and locate the prompts tagged “employee feedback” or “performance management.” Your score is 0 on three of them; competitor scores 75, 81, and 69.
- Open Visibility > Responses for those three prompts. ChatGPT’s answers reference the competitor’s “real-time pulse surveys,” “manager coaching tools,” and a SHRM article reviewing their platform. None of your pages or reviews appear.
- Open Visibility > Citation Sources filtered to ChatGPT. The SHRM article, a G2 comparison page for HR tools, and the competitor’s own “continuous feedback” landing page are cited repeatedly. Your site is not.
- You now have a clear action plan: create or optimize a “continuous employee feedback” feature page, pursue coverage in HR publications like SHRM or People Matters, and ensure your G2 profile explicitly addresses feedback and performance review workflows.
Go Further
Read ChatGPT responses verbatim
Read the Analyzing Answers documentation to see the exact ChatGPT responses where your competitor is recommended
Track ChatGPT answer evolution
Monitor how ChatGPT responses change over time using the answer-details data source in Looker Studio
Query ChatGPT responses via API
Use the answers endpoint to programmatically retrieve and analyze ChatGPT responses mentioning your competitors
Related Questions
Which sources does an AI provider use when mentioning my brand?
Understand the citation patterns behind AI recommendations and which pages carry the most weight.
How do I improve my brand's AI visibility score?
Tactical steps to raise your score across ChatGPT and other providers.
Which AI provider gives my brand the best sentiment and positioning?
If ChatGPT is hostile, find out which provider treats your brand most favorably.