---
title: "ChatGPT Local Accuracy: Cleveland 37.3%, San Antonio 93.8%"
url: https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/which-city-ai-knows-best
description: "ChatGPT local accuracy by city: only 37.3% of its Cleveland picks are real, open and in the city, against 93.8% in San Antonio. See the data."
lang: en
---
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In Cleveland, only **37.3%** of the local businesses ChatGPT recommends are real, open and inside the city, against 93.8% in San Antonio. Nationwide, 72.5% of ChatGPT's local recommendations check out, so more than one in four fail at least one of the checks.
Analysis of 8,338 ChatGPT-recommended businesses in 79 US cities · ChatGPT answers checked against Google Business Profiles, September 2026
## Key Findings
1. 1. In Cleveland, only **37.3%** of the local businesses ChatGPT recommends are real, open and inside the city, the lowest of 50 large US cities, because many of the businesses it names sit in the suburbs. Copy stat
2. 2. In Lewiston, Maine, **35.1%** of ChatGPT's local business recommendations are real, open and inside the city, the lowest of 79 US cities, with Burlington, Vermont (35.6%) and Cleveland (37.3%) close behind. Copy stat
3. 3. In San Antonio, **93.8%** of the local businesses ChatGPT recommends are real, open and inside the city, the most accurate result of 79 US cities. Copy stat
4. 4. **72.5%** of the local businesses ChatGPT recommends across 79 US cities are real, open and inside the city asked about. Copy stat
5. 5. In the median US city, **94.8%** of ChatGPT's local business recommendations can be found on Google, so location, not existence, decides accuracy. Copy stat
## Summary
Someone in Cleveland asks ChatGPT for the best dentist in Cleveland. Every business in the answer is real, most have good reviews, and most of them are not in Cleveland. The same question asked in San Antonio returns a list that almost entirely checks out.
How far you can trust an AI assistant's local advice depends on where you live. For a customer, a recommendation outside the city means a longer drive or a business that does not serve their address. For a local business, it means competitors from the next town over are taking places in answers about your city.
In Cleveland, only **37.3%** of ChatGPT's local recommendations are real, open and inside the city, and in Lewiston, Burlington and Detroit it is also fewer than four in ten. In San Antonio the figure is 93.8%, and across all 79 cities it is 72.5%.
## What we measured
On September 23 and 24, 2026 we asked ChatGPT for the best businesses across 20 local services, from dentists and plumbers to restaurants, in each of 79 US cities: 50 large cities and 29 smaller ones. We looked up every business it named on Google Business Profiles, the free listings that show a business's address, hours and reviews in Google Search and Maps. That gave 8,338 recommendations to check, between 75 and 128 per city.
A recommendation counts as fully accurate when three things are true: the business has a Google Business Profile with a matching name, it is not marked as closed, and its address is inside the city in the question. "Found on Google" means the business passed the first test. We then ranked the 79 cities by their share of fully accurate recommendations.
## Cities ringed by suburbs fall to the bottom
At the bottom of the ranking, Lewiston, Maine scores 35.1%, Burlington, Vermont 35.6%, Cleveland 37.3% and Detroit 38.3%. Five cities fall below 50%. In these places ChatGPT still names real businesses: 95.5% of its Cleveland recommendations are found on Google, and 94.8% in Lewiston. The businesses are simply in the surrounding towns.
Cleveland and Detroit are compact cities surrounded by large suburbs, and many of the best-known businesses in their metro areas have suburban addresses. Lewiston and Burlington are small cities whose neighboring towns hold much of the local trade. ChatGPT answers at the level of the metro area, so a question about the city returns the region. In the median city, 94.8% of recommendations are found on Google, which shows that location, not whether the business exists, is what separates the top of the ranking from the bottom.
## Texas and the Southwest get the most accurate answers
93.8%
of ChatGPT's local business recommendations in San Antonio are fully accurate.
San Antonio leads, followed by Albuquerque at 92%, with El Paso (90.2%), Tucson (89.7%) and Austin (89.4%) close behind at about 90%. New York (89%), Houston (87.2%) and Chicago (87.2%) complete the top eight. Six of the ten most accurate cities are in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona, and all ten are large cities.
These are cities with wide boundaries that take in most of their metro area, so a business that serves the city usually also has a city address. In each of the ten most accurate cities, more than 92% of ChatGPT's recommendations can be found on Google, and nearly all of them also pass the location test.
Recommendations fully accurate by city
San Antonio, TX
93.8%
Albuquerque, NM
92%
El Paso, TX
90.2%
Tucson, AZ
89.7%
Austin, TX
89.4%
New York, NY
89%
Houston, TX
87.2%
Chicago, IL
87.2%
Salt Lake City, UT
52.3%
Milwaukee, WI
51.8%
Natchitoches, LA
46.1%
Detroit, MI
38.3%
Cleveland, OH
37.3%
Burlington, VT
35.6%
Lewiston, ME
35.1%
Source: Suff Digital analysis of 8,338 ChatGPT-recommended businesses in 79 US cities · ChatGPT answers checked against Google Business Profiles, September 2026
## Three in four recommendations check out nationwide
Across all 79 cities, 72.5% of ChatGPT's local recommendations are fully accurate, and the median city scores 73.1%. In 24 cities at least 80% of recommendations pass every test.
City size helps, but not by much. Large cities average 74.6% accuracy and smaller cities 68.1%. Large cities fill the whole top ten, yet Cleveland, Detroit and Milwaukee sit near the bottom next to smaller cities such as Lewiston, Burlington and Natchitoches. How a city's borders are drawn matters more than how many people live in it.
## What this means for local businesses
If your city ranks low, your problem is placement, not existence. Make sure your Google Business Profile, website and directory listings state your city clearly and consistently, and name the neighborhoods you serve. That gives ChatGPT a clear signal to place you in the right city's answers, ahead of a suburban competitor.
If you are based in a suburb next to a large city, you are already showing up in that city's AI answers. Treat it as an opportunity: say plainly on your website that you serve the city, list the areas you cover and keep every listing complete. Then ask ChatGPT for the best businesses of your type in your city and in the neighboring city, and see where you appear. An ai seo company (https://www.suffdigital.com/seo/ai-seo-services) can run these city-level checks for you across every AI engine.
## Embed this research
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Source: Only 37.3% of ChatGPT's Local Picks for Cleveland Are Inside the City, vs 93.8% in San Antonio - Suff Digital
## Cite this study
APA
Suff Digital. (2026). Only 37.3% of ChatGPT's Local Picks for Cleveland Are Inside the City, vs 93.8% in San Antonio. https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/which-city-ai-knows-best
Plain link
Only 37.3% of ChatGPT's Local Picks for Cleveland Are Inside the City, vs 93.8% in San Antonio - Suff Digital - https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/which-city-ai-knows-best
## Frequently asked questions
### Which city gets the most accurate AI local recommendations?
### Which cities get the least accurate ChatGPT local recommendations?
### How many of ChatGPT's local business recommendations check out overall?
### Are ChatGPT's local recommendations more accurate in big cities?
## Related studies
- AI SEO AI Recommends a Business Outside the City You Asked About 17.4% of the Time: https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/ai-recommends-business-wrong-city
- Local SEO Google Maps Shows an Out-of-Town Plumber in 41.4% of Small-Town Searches vs 17.9% Overall: https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/small-town-map-pack-out-of-town-businesses
- AI SEO Closed for Business: One in 383 AI Local Recommendations Has Shut Down: https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/ai-recommends-closed-businesses
- AI SEO When AI Says a Business Is Open 24/7, It's Wrong 14.4% of the Time: https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/ai-business-hours-wrong
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