ChatGPT Recommends a Chain for 3.9% of Local Picks vs 6.3% on Google Maps

Ask ChatGPT for the best locksmith or dentist in a US city and it almost always names a local, independent business. Search the same thing on Google Maps and national brands show up more often, especially for trades such as locksmiths, movers and accountants.

That matters for independent businesses that compete against franchises and national brands for the same customers. On Google Maps, chains can win on the size of their listings network and advertising budgets. In ChatGPT's local answers, a national brand name buys very little.

3.9% of ChatGPT's local business picks are chains, against 6.3% of Google Maps' top 20 for the same searches and 6.2% of Gemini's picks. For locksmiths the gap is 11x: 29% of Google Maps' top 20 against 2.6% of ChatGPT's picks.

On September 23, 2026 we asked ChatGPT and Gemini for the best businesses in 20 local services, from plumbers and locksmiths to dentists and hair salons, in 79 US cities. ChatGPT's answers named 18,714 businesses. The same day we collected Google Maps results for the same services and cities, 274,401 listings in all.

A business counts as a chain when the same business name appears in the Google Maps results of at least five different cities, which catches national brands and regional franchises. We counted the share of AI picks whose name is on that chain list, and compared it with the share of chains in the top 20 Google Maps results for the same searches.

Google Maps' own top 20 for the same searches is 6.3% chains, and Gemini picks a chain 6.2% of the time. ChatGPT names chains less often than either: 96% of its local picks are independent businesses.

ChatGPT's local picks lean on reviews, local directories and websites that describe a specific business in a specific city. A franchise location often shares one national website and a thin local page, while an independent business has its own website, its own reviews and its own local press. That gives ChatGPT more to go on for the independent.

Chains make up 29% of the top 20 Google Maps results for locksmiths, by far the highest share of any service on Maps. In ChatGPT's answers, chains are 2.6% of locksmith picks, an 11x gap. Moving companies show the same pattern at a smaller scale: 13.2% of the Maps top 20 against 8.6% of ChatGPT's picks, and accountants 9.9% against 5%.

Locksmith listings on Google Maps include many operators that run the same business name across many cities. ChatGPT names few of them.

A few services buck the pattern. 13.9% of the pest control companies ChatGPT recommends are chains, more than the 11.8% on Google Maps, and gyms sit at 10.4% against 10.5% on Maps. Emergency plumbers (9.5% against 5.6%) and plumbers (5.8% against 4%) are the other services where ChatGPT names chains more often than Maps shows them.

These are services where a few national brands have built strong, widely reviewed names. Roto-Rooter is the chain ChatGPT names most, followed by Planet Fitness and Anytime Fitness. At the other end, ChatGPT recommends no chain landscapers or real estate agents at all, and chains are 0.2% of its dentist picks.

Independent businesses are not at a disadvantage in ChatGPT's local answers: 96% of its local picks are independents. Make sure ChatGPT can find your business in your city: reviews, a clear website that names your services and service area, and mentions on local directories and review sites.

For franchise owners, the brand name alone does not carry a location into AI answers. Each location needs its own complete Google Business Profile, its own reviews and its own local page with real details about that location, not a copy of the national site.

Whichever you are, check what ChatGPT says when customers ask for your service in your city. Suff Digital's local seo packages build the local signals that AI assistants and Google Maps both read.

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