53.7% of AI answers to "best product" questions never mention a price, so more than half of AI shopping advice leaves out what the product costs. ChatGPT quotes a price in 69.2% of its product answers and Perplexity in 14.1%.
Analysis of 17,524 AI product answers · answers from ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google's AI features, September 2026
Key Findings
- 1.53.7% of AI answers to "best product" questions do not mention a price, while 46.3% include a dollar amount.
- 2.ChatGPT includes a price in 69.2% of its product recommendations, almost five times Perplexity's 14.1%.
- 3.Google AI Overviews include a price in 66.1% of product answers, twice the 32.6% of Google AI Mode.
- 4.AI answers to "best" finance questions include a dollar figure 91.1% of the time, against 4.1% of AI answers about health products.
- 5.ChatGPT includes a price in 99.5% of its answers about gaming products, 97% about apparel and 95% about office products.
Summary
A shopper asks an AI engine for the best air purifier for a small apartment. The answer names four models, explains the filters and noise levels, and says which suits allergy sufferers. It does not say what any of them cost, so the shopper opens a new tab to find out.
Price is one of the first things a shopper checks, and it decides which brand looks like good value. When an AI answer leaves prices out, the shopper fills the gap from a retailer, a review site or a competitor's ad. When it includes them, the figure it quotes becomes the reference price, and a stale or wrong figure can put a brand out of the running.
53.7% of AI answers to "best product" questions do not mention a price at all. The engines split sharply: ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews quote prices in about two thirds of product answers, Gemini and Google AI Mode in about a third, and Perplexity in one answer in seven.
What we measured
On September 23, 2026 we asked 2,000 "best product or service" questions, such as "best robot vacuum" or "best travel credit card", across 20 shopping categories, to five AI engines: ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Mode and Google AI Overviews (the AI summary above Google's search results). That produced 17,524 answers.
An answer counts as mentioning a price when it contains a dollar amount. We compared the rate by AI engine and by category, and looked at ChatGPT's categories on their own because it quotes prices far more often than the other engines.
Most AI product answers never say what anything costs
AI engines describe features, strengths and who a product suits, but in more than half of their shopping answers they leave out the one number most buyers want. 46.3% of answers include a dollar amount somewhere, and the rest send the shopper elsewhere to find it.
The effect depends on your price position. A premium brand may be glad the answer lets its features do the talking. A brand that competes on value loses its main argument: if the answer does not say you are cheaper, the shopper will not know.
ChatGPT quotes prices, Perplexity rarely does
ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews are the price-aware engines, quoting a price in 69.2% and 66.1% of product answers. Gemini (35.7%) and Google AI Mode (32.6%) include one in about a third of answers, and Perplexity in 14.1%, about one in seven.
Source: Suff Digital analysis of 17,524 AI product answers · answers from ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google's AI features, September 2026
Google's two AI features behave very differently. AI Overviews quote a price twice as often as AI Mode, even though both draw on Google's search index, and AI Mode answers are longer on average, so the gap is not a matter of space. A shopper asking the same question is twice as likely to see a price in an AI Overview as in AI Mode.
Finance answers name a figure, health answers almost never do
The category matters as much as the engine. Across all five engines, 91.1% of "best" finance answers include a dollar figure, such as an annual fee or a sign-up bonus, followed by gaming at 73.6% and travel at 72.6%. Health answers almost never mention a price, at 4.1%, and pets (22.3%), electronics (20.6%) and cars (29.9%) are also under a third.
Source: Suff Digital analysis of 17,524 AI product answers · answers from ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google's AI features, September 2026
| Category | All engines | ChatGPT |
|---|---|---|
| Finance | 91.1% | 93% |
| Gaming | 73.6% | 99.5% |
| Travel | 72.6% | 69.5% |
| Phones | 59.1% | 85% |
| Office | 57.7% | 95% |
| Kids | 55.1% | 93.5% |
| Kitchen | 53.3% | 94% |
| Apparel | 48.8% | 97% |
| Software | 43% | 58.5% |
| Home | 42.7% | 89.5% |
| Insurance | 40% | 42.5% |
| Cars | 29.9% | 71.5% |
| Pets | 22.3% | 36% |
| Electronics | 20.6% | 38.5% |
| Health | 4.1% | 6.5% |
ChatGPT pushes most categories much higher. It names a price in 99.5% of gaming answers, 97% of apparel answers and 95% of office product answers, and more than doubles the all-engine rate for cars (71.5% against 29.9%) and home products (89.5% against 42.7%). It stays low where the other engines do: 6.5% of health answers, and 42.5% of insurance answers against 40% for all engines, since insurance prices depend on the buyer.
What this means for retailers and product brands
Make your prices easy for AI engines to read. Put current prices in plain text on product pages and in structured data, the code that labels a price as a price for search engines, and keep them the same across your site, your retailers and review sites. When an AI answer does quote a price, you want it to be the right one.
If your pitch is value, do not assume AI will pass it on. Perplexity names a price in one answer in seven and Google AI Mode in one in three. In categories where prices are rarely quoted, state your price levels and what buyers get at each one in plain sentences, so the engines have a clear statement to repeat, and get your prices into the review roundups the engines cite.
Then check what each engine says about your prices for your main "best" questions. Our ecommerce seo services cover this, from price markup on product pages to checking the prices AI engines quote.
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Cite this study
Suff Digital. (2026). 54% of AI Product Recommendations Don't Mention a Price. https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/ai-product-answers-mention-price
54% of AI Product Recommendations Don't Mention a Price - Suff Digital - https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/ai-product-answers-mention-price
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