Chat Radar Local AI Search Trends: Week of October 12, 2026
ChatGPT named a given business in 47% of its answers to that business’s local customer questions in Chat Radar’s panel of 97 local businesses this week, up from 45%.
The biggest moves this week came from website technical signals, where sitemaps and llms.txt files rose sharply across Chat Radar's panel. Sites with a sitemap reached 82% for all businesses in Chat Radar's panel, up 8 points, with car dealerships jumping 11 points to 67% and other businesses up 10 points to 90%; dental practices in Chat Radar's panel also rose 4 points to 92%. Car dealerships in Chat Radar's panel saw llms.txt adoption climb 11 points to 22%, and other businesses rose 5 points to 35%, bringing the all-businesses figure to 30%. On citation sourcing, ChatGPT cited businesses' own websites at 27% across Chat Radar's panel, up 5 points, while Perplexity moved in the opposite direction, falling 5 points to 35%; for car dealerships specifically, ChatGPT's own-website citation rate rose 5 points to 45% while Perplexity's fell 6 points to 57%. Average ratings and AI crawler-blocking rates did not meaningfully change in Chat Radar's panel this week.
Google AI Overviews
Google AI Overview data wasn’t collected this week due to a data-provider outage.
ChatGPT
Business named in the answer
In the week of October 12, 2026, ChatGPT named a given business in 47% of its answers to that business’s local customer questions in Chat Radar’s panel of 97 local businesses, up from 45% the week before.
| Segment | Value | Change vs. prior week | Businesses |
|---|---|---|---|
| All businesses | 47% | ↑ +2 points | 97 |
| Dental practices | 21% | ↑ +2 points | 49 |
| Car dealerships | 80% | ↑ +1 point | 38 |
| Other businesses | Not enough data: Fewer than 100 answers stand behind this figure, so it is not published. | ||
Share of answers to a business’s local questions that name that business. The questions never name it. Counted per business: a shared answer counts once for each business it applies to.
Citations per answer
In the week of October 12, 2026, ChatGPT cited 5.9 sources per answer on average in Chat Radar’s panel of 97 local businesses, unchanged from 5.9 the week before.
| Segment | Value | Change vs. prior week | Businesses |
|---|---|---|---|
| All businesses | 5.9 | no change | 97 |
| Dental practices | 5.9 | no change | 49 |
| Car dealerships | 5.9 | no change | 38 |
| Other businesses | Not enough data: Fewer than 100 answers stand behind this figure, so it is not published. | ||
Average number of distinct sources an answer cites. Counted per answer.
Own website cited
In the week of October 12, 2026, ChatGPT cited a business’s own website in 27% of its answers in Chat Radar’s panel of 97 local businesses, up from 22% the week before.
| Segment | Value | Change vs. prior week | Businesses |
|---|---|---|---|
| All businesses | 27% | ↑ +5 points | 97 |
| Dental practices | 12% | ↑ +2 points | 49 |
| Car dealerships | 45% | ↑ +5 points | 38 |
| Other businesses | Not enough data: Fewer than 100 answers stand behind this figure, so it is not published. | ||
Share of answers to a business’s local questions that cite that business’s own website. Counted per business.
Citations: directories and review sites
In the week of October 12, 2026, 13% of the sources ChatGPT cited were directories and review sites in Chat Radar’s panel of 97 local businesses, unchanged from 13% the week before.
| Segment | Value | Change vs. prior week | Businesses |
|---|---|---|---|
| All businesses | 13% | ↓ −1 point | 97 |
| Dental practices | 7% | no change | 49 |
| Car dealerships | 21% | no change | 38 |
| Other businesses | Not enough data: Fewer than 100 answers stand behind this figure, so it is not published. | ||
Share of answer citations that are directories and review sites. Counted per citation.
Citations: publishers and media
In the week of October 12, 2026, 1% of the sources ChatGPT cited were publishers and media in Chat Radar’s panel of 97 local businesses, unchanged from 1% the week before.
| Segment | Value | Change vs. prior week | Businesses |
|---|---|---|---|
| All businesses | 1% | no change | 97 |
| Dental practices | 1% | no change | 49 |
| Car dealerships | 2% | no change | 38 |
| Other businesses | Not enough data: Fewer than 100 answers stand behind this figure, so it is not published. | ||
Share of answer citations that are publishers and media. Counted per citation.
Citations: other Google pages
In the week of October 12, 2026, less than 1% of the sources ChatGPT cited were other Google pages in Chat Radar’s panel of 97 local businesses, up from 0% the week before.
| Segment | Value | Change vs. prior week | Businesses |
|---|---|---|---|
| All businesses | less than 1% | no change | 97 |
| Dental practices | 0% | no change | 49 |
| Car dealerships | less than 1% | no change | 38 |
| Other businesses | Not enough data: Fewer than 100 answers stand behind this figure, so it is not published. | ||
Share of answer citations that are other Google pages. Counted per citation.
Citations: Google Business Profiles
In the week of October 12, 2026, 0% of the sources ChatGPT cited were Google Business Profiles in Chat Radar’s panel of 97 local businesses, unchanged from 0% the week before.
| Segment | Value | Change vs. prior week | Businesses |
|---|---|---|---|
| All businesses | 0% | no change | 97 |
| Dental practices | 0% | no change | 49 |
| Car dealerships | 0% | no change | 38 |
| Other businesses | Not enough data: Fewer than 100 answers stand behind this figure, so it is not published. | ||
Share of answer citations that are Google Business Profiles. Counted per citation.
Citations: links into Google AI Mode
In the week of October 12, 2026, 0% of the sources ChatGPT cited were links into Google AI Mode in Chat Radar’s panel of 97 local businesses, unchanged from 0% the week before.
| Segment | Value | Change vs. prior week | Businesses |
|---|---|---|---|
| All businesses | 0% | no change | 97 |
| Dental practices | 0% | no change | 49 |
| Car dealerships | 0% | no change | 38 |
| Other businesses | Not enough data: Fewer than 100 answers stand behind this figure, so it is not published. | ||
Share of answer citations that are links into Google AI Mode. Counted per citation.
Citations: other businesses’ websites
In the week of October 12, 2026, 36% of the sources ChatGPT cited were other businesses’ websites in Chat Radar’s panel of 97 local businesses, down from 37% the week before.
| Segment | Value | Change vs. prior week | Businesses |
|---|---|---|---|
| All businesses | 36% | ↓ −1 point | 97 |
| Dental practices | 46% | ↓ −2 points | 49 |
| Car dealerships | 29% | ↓ −2 points | 38 |
| Other businesses | Not enough data: Fewer than 100 answers stand behind this figure, so it is not published. | ||
Share of answer citations that are other businesses’ websites. Counted per citation.
Citations: other sites
In the week of October 12, 2026, 49% of the sources ChatGPT cited were other sites in Chat Radar’s panel of 97 local businesses, up from 47% the week before.
| Segment | Value | Change vs. prior week | Businesses |
|---|---|---|---|
| All businesses | 49% | ↑ +2 points | 97 |
| Dental practices | 45% | ↑ +2 points | 49 |
| Car dealerships | 47% | ↑ +2 points | 38 |
| Other businesses | Not enough data: Fewer than 100 answers stand behind this figure, so it is not published. | ||
Share of answer citations that are other sites. Counted per citation.
Perplexity
Business named in the answer
In the week of October 12, 2026, Perplexity named a given business in 41% of its answers to that business’s local customer questions in Chat Radar’s panel of 97 local businesses, up from 40% the week before.
| Segment | Value | Change vs. prior week | Businesses |
|---|---|---|---|
| All businesses | 41% | ↑ +1 point | 97 |
| Dental practices | 19% | ↑ +2 points | 49 |
| Car dealerships | 71% | ↓ −3 points | 38 |
| Other businesses | Not enough data: Fewer than 100 answers stand behind this figure, so it is not published. | ||
Share of answers to a business’s local questions that name that business. The questions never name it. Counted per business: a shared answer counts once for each business it applies to.
Citations per answer
In the week of October 12, 2026, Perplexity cited 10 sources per answer on average in Chat Radar’s panel of 97 local businesses, unchanged from 10 the week before.
| Segment | Value | Change vs. prior week | Businesses |
|---|---|---|---|
| All businesses | 10 | no change | 97 |
| Dental practices | 10 | no change | 49 |
| Car dealerships | 10 | no change | 38 |
| Other businesses | Not enough data: Fewer than 100 answers stand behind this figure, so it is not published. | ||
Average number of distinct sources an answer cites. Counted per answer.
Own website cited
In the week of October 12, 2026, Perplexity cited a business’s own website in 35% of its answers in Chat Radar’s panel of 97 local businesses, down from 40% the week before.
| Segment | Value | Change vs. prior week | Businesses |
|---|---|---|---|
| All businesses | 35% | ↓ −5 points | 97 |
| Dental practices | 21% | ↓ −5 points | 49 |
| Car dealerships | 57% | ↓ −6 points | 38 |
| Other businesses | Not enough data: Fewer than 100 answers stand behind this figure, so it is not published. | ||
Share of answers to a business’s local questions that cite that business’s own website. Counted per business.
Citations: directories and review sites
In the week of October 12, 2026, 27% of the sources Perplexity cited were directories and review sites in Chat Radar’s panel of 97 local businesses, up from 25% the week before.
| Segment | Value | Change vs. prior week | Businesses |
|---|---|---|---|
| All businesses | 27% | ↑ +3 points | 97 |
| Dental practices | 28% | ↑ +4 points | 49 |
| Car dealerships | 31% | ↑ +3 points | 38 |
| Other businesses | Not enough data: Fewer than 100 answers stand behind this figure, so it is not published. | ||
Share of answer citations that are directories and review sites. Counted per citation.
Citations: publishers and media
In the week of October 12, 2026, 1% of the sources Perplexity cited were publishers and media in Chat Radar’s panel of 97 local businesses, unchanged from 1% the week before.
| Segment | Value | Change vs. prior week | Businesses |
|---|---|---|---|
| All businesses | 1% | no change | 97 |
| Dental practices | 0% | no change | 49 |
| Car dealerships | 2% | no change | 38 |
| Other businesses | Not enough data: Fewer than 100 answers stand behind this figure, so it is not published. | ||
Share of answer citations that are publishers and media. Counted per citation.
Citations: other Google pages
In the week of October 12, 2026, 0% of the sources Perplexity cited were other Google pages in Chat Radar’s panel of 97 local businesses, unchanged from 0% the week before.
| Segment | Value | Change vs. prior week | Businesses |
|---|---|---|---|
| All businesses | 0% | no change | 97 |
| Dental practices | 0% | no change | 49 |
| Car dealerships | 0% | no change | 38 |
| Other businesses | Not enough data: Fewer than 100 answers stand behind this figure, so it is not published. | ||
Share of answer citations that are other Google pages. Counted per citation.
Citations: Google Business Profiles
In the week of October 12, 2026, 0% of the sources Perplexity cited were Google Business Profiles in Chat Radar’s panel of 97 local businesses, unchanged from 0% the week before.
| Segment | Value | Change vs. prior week | Businesses |
|---|---|---|---|
| All businesses | 0% | no change | 97 |
| Dental practices | 0% | no change | 49 |
| Car dealerships | 0% | no change | 38 |
| Other businesses | Not enough data: Fewer than 100 answers stand behind this figure, so it is not published. | ||
Share of answer citations that are Google Business Profiles. Counted per citation.
Citations: links into Google AI Mode
In the week of October 12, 2026, 0% of the sources Perplexity cited were links into Google AI Mode in Chat Radar’s panel of 97 local businesses, unchanged from 0% the week before.
| Segment | Value | Change vs. prior week | Businesses |
|---|---|---|---|
| All businesses | 0% | no change | 97 |
| Dental practices | 0% | no change | 49 |
| Car dealerships | 0% | no change | 38 |
| Other businesses | Not enough data: Fewer than 100 answers stand behind this figure, so it is not published. | ||
Share of answer citations that are links into Google AI Mode. Counted per citation.
Citations: other businesses’ websites
In the week of October 12, 2026, 41% of the sources Perplexity cited were other businesses’ websites in Chat Radar’s panel of 97 local businesses, down from 42% the week before.
| Segment | Value | Change vs. prior week | Businesses |
|---|---|---|---|
| All businesses | 41% | no change | 97 |
| Dental practices | 48% | ↓ −2 points | 49 |
| Car dealerships | 39% | ↑ +1 point | 38 |
| Other businesses | Not enough data: Fewer than 100 answers stand behind this figure, so it is not published. | ||
Share of answer citations that are other businesses’ websites. Counted per citation.
Citations: other sites
In the week of October 12, 2026, 30% of the sources Perplexity cited were other sites in Chat Radar’s panel of 97 local businesses, down from 33% the week before.
| Segment | Value | Change vs. prior week | Businesses |
|---|---|---|---|
| All businesses | 30% | ↓ −3 points | 97 |
| Dental practices | 24% | ↓ −2 points | 49 |
| Car dealerships | 27% | ↓ −4 points | 38 |
| Other businesses | Not enough data: Fewer than 100 answers stand behind this figure, so it is not published. | ||
Share of answer citations that are other sites. Counted per citation.
Business websites
Sites blocking GPTBot
In the week of October 12, 2026, 1% of websites blocked GPTBot in robots.txt in Chat Radar’s panel of 115 local businesses, unchanged from 1% the week before.
| Segment | Value | Change vs. prior week | Businesses |
|---|---|---|---|
| All businesses | 1% | no change | 115 |
| Dental practices | 2% | no change | 50 |
| Car dealerships | 0% | no change | 45 |
| Other businesses | 0% | no change | 20 |
Share of business websites whose robots.txt disallows GPTBot from the whole site. Counted per business.
Sites blocking ClaudeBot
In the week of October 12, 2026, 2% of websites blocked ClaudeBot in robots.txt in Chat Radar’s panel of 115 local businesses, unchanged from 2% the week before.
| Segment | Value | Change vs. prior week | Businesses |
|---|---|---|---|
| All businesses | 2% | no change | 115 |
| Dental practices | 4% | no change | 50 |
| Car dealerships | 0% | no change | 45 |
| Other businesses | 0% | no change | 20 |
Share of business websites whose robots.txt disallows ClaudeBot from the whole site. Counted per business.
Sites blocking PerplexityBot
In the week of October 12, 2026, 0% of websites blocked PerplexityBot in robots.txt in Chat Radar’s panel of 115 local businesses, unchanged from 0% the week before.
| Segment | Value | Change vs. prior week | Businesses |
|---|---|---|---|
| All businesses | 0% | no change | 115 |
| Dental practices | 0% | no change | 50 |
| Car dealerships | 0% | no change | 45 |
| Other businesses | 0% | no change | 20 |
Share of business websites whose robots.txt disallows PerplexityBot from the whole site. Counted per business.
Sites blocking Google-Extended
In the week of October 12, 2026, 1% of websites blocked Google-Extended in robots.txt in Chat Radar’s panel of 115 local businesses, unchanged from 1% the week before.
| Segment | Value | Change vs. prior week | Businesses |
|---|---|---|---|
| All businesses | 1% | no change | 115 |
| Dental practices | 2% | no change | 50 |
| Car dealerships | 0% | no change | 45 |
| Other businesses | 0% | no change | 20 |
Share of business websites whose robots.txt disallows Google-Extended from the whole site. Counted per business.
Sites blocking any AI crawler
In the week of October 12, 2026, 3% of websites blocked at least one AI crawler in robots.txt in Chat Radar’s panel of 115 local businesses, unchanged from 3% the week before.
| Segment | Value | Change vs. prior week | Businesses |
|---|---|---|---|
| All businesses | 3% | no change | 115 |
| Dental practices | 4% | no change | 50 |
| Car dealerships | 0% | no change | 45 |
| Other businesses | 5% | no change | 20 |
Share of business websites whose robots.txt fully blocks at least one of ten AI crawlers. Counted per business.
Sites with llms.txt
In the week of October 12, 2026, 30% of websites published an llms.txt file in Chat Radar’s panel of 115 local businesses, up from 26% the week before.
| Segment | Value | Change vs. prior week | Businesses |
|---|---|---|---|
| All businesses | 30% | ↑ +4 points | 115 |
| Dental practices | 36% | ↓ −2 points | 50 |
| Car dealerships | 22% | ↑ +11 points | 45 |
| Other businesses | 35% | ↑ +5 points | 20 |
Share of business websites serving an llms.txt file. Counted per business.
Sites with LocalBusiness markup
In the week of October 12, 2026, 57% of homepages carried LocalBusiness structured data in Chat Radar’s panel of 115 local businesses, up from 56% the week before.
| Segment | Value | Change vs. prior week | Businesses |
|---|---|---|---|
| All businesses | 57% | ↑ +1 point | 115 |
| Dental practices | 70% | no change | 50 |
| Car dealerships | 47% | no change | 45 |
| Other businesses | 45% | ↑ +5 points | 20 |
Share of business homepages carrying schema.org LocalBusiness-type structured data. Counted per business.
Sites with a sitemap
In the week of October 12, 2026, 82% of websites had a sitemap in Chat Radar’s panel of 115 local businesses, up from 74% the week before.
| Segment | Value | Change vs. prior week | Businesses |
|---|---|---|---|
| All businesses | 82% | ↑ +8 points | 115 |
| Dental practices | 92% | ↑ +4 points | 50 |
| Car dealerships | 67% | ↑ +11 points | 45 |
| Other businesses | 90% | ↑ +10 points | 20 |
Share of business websites with a sitemap listed in robots.txt or at /sitemap.xml. Counted per business.
Homepages refusing our crawler
In the week of October 12, 2026, 13% of homepages refused an identified crawler with a 403 or 503 response in Chat Radar’s panel of 115 local businesses, down from 15% the week before.
| Segment | Value | Change vs. prior week | Businesses |
|---|---|---|---|
| All businesses | 13% | ↓ −2 points | 115 |
| Dental practices | 2% | no change | 50 |
| Car dealerships | 31% | no change | 45 |
| Other businesses | 0% | ↓ −10 points | 20 |
Share of business homepages that answered our identified crawler with 403 or 503, which can mean bot blocking at the network level that robots.txt does not show. Counted per business.
Google Business Profiles
Profile changes observed
In the week of October 12, 2026, profile changes were observed on 8% of Google Business Profiles in Chat Radar’s panel of 110 local businesses.
| Segment | Value | Change vs. prior week | Businesses |
|---|---|---|---|
| All businesses | 8% | first week | 110 |
| Dental practices | 13% | first week | 47 |
| Car dealerships | 7% | first week | 45 |
| Other businesses | 0% | first week | 18 |
Share of Business Profiles whose name, phone, hours, website or category changed since the previous week. We cannot tell who made a change. Counted per business.
Profile phone differs from the website
In the week of October 12, 2026, 2% of Google Business Profiles listed a phone number not found on the business’s own website in Chat Radar’s panel of 110 local businesses, up from 1% the week before.
| Segment | Value | Change vs. prior week | Businesses |
|---|---|---|---|
| All businesses | 2% | ↑ +1 point | 110 |
| Dental practices | 5% | ↑ +2 points | 47 |
| Car dealerships | 0% | no change | 45 |
| Other businesses | 0% | no change | 18 |
Share of Business Profiles whose phone number matches none published on the business’s own website. Counted per business.
New reviews per profile (median)
In the week of October 12, 2026, the median Google Business Profile gained 1 reviews in Chat Radar’s panel of 110 local businesses.
| Segment | Value | Change vs. prior week | Businesses |
|---|---|---|---|
| All businesses | 1 | first week | 110 |
| Dental practices | 1 | first week | 47 |
| Car dealerships | 3 | first week | 45 |
| Other businesses | 0 | first week | 18 |
Median change in a Business Profile’s review count since the previous week. Counted per business.
Average rating
In the week of October 12, 2026, businesses averaged 4.7 stars on Google in Chat Radar’s panel of 110 local businesses, unchanged from 4.7 the week before.
| Segment | Value | Change vs. prior week | Businesses |
|---|---|---|---|
| All businesses | 4.7 | no change | 110 |
| Dental practices | 4.9 | no change | 47 |
| Car dealerships | 4.5 | no change | 45 |
| Other businesses | 4.7 | no change | 18 |
Average Google rating across panel Business Profiles. Counted per business.
Sample and method
This week covers 115 businesses in Chat Radar’s panel. Panel version 1, methodology v1.
This page will not change after publication. If a published figure is ever corrected, the change is noted here and in the corrections log.
Cite this week
Chat Radar. (2026). Chat Radar Local AI Search Trends, week of October 12, 2026 [Data set]. https://chatradar.ai/trends/2026-10-12
Chat Radar. “Chat Radar Local AI Search Trends, week of October 12, 2026.” Chat Radar, 2026, https://chatradar.ai/trends/2026-10-12. Accessed October 19, 2026.
Chat Radar. “Chat Radar Local AI Search Trends, week of October 12, 2026.” Data set. 2026. https://chatradar.ai/trends/2026-10-12.
@misc{chatradar202620261012,
author = {{Chat Radar}},
title = {{Chat Radar Local AI Search Trends, week of October 12, 2026}},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {\url{https://chatradar.ai/trends/2026-10-12}},
note = {Data set, CC BY 4.0}
}Download this week as CSV · JSON · Share card: 1200×627, 1080×1350
Published by Chat Radar, which sells AI visibility services to local businesses. Methodology and disclosure
Methodology: Michael Notbohm, Founder & CEO, Chat Radar · LinkedIn · ORCID 0009-0003-3320-5803