On November 10, 2026, OpenAI opened Businesses in ChatGPT in beta: a Business Hub where you can claim your business, keep its details current and see how often ChatGPT mentions you. We claimed We Lead the next morning. Here is how it works, step by step, what OpenAI says it does and does not do, and the few things we learned that the help page leaves out.
Published November 11, 2026. Written by Rares Rata, who runs SEO and AI Search at We Lead in Naples. Based on OpenAI’s announcement and its help article “Setting up your business on ChatGPT,” both read on November 11, and on our own setup the same day. This is a beta, so screens and rules may change.
Open Business Hub from the ChatGPT sidebar, search for your business, and verify that it is yours by business phone, business email, a DNS record on your website or Shopify. To edit details, see insights or earn the blue check, you then verify your identity with Persona. Claiming is free and needs no ads account, but OpenAI says it does not guarantee more visibility in ChatGPT’s answers.
What is Businesses in ChatGPT?
It is ChatGPT’s version of a business profile. In OpenAI’s announcement, Business Hub lets companies claim their organization, update key details, add product feeds with prices and availability, and see aggregated insights on how people engage with them. When a business appears in an answer, people can click through to its ChatGPT profile.
Any eligible business located where ChatGPT is available can claim a profile. A profile is not what gets you into answers: ChatGPT was naming We Lead in recommendations weeks before we had one. The question is whether you control the facts it shows next to your name.
How do you claim your business in ChatGPT?
Find your listing in Business Hub
Sign in to ChatGPT, open Business Hub from the sidebar and search for your business by name. Pick the listing that matches and confirm which ChatGPT account will manage it. Online businesses may see an option to add a missing listing; local stores and restaurants can currently claim only an existing U.S. listing.
Prove the business is yours
Choose one of the methods offered: a code by text or automated call to your business phone, a code to your business email, a TXT record in your website’s DNS, or your Shopify store. OpenAI reviews the claim and emails its decision.
Fill in the basics
Category, a short description, phone, email and, even for service businesses, a return policy question. Use exactly the same name, phone and website as on your Google Business Profile.
Verify your identity with Persona
Before you can publish changes, view insights or create an agent, OpenAI requires identity verification through Persona. You may need a government-issued ID, business registration information and proof that you can represent the business. The blue check appears only after Persona approves you.
Decide on the business agent
Publishing an agent is a separate, optional step, and for now only eligible U.S. ecommerce and online service businesses can create one. You can manage your profile without it.
Which verification method should you use?
Use the one that reaches the right person fastest. These are the four methods in OpenAI’s help article, with what we saw when we used the domain option:
| Method | What you need | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| Business phone | The phone listed for the business, for a text message or automated call | Fastest if the owner is the one holding that phone |
| Business email | Access to the email associated with the business | A code arrives by email |
| Website domain | Access to your domain’s DNS settings, or the person who manages them | You add a TXT record. Ours came with an expiry time on the same morning, so start only when you can reach your DNS. At our host it showed up on public DNS within minutes. |
| Shopify store | Owner login to the Shopify store | For online stores; it also connects the product catalog |
Does claiming make ChatGPT recommend you more?
No, and OpenAI says so plainly. Claiming lets you manage the information you provide, but in its own words it “doesn’t guarantee increased visibility or give you direct control over ChatGPT’s independent recommendations.” The help article adds that advertising does not influence ChatGPT’s independent answers, and that ChatGPT may still use other sources when it describes your business.
So the profile is a source of accurate facts, not a ranking lever. Which businesses ChatGPT names still depends on the same signals as before: your website, your Google Business Profile and what other sites say about you. We cover those in what AI SEO is.
What do the insights show?
Insights cover the past 28 days and are aggregated, so you never see individual prompts or conversations. OpenAI defines three numbers:
- Mentions. For an online business, a mention counts only when ChatGPT references your website; the brand name alone does not count. For a local business, it counts when ChatGPT shows a result for that location, even if nobody opens it.
- Website clicks. How often people click through to your site.
- Discovery topics. Common themes in the answers that mentioned or cited you, not individual questions.
A blank number does not mean zero. OpenAI says it can mean activity has not reached the reporting threshold or data is still being collected. That is still the first number OpenAI itself gives a business about its presence in ChatGPT, which until now anyone could only estimate by running test questions.
What happened when we claimed We Lead
We verified through our website domain on November 11. A few details the help page does not mention:
- The description field stops at 300 characters. Our first draft was cut off mid-word, so we rewrote it to say only who we serve, what we do, how we work and which cities we cover. Write it first, count it, then paste it.
- The categories were suggested for us. We were offered Advertising agency, Marketing agency and Business consultant, and chose Marketing agency to match our Google Business Profile.
- Even a service business is asked about returns. We chose “Returns not accepted,” because we sell services, not products that can be sent back.
- The profile stays a draft until Persona. Our dashboard showed the profile as a draft, with a request to verify identity before editing or publishing, and the Mentions and Website clicks numbers were still blank.
- The name keeps your exact spelling. Ours went in lowercase and has to be corrected after the identity check, so type the name the way it appears everywhere else.
We have not published a business agent. It is optional, it cannot take bookings or orders, and it would answer customers in our name without one of us reading the reply first. That is a decision for the business owner, not a default.
Should a Naples business claim its profile now?
Yes, if you can verify it in a few minutes. It is free, it puts your own facts next to whatever ChatGPT already says about you, and it gives you the mention and click numbers. Just do not expect it to lift you in answers on its own, and do not let it drift from your Google profile: the same name, phone, website and service area everywhere is what makes AI tools trust the details.
Frequently asked questions
Want to know what ChatGPT already says about you? Our AI SEO work in Naples starts by running the questions your customers ask and logging who gets named. The free audit includes that check alongside your Google Business Profile and website.
About the author. Rares Rata runs SEO and AI Search at We Lead in Naples, FL, and maintains the websites the agency builds. For the Google side of the same job, see why a business does not show up on Google Maps.
