How to Claim Your Business in ChatGPT: A Small Business Guide to Business Hub

Since November 10, 2026, small businesses can claim their ChatGPT profile for free through Business Hub. You verify the business, pass an ID check, update your details, and then see how often ChatGPT mentions you and sends you clicks.

A customer asks ChatGPT for “a dentist in Plano, Texas, who takes Delta Dental and sees kids on Saturdays.” ChatGPT answers with three practices, a map, and a short description of each. Until this week, none of those businesses could see that it happened, check what ChatGPT said about them, or correct a wrong phone number.

OpenAI’s new Business Hub changes that. It works a lot like claiming your Google Business Profile did years ago. You prove the listing is yours, fix the details, and get a dashboard showing how often you come up.

It’s in beta, the rules are still settling, and a lot of early coverage is written for online stores. This guide covers what it means for small service businesses. That includes who can claim a profile right now, what to have ready, which verification method to pick, what to write, and what claiming won’t do for you.

Key Takeaways

• Claiming your ChatGPT profile is free, and it takes about an hour of your time, plus a wait for OpenAI’s review.
• Local stores and restaurants can only claim a listing that already exists in the U.S. Online businesses can add a new one.
• The owner has to pass a separate ID check before editing anything or seeing data. You or your AEO agency can only add your business after that.
• Claiming doesn’t move you up in ChatGPT’s answers. It keeps your details accurate and shows you how often you come up.
• What other sites say about you, like Yelp reviews and directory listings, still shapes whether ChatGPT recommends you.

What Is ChatGPT Business Hub?

Business Hub is OpenAI’s free dashboard for claiming your business’s profile in ChatGPT. Once you’re verified, you can edit the details ChatGPT shows, see 28 days of mentions and click data, and, for some online businesses, publish an AI agent.

OpenAI launched it in beta on November 10, 2026, as part of a program called Businesses in ChatGPT. You’ll find it in the ChatGPT sidebar, or at chatgpt.com/business-hub.

Here’s what’s worth knowing up front:

• It’s free for now. Claiming, editing your profile, and publishing an agent cost nothing at launch, though OpenAI hasn’t ruled out charging later.
• It isn’t the ChatGPT Business plan. That’s a paid subscription for teams using ChatGPT at work. You don’t need it, an ads account, or an enterprise contract to claim your profile.
• Your profile may already exist. ChatGPT builds local results from sources across the web. If customers have asked about you, ChatGPT may already show your name, hours, and phone number. Claiming lets you check and correct them.

For a small business, it’s the closest thing ChatGPT has to a Google Business Profile. It’s also much thinner for now. There are no reviews, no posts, and no booking button.

Can Your Business Claim a ChatGPT Profile?

Most U.S. small businesses with a website can claim a profile. Local stores and restaurants can only claim a listing that already exists, while online businesses can add a new one. Businesses without a website aren’t eligible yet.

OpenAI says eligibility depends on your industry, location, and verification checks. It also holds back some categories until it has the right safeguards, and hasn’t published that list. Here’s how it plays out by business type, based on what OpenAI has said so far.

Your business	Can you claim it?	What to know
Local store or restaurant in the U.S.	Yes, if a listing already exists	You can’t add a new local listing yet
Online business, like an e-commerce store or online service	Yes	You can add a new listing if none exists
Service business with an office, like a law firm, dental practice, or clinic	Likely, if a listing exists	OpenAI hasn’t said how it classifies these yet
Service-area business with no storefront, like a plumber or roofer	Unclear	Check Business Hub, and don’t invent an address to qualify
Business with no website	Not yet	Claiming is “initially available to eligible businesses with a website”
Local business outside the U.S.	Not yet	Online businesses abroad may claim where verification is supported

The quickest way to find out is to search for your business in Business Hub. If it shows up, you can start a claim. If it doesn’t and you’re a local business, there’s no way to add yourself yet.

What Do You Need Before You Claim Your Business?

Have five things ready. A ChatGPT account the business controls, access to your business phone, email, or domain settings, a government-issued ID, your business registration details, and your exact name, address, and phone number as they appear on Google.

Gathering these first saves you from stopping halfway, since some codes expire.

1. A ChatGPT account owned by the business. Use a shared business address, like office@yourpractice.com, rather than your personal account. If the person who claimed it leaves, you don’t want the profile leaving with them. A free account is enough.
2. One way to prove the business is yours. That’s a code sent to your business phone, a code sent to your business email, a record added to your domain’s DNS settings, or a Shopify connection. Not every business sees all four.
3. A government-issued ID. The owner or an authorized manager needs it for the identity check with Persona, the verification company OpenAI uses.
4. Business registration details. Persona may ask for these, plus proof you’re authorized to represent the business. For most U.S. small businesses, that means having your state registration and EIN details handy.
5. Your NAP, exactly as it appears elsewhere. NAP is your business name, address, and phone number. Copy it from your Google Business Profile so it matches character for character, down to “Suite 200” versus “Ste 200.”

If someone else manages your website, like a web designer or your hosting company, ask them now whether they can add a DNS record today. That’s often the slowest part.

How Do You Claim Your Business in ChatGPT, Step by Step?

Open Business Hub, find your listing, verify you own it, wait for OpenAI’s review, pass the ID check, and update your profile. It’s about an hour of work, plus a review that can take hours or a few days.

• Step 1 – Open Business Hub and find your listing: Sign in to ChatGPT and open Business Hub from the sidebar, or go to chatgpt.com/business-hub. Search for your business name, then check the address before selecting it. Practices and franchises often have near-duplicates nearby. Choose Get started, and confirm which ChatGPT account will manage the profile.

• Step 2 – Verify that the business is yours: Pick one of the verification methods Business Hub offers you. The next section covers which one to choose.
• Step 3 – Wait for OpenAI’s review: Business Hub shows your claim moving through three stages, which are received, in review, and decided. OpenAI emails you with a decision or a request for more information. In Birdeye’s test, approval took just over two hours. OpenAI hasn’t published a timeline, so allow a few days.
• Step 4 – Pass the Persona identity check: Approval of your claim isn’t the last step. The person managing the profile must also pass Persona’s ID check before they can edit anything, see insights, or create an agent. The blue verified check on your profile appears only after this.
• Step 5 – Update your profile: Fill in or correct your details. OpenAI reviews edits before they go live, so changes can take a while to show.
• Step 6 – Open Insights: Once you’re verified, your mention and click data appears under Insights, as long as you’ve passed OpenAI’s minimum activity threshold.

Which Verification Method Should a Small Business Use?

Use the method that reaches you fastest and that the business controls. For most small service businesses, that’s the main phone line. The domain method works too, if someone can add a DNS record within 24 hours.

Method	How it works	Best for	Watch out for
Business phone	A code arrives by text or automated call	Practices and shops with a main line someone answers	Use a direct line, not an extension or call center
Business email	A code arrives by email	Businesses with an email on their own domain	A Gmail address may not count as a business email
Website domain	You add a TXT record to your DNS settings	Businesses whose web designer can act quickly	The record expires after 24 hours
Shopify	You connect your Shopify store	Online stores	Only relevant if you sell through Shopify

However, there may be some potential small business situations to plan around:

• Your phone goes through an answering service. A law firm or dental office using a virtual receptionist may never see the code. Choose email or domain instead.
• You’re a contractor who uses your cell as the business number. That’s fine, as long as it’s the number listed for the business.
• Your domain is with GoDaddy, Squarespace, Wix, or Cloudflare. Each has a DNS settings page where you add the TXT record. Copy the name and value exactly as Business Hub shows them.

What Should You Put in Your ChatGPT Profile?

Fill in every field, match your details to your Google Business Profile exactly, and write a description that names your services, your area, and who you serve. Specific details help ChatGPT match you to the detailed questions customers ask.

Depending on your business type, you can edit your website, description, category, logo, cover photo, and, for online stores, delivery and return policies and a product feed.

The description matters most. Customers now ask ChatGPT long, specific questions, like “a family law attorney in Austin who handles international custody and offers a flat-fee consultation.” A page or profile that states those details plainly can be picked over a bigger, more general competitor, because it’s the closest match. Generic copy like “quality service you can trust” gives ChatGPT nothing to match.

Here’s an example of the difference for an HVAC company:

• Too vague: “Family-owned heating and cooling company providing quality service.”
• Specific: “Family-owned HVAC company serving Plano, Frisco, and Allen, Texas, since 2009. AC and furnace repair, new system installs, and maintenance plans. 24/7 emergency service and estimates by text.”

These are worth including, where true:

• The neighborhoods, cities, or counties you serve
• Your main services, in the words customers use
• Insurance or payment plans you accept
• Languages you speak
• Hours, emergency availability, and how to book
• Licenses, certifications, and how long you’ve been open

Then check that the same details appear everywhere else ChatGPT reads, including your website, Google Business Profile, Bing Places, and Yelp. OpenAI signed a deal in July 2026 to show Yelp reviews and business data in ChatGPT’s local answers, so an outdated Yelp listing can contradict your new profile. My guide to brand visibility in AI search covers the other sources AI tools check.

What Do ChatGPT Business Hub Insights Show?

Insights show three numbers for the past 28 days. These are how often ChatGPT mentioned you, how many clicks it sent to your website, and the topics that came up. You won’t see individual questions, conversations, or competitors.

Metric	What it counts	What it doesn’t tell you
Mentions	For local businesses, answers that showed a result for your location. For online businesses, answers that referenced your website. Naming your brand alone doesn’t count.	The question asked, how you were described, or where you appeared in the answer
Website clicks	Clicks on links to your website from ChatGPT	Whether the person landed on your site, called, or booked
Discovery topics	Common themes in the answers that mentioned you	The actual prompts or keywords

These two things might catch small business owners out:

• Blank numbers don’t mean zero. Data only appears above a minimum activity level that OpenAI hasn’t published. A neighborhood bakery or a solo practice may see nothing for a while.
• Clicks aren’t visits. To see visits from ChatGPT, use the AI assistant traffic channel in GA4, and ask new callers how they found you.

It’s also ChatGPT only. If your customers use Google’s AI Mode, AI Overviews, Gemini, or Perplexity, you need a separate way to track those.

Can Your Marketing Agency Manage Your ChatGPT Profile?

Yes, but the owner has to claim it first. Whoever claims the business and passes the ID check can then invite teammates and give an agency access. Each person signs in with their own ChatGPT account.

That order matters for small businesses that hand marketing to someone else. An agency or freelancer can’t claim the profile for you, because the ID check has to be done by the owner or an authorized manager. What they can do is:

• Prepare your details, description, and logo before you start
• Walk you through the claim on a quick call
• Manage the profile and read the insights once you add them

Don’t share your ChatGPT login or forward your claim invitation. Adding people properly means you can remove them later without losing the profile.

If you have more than one location, claim each one separately. Claiming the main brand doesn’t claim its locations, and there’s no bulk upload yet.

Does Claiming Your Profile Help You Rank in ChatGPT?

No. OpenAI says claiming “does not guarantee higher placement or sales,” and ChatGPT keeps making its own recommendations. Claiming makes sure what ChatGPT says about you is right. Whether it recommends you depends on much more.

That’s the most important thing to understand before you spend time on it. Your corrected details become one more input ChatGPT can use, alongside everything else it reads about you.

What decides whether you get recommended is mostly outside Business Hub and includes:

• What other sites say about you. Reviews on Yelp and Google, directory listings, local news, and Reddit threads all count as independent proof. Ahrefs found that brand mentions across the web track closely with how visible a brand is in AI answers.
• Whether your website answers the question. Clear service pages with your prices, area, and process give ChatGPT something to quote. My guide on how to get cited by AI walks through this.
• Whether AI tools can read your site. A security plugin or firewall can block ChatGPT’s crawler without you knowing.
• How you rank in regular search. ChatGPT searches the web before answering many questions, so your small business SEO still matters.

So claim your profile, but don’t expect it to do the work on its own. Think of it as the ChatGPT version of keeping your Google Business Profile accurate. It’s necessary, but it isn’t a strategy on its own.

What Are Business Agents, and Can a Small Business Use One?

A Business Agent is an AI assistant that answers customer questions about your products and policies inside ChatGPT. For now, only U.S. e-commerce and online service businesses can create one. Local stores, restaurants, and practices can’t yet.

Customers reach the agent from your profile when you appear in an answer. ChatGPT labels the chat, so people know they’ve moved from ChatGPT’s own answer to your business’s agent.

It’s limited for now. An agent can explain products and policies and link to your website, but it can’t take bookings, complete purchases, or check orders. OpenAI’s agent policy also bars invented offers, false urgency, and asking customers for sensitive personal information.

For a local service business, that means there’s nothing to set up here yet. If you run an online service, like a tutoring business, an online therapy practice, or a bookkeeping service, check whether Business Hub offers you an agent once you’re verified.

What If Something Goes Wrong When You Claim Your Business?

Most problems have a simple fix. Try another verification method, check that your details match official records, or dispute ownership if someone else claimed you. If your insights stay blank, give it time before assuming something’s broken.

Here’s what to do if you experience an issue when claiming your business in ChatGPT:

• The code never arrives: Early users reported delays. Wait a few minutes, then switch to another method.
• You can’t access your DNS settings: Ask whoever manages your domain to add the TXT record, and do it the same day, since it expires after 24 hours.
• Persona rejects your ID: Follow the emailed instructions and use Try again if offered. Make sure your name, address, and registration details match official records exactly.
• Your business doesn’t appear in search: If you’re a local business, you can’t add a listing yet. Check back as OpenAI expands, and keep your Yelp, Bing Places, and Google listings accurate in the meantime.
• Someone else already claimed it: Open the profile, choose the ••• menu, select Dispute ownership, and verify with Persona. This often happens when a former agency or employee claimed it.
• Your insights are blank. You may be below OpenAI’s reporting threshold, or data may still be collecting. Contact OpenAI support if it stays blank for weeks.

FAQs