ChatGPT opens a way to claim your business

On November 10, 2026, OpenAI announced Businesses in ChatGPT, in beta. The announcement, Introducing Businesses in ChatGPT, says businesses can claim a presence, keep details current, and see aggregated numbers on how people engage with them in ChatGPT. It also introduces Business Agents, and it limits that second product at launch.

OpenAI says the products are a way to connect with the 1.2 billion people who use ChatGPT each week. That weekly figure is OpenAI's, from the announcement. We have not audited it. The useful part for a local owner is the eligibility split, which is easy to miss if you only read the headline.

What claiming is, and who OpenAI says can do it

Through Business Hub, a business can claim the organization and, once verified, update key details and add a self-serve product feed with prices and availability. OpenAI says any eligible business located where ChatGPT is available can claim through Business Hub. Existing Enterprise customers and advertisers can go through their OpenAI representative. Shopify merchants can connect the store from Business Hub or from the Shopify admin. OpenAI also says eligible Shopify products are already in ChatGPT through the Shopify Catalog.

The help page, Setting up your business on ChatGPT, adds the practical gates. You can claim if you own the business or are allowed to represent it. You verify the connection. OpenAI says you do not need an ads account or a ChatGPT Enterprise agreement to claim an eligible business. Verification methods it lists include phone, a business email, the website domain, or Shopify. After the claim is approved, OpenAI says you still complete an identity check with Persona before you can publish changes to the business information, view insights, or create an eligible agent.

"Eligible" is doing a lot of work. The help page says availability depends on the business's location and type, and that you can claim an existing business or add one where ChatGPT is available and the required verification is supported. A plumber or a dentist should not read "any business" into a sentence that says "any eligible business." Check the hub against your own category and country. This article cannot tell you that your shop will be offered the button.

What the insights include, and what they leave out

OpenAI says Business Hub shows aggregated counts of mentions and of clicks to the website, plus discovery topics: themes in conversations where the site was cited. It says it does not share people's conversations, or chats with a Business Agent, with the business. Insights appear only when there are enough conversations to clear a threshold OpenAI does not number in the post.

For a local firm, mentions and clicks are a narrow window. They are not a ranking report, and they are not the text of what was said. If the threshold is not met, the page can be empty even if you believe customers are asking. That is the design OpenAI described, not a bug we observed.

Business Agents are a smaller door

After a claim, OpenAI says eligible organizations can build, test, and launch a Business Agent that answers from the business's own information. When the business appears in a ChatGPT answer, a person can open the business's ChatGPT profile. If an agent is available, the person can choose to talk to it. OpenAI's example is someone comparing products and asking which features fit. The agent chat is labeled, separate from the original ChatGPT conversation, and separate from ChatGPT's own answers.

OpenAI says businesses can also sponsor the agent and use it as the destination for ChatGPT ads. Sponsored placements are labeled and kept separate from ChatGPT responses.

The limit is in the same post: Business Agents are available to eligible ecommerce and online service businesses in the United States. The help page repeats that agents are for eligible ecommerce and online service businesses in the US that have a website, and that the business must meet the industry rules in OpenAI's Business Agents policy. OpenAI says it plans to expand agents and the broader product to more countries and more categories over time. A plan is not the current rule.

An auto repair shop or an HVAC company is not, on the text of this launch, in the group that can turn on an agent. A shop that sells online, in the US, and fits the ecommerce or online-service rules, is the group the post is talking about. Even then, "eligible" still applies. The agent, when it exists, does not replace ChatGPT's own answer. OpenAI says those stay distinct.

What still matters if you cannot launch an agent

ChatGPT can still name a business from the open web. Claiming a profile, if you are eligible, is a way to supply details and a product feed. It is not described as a switch that forces the model to recommend you. The guide on getting recommended by ChatGPT is about that unpaid answer: what the model can find on your site and your listings. The free AI visibility check asks a customer-style question and shows whether you are named.

The Businesses in ChatGPT policy, updated November 10, 2026, says you may manage a profile only if you own the business or are authorized to represent it. It forbids fake profiles and false claims about prices, availability, qualifications, or likely results. Details it lists as needing to stay true and current include the name, category, address or service area, hours, contact information, and the products or services you offer. A lawyer page or an auto repair page that invents services to match a prompt would break that policy and would also mislead the customer. If your category is not eligible yet, the work that still counts is the public information ChatGPT can already read, kept accurate, which is the same standard the policy states for anyone who does get a profile.