ChatGPT and Perplexity assemble B2B answers differently, so the same company can be named by one and missing from the other. The bottom line: ChatGPT search leans on Bing's index and reference sources such as Wikipedia, Perplexity leans on review sites and community threads, and a B2B company needs its own pages, its review profiles, and its community presence in shape to appear in both, then needs to measure each separately.

For a full definition, read our answer engine optimization guide.

How the two platforms differ

ChatGPTPerplexity
Search indexDraws on Bing. Seer Interactive found 87% of more than 500 SearchGPT citations matched Bing's top results, and 56% matched Google'sPerplexity says it runs its own index of more than 200 billion URLs
Most cited sourceWikipedia, at 7.8% of citations in Profound's analysis of 680 millionReddit, at 6.6% of citations, and 46.7% of its top ten source share
Commercial sourcesReference works and review sitesG2, Gartner, NerdWallet, PCMag, TripAdvisor, and Yelp appear among its most cited
CrawlersGPTBot (training), OAI-SearchBot (search), ChatGPT-User (user requests)PerplexityBot (index), Perplexity-User (user requests)
Use in B2B software researchUsed by 63% of B2B software buyers in G2's March 2026 surveySmaller share of buyers

Treat the citation shares as directional. Semrush found that ChatGPT's share of Reddit and Wikipedia citations dropped sharply between August and September 2025, and studies of citation sources disagree because they sample different questions on different days. What holds up is the shape: ChatGPT favors reference and encyclopedic sources, and Perplexity favors community and review sources.

What to do for ChatGPT

  1. Get into Bing's index. Verify the site in Bing Webmaster Tools, submit the sitemap, and use IndexNow so new pages reach Bing quickly.
  2. Allow OAI-SearchBot. Blocking GPTBot, the training crawler, does not remove you from ChatGPT search, but blocking OAI-SearchBot does.
  3. Be present on reference sources. Accurate company information on sources ChatGPT reads, where you meet their standards, such as industry association pages and reputable listings. Do not create promotional Wikipedia entries, which their rules prohibit.
  4. Put the answer at the top of pages. AirOps found 44% of ChatGPT citations came from the first 30% of a page.

What to do for Perplexity

  1. Allow PerplexityBot. Perplexity says Perplexity-User, its user request fetcher, generally does not follow robots.txt.
  2. Build review profiles. Complete G2, Capterra, Gartner Peer Insights, or the review sites your category uses.
  3. Participate honestly in community threads. Answer questions in relevant subreddits and forums as a named, disclosed participant. Automation and undisclosed promotion get removed.
  4. Publish comparison and pricing pages. Commercial queries tend to pull structured comparison sources.

What to do for both

How to measure each platform

Write the questions a buyer would ask in your category, run each five times on ChatGPT and five times on Perplexity in fresh sessions, and record separately how often you are named and which sources are cited. SparkToro and Gumshoe found less than a 1 in 100 chance that two responses returned the same list of brands, so the share of many runs is the number to watch.

Questions people ask

Why is my company in Perplexity but not ChatGPT?

They use different sources. ChatGPT search leans on Bing's index and reference sources, while Perplexity leans on review sites and community threads such as Reddit, so a strong review and forum presence can appear in one and not the other.

Does blocking GPTBot hide me from ChatGPT?

No. GPTBot is the training crawler. OAI-SearchBot controls ChatGPT search results, and the two are independent settings.

How can a B2B company get into Bing's index quickly?

Verify the site in Bing Webmaster Tools, submit the sitemap, and use IndexNow to notify Bing when pages are published or updated.

Are citation share figures for ChatGPT and Perplexity reliable?

Only as a shape. Studies disagree because they sample different questions and days, and Semrush documented a sharp shift in ChatGPT's Reddit and Wikipedia citation share in 2025.

Sources