Research8 min read
ChatGPT picks the brands before it searches the web.
When a buyer asks ChatGPT for “the best” tool in your category, it writes its own Google-style search behind the scenes, and puts brand names straight into it. If your name isn’t in that search, the pages about you never get asked for. We reverse engineered those searches to find out who gets in, and why.
Your buyer types
best email marketing software
ChatGPT actually searches for
best email marketing software 2026MailchimpKitbeehiivHubSpotofficial pricing features
The short version.
ChatGPT decides which brands to look up before it reads a single page.
On “best email marketing software” it searched for Mailchimp, Kit, beehiiv and HubSpot by name. Everyone else starts behind.
For you: Great pages don’t help much if ChatGPT never searches for your name.
That list is short, and well-known brands get cut.
Campaign Monitor came up from memory 49 times in 50, but made the real search once. Late entrants only appear when the list grows to 8 or 12 names.
For you: Brand awareness doesn’t guarantee a spot. Position on the list does.
Who makes the list tracks how often the web mentions you in your category.
Across 29 brands in six categories, more category mentions meant an earlier spot. On a held-out test category the match was almost perfect.
For you: Get named on more pages about your category: reviews, comparisons, roundups.
How ChatGPT searches.
ChatGPT either answers from memory, or it searches the web and writes the answer from what it finds.
When it searches, it doesn’t use the buyer’s words. It rewrites them into its own search, called a fanout query, and sends that to Google, Bing and OpenAI’s own index.
That rewrite is where brands are chosen. Everything after it, the pages and the final answer, is built on that choice.
- 1
A buyer asks
The prompt names no brand.
best email marketing software
- 2
ChatGPT rewrites it
Brand names are added before any page is read.
best email marketing software 2026 Mailchimp Kit beehiiv HubSpot official pricing features
- 3
The answer is written
The pages that come back are already about those brands.
Mailchimp, Kit, beehiiv and HubSpot get the pages, so they get the answer.
ChatGPT knows your brand. It can still leave you out.
We asked ChatGPT 50 times, with web search off, which email marketing tools come to mind. Then we watched the searches it actually sends on 50 real buyer prompts. Each dot is one try.
Named from memory49 of 50
Named in the real search1 of 50
Named from memory23 of 50
Named in the real search0 of 50
Being well known isn’t the same as being searched for. The same pattern shows up outside email: Hasselblad came up from memory on 44 of 50 camera prompts, and Basecamp on 45 of 50 project-management prompts, yet they only make the search once it has room for 8 and 12 brands.
The search only has room for a short list.
ChatGPT doesn’t let anyone change how many brands go into its search. Our simulator does. Drag the slider to give the search room for more brands, and watch who gets in.
4 of 10 email tools make it
- Mailchimp (in the search)
- Constant Contact (in the search)
- ActiveCampaign (in the search)
- Brevo (in the search)
- Klaviyo (left out)
- Campaign Monitor (left out)
- GetResponse (left out)
- AWeber (left out)
- MailerLite (left out)
- ConvertKit (left out)
A brand counts as in when it appears in at least half of the 50 prompts. In real ChatGPT searches, brands that only get in at 8 or 12 barely appear: Campaign Monitor once in 50, AWeber never. ConvertKit is still out at 12.
The order follows how much of the web talks about you in your category.
We counted how many websites mention each brand next to words about its category, using the January 2026 Common Crawl, a public copy of billions of web pages. Brands with more category mentions get into the shortlist earlier.
- Mailchimp1 brand53,793
- ActiveCampaign5 brands15,335
- Constant Contact2 brands13,236
- Klaviyo8 brands10,874
- Brevo5 brands10,690
- ConvertKitNot even 129,417
- GetResponse8 brands7,489
- AWeber12 brands7,247
- MailerLite12 brands6,573
- Campaign Monitor8 brands5,713
Count every mention of the brand
Sony beats Canon.
Count only mentions on camera pages
Canon beats Sony, and so does ChatGPT’s search.
General fame doesn’t decide it. Being talked about in your category does.
How we know.
We can’t open ChatGPT up, so we built a simulator from GPT-5.6 Luna that writes the search ChatGPT would write, then checked it against 919 real searches captured from ChatGPT.
- Picked the same brands
- 722 / 782
- Searches where the simulator and ChatGPT named at least one brand in common.
- Agreed on how often
- 0.965
- How closely the two agree on how often each brand shows up. 1.0 is a perfect match.
- Copied the wording
- 0 / 919
- The simulator never wrote the same words. It picks brands like ChatGPT, it doesn’t parrot it.
Compare real and simulated searches on 10 prompts
| Buyer prompt | Real ChatGPT search | Simulated search | Matched |
|---|---|---|---|
| best email marketing software | Mailchimp, Kit, beehiiv, HubSpot | Mailchimp, Brevo, Constant Contact, HubSpot, ActiveCampaign | 2 of 4 |
| best email marketing software 2026 | Mailchimp, Kit, Brevo, HubSpot, ActiveCampaign, Klaviyo | Mailchimp, HubSpot, Brevo, Constant Contact, Klaviyo | 4 of 6 |
| best CRM software | Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoho, Pipedrive | Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoho CRM, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Pipedrive | 4 of 4 |
| best CRM software 2026 | Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoho, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Pipedrive | Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoho CRM, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Pipedrive | 5 of 5 |
| best helpdesk software | Zendesk, Freshdesk, Intercom, Help Scout, Zoho Desk, Gorgias | Zendesk, Freshdesk, Intercom, Help Scout, Gorgias | 5 of 6 |
| best password manager | 1Password, Bitwarden, Proton Pass, Dashlane | 1Password, Bitwarden, Dashlane, NordPass | 3 of 4 |
| best project management software | Asana, Monday, ClickUp, Notion, Jira, Smartsheet | Asana, Trello, monday.com, ClickUp | 3 of 6 |
| best VPN service | No VPN brand. Review sites only. | NordVPN, ExpressVPN, Surfshark, Proton VPN | none |
| best VPN service 2026 | NordVPN, Surfshark, Proton VPN, WireGuard | NordVPN, ExpressVPN, Surfshark, Proton VPN | 3 of 4 |
| best website builder | Wix, Squarespace, Shopify, WordPress.com, Webflow, Framer | Wix, Squarespace, Shopify, Webflow | 4 of 6 |
“Matched” counts the real search’s brands that the simulator also picked. On the plain VPN prompt, the real search named review sites instead of brands.
The link between web presence and order is a ranking match within each category: 0.76 across 29 brands in six categories, 0.85 for the 25 that enter the list, and 0.986 on e-signature tools, a category we fixed in advance as a test. The list-size cutoff can only be changed in the simulator; applying it to live ChatGPT is an inference from how closely the two agree. Filtering out low-quality pages didn’t strengthen the match (0.762 raw, 0.730 filtered).
What to do about it.
- 1
Check whether you’re in the search.
Run the questions your buyers ask and look at the search ChatGPT writes, not just the final answer. If your name isn’t in it, the answer starts without you.
- 2
Earn mentions in your category, not just mentions.
Pages that name you next to your category’s words are what tracked list position. Reviews, comparisons, “best of” roundups and directories in your space are where those mentions live.
- 3
Measure against rivals in your category.
Position is relative. What matters is how your category presence compares with the brands you compete with, so track the gap, not a raw count.
Find out if you’re on ChatGPT’s shortlist.
We run your buyers’ questions and show which brands ChatGPT searches for, and where you’re missing.
Read the full study
Antony Deroshan, independent researcher. Published 29 September 2026.
Read the full study
Zenodo
Academia.edu
Figshare