Businesses Can Now Claim Their Own Profile in ChatGPT

OpenAI launched Businesses in ChatGPT, a beta that lets a company claim the profile people see when ChatGPT names it in an answer. Once a business has claimed its profile, it can fix its details and add its products and prices.

US online stores and online service businesses can also add a Business Agent, a chatbot on that profile that answers shoppers from the business's own information.

Google Business Profile does the same job for Google Search and Maps. This is OpenAI's version for ChatGPT, and for a small business owner it's the first official way to correct what ChatGPT tells shoppers about the business.

What a ChatGPT business profile is, and what claiming it changes

When ChatGPT names a business in an answer, you can click the name and a profile opens beside the chat.

In OpenAI's example, a toy shop's profile shows its website, its delivery and return terms, a short description and a row of products with prices.

ChatGPT can show information about a business whether or not anyone has claimed it. Claiming is what lets the owner supply the facts, through a new dashboard called Business Hub.

OpenAI's setup guide lists what you can change: your website, description, category, logo, delivery policy and return policy, plus a cover photo.

A business that sells products can upload a product feed, a file listing each item with its price and availability. It can also connect a Shopify store, which shares those details automatically.

OpenAI reviews changes before it publishes them, and it warns that updates "can take time to appear" in an answer. ChatGPT may also keep using other sources when it describes your business.

ChatGPT for small business owners: who can claim a profile right now

You have to own the business or be authorized to represent it. You don't need an ads account or a ChatGPT Enterprise contract.

OpenAI says an eligible business can claim a profile anywhere ChatGPT is available and the verification is supported, with two limits at launch:

• Local stores and restaurants can only claim a listing that already exists, and only in the US.
• Online businesses that can't find themselves may see an option to add a new listing.

A company with several brands manages each one separately, and claiming the main brand doesn't claim its individual locations.

How to claim your business in ChatGPT, step by step

Start by asking ChatGPT what it says about you today, so you know what needs correcting:

"What do you know about [your business name] in [your city]? List its hours, prices, return policy and what it sells, and tell me where you found each fact."

Then follow OpenAI's steps:

1. Sign in to ChatGPT and open Business Hub from the sidebar.
2. Search for your business by name and select the listing that matches.
3. Verify your connection to it. Depending on the business, that's a code sent to your business phone or email, a record added to your website's domain settings, or a Shopify login.
4. Wait for OpenAI's email. It reviews every claim and may ask for more information.
5. Verify your identity with Persona, the ID-check service OpenAI uses. You may need a government-issued ID, your business registration details and proof that you're authorized to represent the business.

Until Persona approves you, you can't publish changes, connect a product feed, see your numbers or create an agent. The blue check only appears on your profile after that approval.

If you're adding a brand-new profile, OpenAI's approval publishes it straight away, and its support team can't delete or hide a published profile. Finish your details before you submit.

What Business Hub shows you about shoppers, and what it keeps private

The Insights page covers the past 28 days. OpenAI's guide describes its main numbers this way:

• Mentions: how often ChatGPT mentioned your business. For an online business, a mention only counts when ChatGPT references your website, and the brand name alone doesn't count. For a local business, it counts when ChatGPT shows that location in a result.
• Website clicks: how often people clicked through to your site.
• Discovery topics: the common themes in answers that cited you. OpenAI's sample shop shows "Gift for kids" and "San Francisco toy shops".

You never see the conversations themselves. "We don't share users' conversations or Business Agent chats with businesses," OpenAI says, and a number only shows up once there's enough activity to meet its privacy thresholds.

A blank number can mean too little activity to report, or data that's still being collected. OpenAI says it "doesn't necessarily mean zero activity."

Until now, marketers who wanted to know how often ChatGPT mentioned a brand paid outside tools that estimate it. This is the first count that comes from OpenAI.

What a Business Agent can and can't do for an online store

A Business Agent is a separate, clearly labeled chat that speaks for one business.

In OpenAI's example, a shopper asks a toy shop's agent for a gift under $30 for a six-year-old who loves drawing. It answers with the shop's $18 drawing kit and its $24 watercolor set.

OpenAI builds the agent from the instructions and product information you supply. "We aren't allowing folks to bring their own agents," Benji Shomair, OpenAI's vice president of monetization, said at a press briefing.

The agent explains your products and policies and links to your website. It can't take a payment, make a booking or check an order, so the sale still finishes on your own site.

For now only US ecommerce and online service businesses with a website can publish one. OpenAI's Business Agents policy also limits what you can make it do:

• It has to be clear that it's an AI speaking for your business, never a human or an independent adviser.
• It can't pressure people, invent urgency or keep trying to sell after someone says no.
• It can't ask for health details, government IDs or financial logins.
• It can't give advice that legally requires a professional license.

Before you publish, OpenAI's guide suggests previewing the agent with a question customers ask often, such as "Can I return an item I bought on sale?" If the answer is wrong, you fix the information or the instructions and test again.

If you already use ChatGPT for small business chores like answering customers yourself, our guide to ChatGPT for customer service has prompts for that side of the work.

What a ChatGPT business profile costs, and whether it gets you recommended more

Claiming a profile and publishing an agent are free at launch. Shomair hasn't ruled out charging later.

"In terms of where they develop in the future, I think it'll depend on the directions that they go," he said.

A profile by itself won't move a business up in ChatGPT's answers. OpenAI's page for businesses says claiming "does not guarantee higher placement or sales" and that ChatGPT "continues to make independent recommendations and comparisons."

The paid option is an ad. A business can sponsor its Business Agent, which makes the agent the place a ChatGPT ad sends people, and OpenAI says sponsored placements are clearly labeled.

"Think of the business agent as the organic experience," Shomair said. "The sponsored agent is the paid experience, but the agent that sits behind it should be the same."

Some advertisers are already testing those ads. OpenAI's ads help page lists Sponsored Agents as a limited test with selected advertisers, and says it isn't taking requests for early access.

OpenAI now competes with Google for business listings and ad money

Until this launch, the listing a business claimed and kept current was its Google Business Profile. OpenAI now wants businesses to do the same for ChatGPT, which it says 1.2 billion people use each week.

Google is adding AI shopping of its own. In October it launched a cart that fills up from AI Mode in Search and the Gemini app.

OpenAI told investors it expects $2.5 billion in ad revenue this year and $100 billion a year by 2030. In October it announced picture ads for Free and Go users, and ads that send shoppers to a Business Agent are one way to earn it.

Sources

• OpenAI: Introducing Businesses in ChatGPT
• OpenAI: Businesses in ChatGPT, for businesses
• OpenAI Help Center: Setting up your business on ChatGPT
• OpenAI: Business Agents policy
• OpenAI Help Center: Sponsored Agents in ChatGPT Ads
• Digiday: OpenAI's press briefing with Benji Shomair
• VentureBeat: OpenAI lets you claim your business in ChatGPT
• Axios: OpenAI projects $100 billion in ad revenue by 2030