How to Claim Your Business on ChatGPT (Business Hub): Steps, and What It Won't Change

What is ChatGPT's Business Hub?

Business Hub is where a business owner claims their listing in ChatGPT. You open Business Hub from the ChatGPT sidebar, search for your business, verify it by business phone, business email, a DNS record on your website's domain or Shopify, and then pass a Persona ID check. After that you can edit your website, description, category and logo, and see 28 days of insights. It's free and needs no ads account. What it doesn't do, in OpenAI's own words: it "doesn't guarantee increased visibility" in ChatGPT's recommendations.

That last line is the whole story for a local business. Claiming controls what ChatGPT shows about you. Whether ChatGPT names you when someone asks for the best roofer in town is decided by the other pages it reads. This guide covers both: how to claim, step by step, and what our own AI tests say actually gets a business named.

OpenAI announced the program, called Businesses in ChatGPT, on November 10, 2026, in beta. Its pitch is reach: a way to connect with "the 1.2 billion people who use ChatGPT each week." Inside ChatGPT, the place you manage it is called Business Hub, and your profile lives under a Business tab.

Who can claim a business in ChatGPT?

Anyone who owns the business or is authorized to represent it. OpenAI's policy is strict about the flip side: you may manage a profile only for a business you represent, with no fake or duplicate profiles, and everything you add must be accurate and kept current. Per OpenAI's help center and policy, as read on November 12, 2026:

• No ads account or Enterprise plan. You don't need an Ads account or a ChatGPT Enterprise agreement to claim an eligible business.
• Location and type matter. Eligibility "depends on the business's location and type," and the verification method has to be supported where you are. OpenAI's policy adds that "not every business can create or claim a profile" and that some categories may wait until OpenAI has safeguards for them.
• Local stores and restaurants claim an existing U.S. listing. If you can't find your business, OpenAI says eligible online businesses may see an option to add it, but "local stores and restaurants can currently claim only an existing U.S. listing."
• Service-area businesses aren't addressed. The help page doesn't say how a roofer, plumber or cleaner with no storefront claims a listing. OpenAI's policy does list "address or service area" among the details you must keep accurate, so service areas exist in profiles, but if your business doesn't come up when you search, there's no documented way to add it yet.
• Business agents are a separate, narrower program. The chat agent that answers customer questions is only for eligible ecommerce and online service businesses in the U.S. with a website, under OpenAI's Business Agents Policy. Most local service businesses can manage a profile without qualifying for an agent.

How to claim your business on ChatGPT, step by step

1. Sign in to ChatGPT and open Business Hub from the sidebar. Search for your business by name.
2. Pick the listing that matches you and confirm which ChatGPT account will manage it. Use an account the business controls, not an employee's personal one; the admin who claims it is the one who can add teammates later.
3. Verify with one of the methods offered.
   • Business phone: choose a text or an automated call, select Get code, enter it.
   • Business email: a code goes to the email address associated with your business.
   • Website domain: add the TXT record ChatGPT shows you to your domain's DNS settings, then select Verify domain. If a web person manages your domain, send them the type, host and value exactly as shown. DNS changes can take a while to show up.
   • Shopify store: connect and log in to the store for the business you're claiming.
4. Wait for OpenAI's review. OpenAI emails a decision or a request for more information. You can cancel the claim while it's pending. OpenAI says review time varies.
5. Complete the Persona identity check. This is the step people skip, and it's the one that unlocks everything. Without it you can't publish changes, view insights or create an agent. Have a government-issued ID, your business registration information and proof you're authorized to represent the business. Make sure the business name, address and any registration or tax number match your official records; OpenAI names mismatches as the thing to fix if a check fails.
6. Update your profile. After both approvals, you can edit your website, business description, product or service category, logo, and delivery and return policies, and add a cover photo and other optional details. OpenAI reviews changes before they publish, and they can take time to show up in answers.

Three situations the help page covers that trip people up:

• "Contact support" instead of a claim button means the listing is locked. Use that button to request access.
• Someone already claimed it. Open the profile, use the ••• menu and choose Dispute ownership, then verify with Persona.
• More than one location. Each brand is managed separately, and claiming the main brand doesn't claim its locations. For brands on a managed claim process, location profiles stay locked by default. A business with three offices claims three listings.

Two more things to know before you start. The blue check doesn't come from claiming alone; it appears only after Persona approves you. And a published profile can't be deleted, unpublished or hidden by OpenAI Support, so only drafts can be removed.

What claiming changes, and what it doesn't

Here is the line OpenAI draws, side by side:

And on ads, OpenAI's help page is just as plain: "Advertising doesn't influence ChatGPT's independent answers." The announcement says eligible businesses can sponsor their Business Agent and use it as the destination for ChatGPT Ads, and that sponsored placements are "clearly labeled and separate from ChatGPT responses." Claiming, ads and business agents are three separate things, and you can do the first without the other two.

The insights are the most useful part for a local business, because they're the first first-party count of how often ChatGPT puts you in front of people. For a local business, a mention counts each time ChatGPT shows a result for that location, even if nobody opens it. For an online business it counts only when ChatGPT references your website, not just your name. Counts may be incomplete, and a blank number can mean "not enough data yet," not zero.

What actually gets a local business recommended: our tests

If claiming doesn't decide who gets named, what does? The pages the AI reads before it answers. Since October 2026 we've asked an AI search engine (Perplexity's Sonar model, with live web search, which lists every page it used) for "the best [trade]" in five U.S. metros, one trade at a time. Here is what the sources looked like for nine of them:

What that means for the Business Hub:

• Your listing is one page among many. In six of the nine trades, businesses' own websites were under a fifth of what the AI read. The rest came from directories, review sites, carriers, marketplaces and critics. A perfect ChatGPT profile doesn't change any of those pages.
• The trade decides where the work is. A vet clinic's own site is the main source. An insurance agent's is their carrier's agent finder. A remodeler's is Houzz. Claim the listing either way, then put your real effort where your trade's answers come from.
• Specific questions favor your own site. In the same tests, narrower questions flipped the sources: for a CPA who does contractor bookkeeping in Houston, 7 of 9 sources were firms' own pages, and for a xeriscape landscaper in Austin, all 10 were landscapers' own sites. A page for each service you sell is how you get named for those.

Two honest limits. These were Perplexity tests, not ChatGPT, so they show which kinds of pages AI search engines rely on, not ChatGPT's exact sources. And Business Hub is too new for anyone to have measured whether claimed listings get named more often; OpenAI says they shouldn't. Each trade's full test, with every source and city, is on its own page, such as SEO for veterinarians, SEO for insurance agents and SEO for real estate agents.

What to do after you claim

1. Make the profile match everything else. Same business name, website and category as your Google Business Profile and your site. The help page already ties Persona approval to matching official records; keep the public details just as consistent.
2. Write the description for the question a customer asks. Say what you do, for whom and where: "Residential roof replacement and storm repair in Round Rock and north Austin" beats "Quality you can trust." OpenAI's Businesses in ChatGPT policy bans false or misleading claims about prices, qualifications or likely results, fabricated reviews and unsupported guarantees, so "best roofer in Texas, guaranteed" doesn't belong there.
3. Record your first insights. Once you have 28 days, note your mentions and website clicks. That's your starting number, and it's the only one that comes from ChatGPT itself.
4. Fix the pages your trade's answers come from. Use the table above, or check your own town: the free AI Visibility Check asks AI for the best businesses in your trade and city and shows who gets named.
5. Add a page for each service and town you want to be named for. Specific questions read businesses' own pages most, so the business with the page is the one in the answer.

Who can do this for you?

An owner can claim the listing in an afternoon; the Persona step is the only part that needs paperwork. The rest of the list is ongoing work. For the record, SuperDupr ran the tests above and wrote this guide, and SuperDupr is Justin McKelvey's company, so we sell the done-for-you version: Local AI Search, $297 a month, no setup fee, month-to-month. We work on what AI looks for (your Google Business Profile, listings, reviews and new pages for the services and towns you serve), and every month we report whether AI recommends you. For what local SEO costs in general, see local SEO cost.

Sources

• OpenAI Help Center, "Setting up your business on ChatGPT" (help.openai.com/en/articles/20001635), read November 12, 2026: eligibility, claim and verification steps, Persona, blue check, editable fields, insights definitions, locations, dispute ownership, and the FAQ answers quoted on claiming, visibility and advertising.
• OpenAI, "Introducing Businesses in ChatGPT" (openai.com/index/introducing-businesses-chatgpt), November 10, 2026, read November 12, 2026: beta launch, 1.2 billion weekly users, Business Agents for eligible U.S. ecommerce and online service businesses, sponsored Business Agents as a ChatGPT Ads destination.
• OpenAI, "Businesses in ChatGPT" policy (openai.com/policies/businesses-in-chatgpt), updated November 10, 2026, read November 12, 2026: who may manage a profile, accuracy rules including service area, misleading-promotion rules, eligibility.
• SuperDupr AI tests, October 16 to November 11, 2026: "best [trade] in [city]" across five U.S. metros per trade, run once per city on Perplexity's Sonar API with web search; sources are the pages each answer cited. Full methods and cities are on each trade's SEO page.