You can check Google Search Console for your organic rankings. You can check your Google Business Profile insights for local pack appearances. But how do you check whether AI search engines — Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity — actually mention your business when someone asks for a recommendation?

This guide covers both manual methods (free, time-consuming) and automated approaches (faster, more comprehensive) for checking your AI visibility.

The Manual Method: Checking Each AI Engine

The most straightforward way to check your AI visibility is to ask each AI engine directly. Here's how to do it systematically.

Step 1: Build Your Query List

Start by writing 5-10 queries that your potential customers would actually ask. These should be the natural-language questions people type into AI assistants:

"Best [your service] in [your city]"
"Who's the best [your profession] near [your neighborhood]?"
"Recommend a [your business type] in [your area]"
"[Your service] + [your city] + [specific qualifier]" (e.g., "emergency plumber San Jose 24 hour")
"Where should I go for [your service] in [your city]?"

Be specific. "Best dentist" is too broad. "Best pediatric dentist in Palo Alto who takes Delta Dental" is the kind of specific query AI handles well.

Step 2: Search on Google (AI Overviews)

Go to google.com and search each query. Look for the AI Overview box at the top of results — a generated summary with cited sources. Check whether your business is named in the AI Overview text. Note that AI Overviews don't appear for every query, and they may vary based on your location and search history.

For the most accurate results, use an incognito/private browser window to avoid personalization bias.

Step 3: Search on ChatGPT

Open ChatGPT (chat.openai.com) and ask each query conversationally: "Can you recommend a good plumber in San Jose for emergency pipe repair?" Check whether your business appears in the response. Note that ChatGPT's knowledge has a training data cutoff and uses web search for current information.

Step 4: Search on Google Gemini

Open Gemini (gemini.google.com) and ask the same queries. Gemini has access to real-time Google Search data, making its responses more current than ChatGPT for local business queries.

Step 5: Search on Perplexity

Open Perplexity (perplexity.ai) and run your queries. Perplexity is particularly useful because it always shows its sources with numbered citations, making it easy to see where information about your business (or lack thereof) comes from.

Step 6: Record Your Results

For each query on each platform, record:

Whether your business was mentioned (yes/no)
Where in the response you appeared (first mentioned, second, etc.)
What the AI said about you (positive, neutral, or incorrect information)
Which competitors were mentioned instead
What sources the AI cited

Limitations of Manual Checking

Manual AI checks give you a snapshot, but they have significant limitations:

Inconsistent results. AI engines don't always return the same answer for the same query. You might check today and see your business, check tomorrow and see a competitor. AI responses are non-deterministic — they vary based on time, load, and subtle prompt differences.

Location bias. Your location when searching affects results, especially on Google. Searching from your office might show different results than a customer searching from across town.

Time-consuming. Testing 10 queries across 4 platforms means 40 individual searches. Doing this monthly is impractical for most business owners.

No scoring or benchmarking. Manual checks give you yes/no answers but no standardized score to track over time or compare against competitors.

Limited to what you think to ask. You might test 10 queries but miss the 5 queries that customers actually use most often.

The Automated Method: Using ScanMyGEO

ScanMyGEO automates the entire AI visibility check process. Here's how it works:

1. Enter your business details. Business name, industry, and city. That's all we need.

2. We generate targeted queries. Based on your industry and location, we create the specific search queries your potential customers are most likely to use.

3. We run real web searches. Each query is sent through web search engines (SearXNG) to get real-time search results — the same information sources that AI engines like Google AI Overviews draw from.

4. We analyze the results with AI. Search results are analyzed by Llama 3.2 3B running on Cloudflare Workers AI, checking each result for mentions of your business, competitor mentions, the context of any mentions, and the quality of information cited.

5. You get a scored report. Your AI visibility score (0-100), a letter grade, mention counts across queries, competitor analysis, and specific recommendations for improvement. The entire process takes under 60 seconds.

With a Pro subscription, you can re-scan monthly to track your progress as you implement changes. For businesses that want expert help implementing fixes, we offer the Fix It report with a customized action plan.

What to Do With Your Results

Whether you check manually or use ScanMyGEO, here's how to interpret and act on what you find:

If you're not mentioned at all: You have a visibility problem. Start with the fundamentals — add JSON-LD structured data, optimize your Google Business Profile, and build your review volume. Read our complete guide on why businesses are invisible to AI for the full diagnostic checklist.

If you're mentioned inconsistently: AI has some data about your business but not enough to recommend you confidently every time. Focus on citation consistency — make sure your business information is identical across all platforms. Build more reviews to increase the AI's confidence in your quality.

If you're mentioned but competitors rank higher: Your foundation is solid. Now focus on competitive differentiation — more reviews, more specific content, advanced schema markup, and building authority through backlinks and industry recognition.

If AI mentions incorrect information about you: This is common and fixable. Identify where the incorrect information lives — it's usually an outdated directory listing or an old version of your website cached by AI. Update the source and give AI 4-8 weeks to re-index.

How Often Should You Check?

AI visibility isn't static. AI models update their knowledge periodically, competitors improve their presence, and new reviews or content can shift recommendations. We recommend checking your AI visibility at least monthly.

Start by running your free scan to establish your baseline. Then implement the five key improvements and re-scan after 30-60 days to measure progress.

How to Check if AI Mentions Your Business