One pizzeria, two ratings: Pequod's Pizza in Chicago showed 3.9 stars from about 9,000 reviews in ChatGPT and 4.4 stars from about 17,000 reviews in Google AI Mode (Google's chatbot-style search) on October 19, 2026. This page keeps the numbers from the test behind that pair. The test looked at where each engine gets the details it shows for local businesses, such as the free Google Business Profile listing that a business manages on Google Maps and Search. The listing boxes an engine shows for each business (name, address, phone number, rating and photos) are called cards below.
The test asked Google AI Mode and ChatGPT 12 local questions, once each, in 12 US cities. Thirteen businesses showed up in both engines. ChatGPT's rating and review count matched Google's for 3 of the 13, so Pequod's was one of 10 that did not match.
Where the details came from differs by engine. ChatGPT cited Yelp in 4 of the 12 answers. Six of the 43 website links on its cards had tracking tags like "utm_source=gmb" (labels added to a web address so analytics can show where a visit came from), which businesses usually add only to the website field of a Google profile. The ratings mostly came from somewhere else.
Google AI Mode showed the profile almost word for word. It put place cards in 10 of the 12 answers, 47 in total, with uploaded photos, Google's rating and review count, open status and call, directions and website buttons. A wrong "closed" or an old phone number goes straight into the answer, because AI Mode copies whatever the listing says.
Google's own help pages add two numbers for service-area businesses, meaning businesses with no storefront that go to their customers, such as a plumber. Such a business can list up to 20 service areas, and Google recommends keeping the overall area within 2 hours' driving time of where the business is based. Google's ranking tips also say businesses with complete, accurate info are more likely to show up in local results.
ChatGPT showed business cards in 9 of the 12 answers, 43 cards in all. Both engines put a rating on every card.
For a business owner that gives two checks: whether the Google profile is complete and correct, because AI Mode repeats it, and whether the name, address and phone number read the same on Yelp and other sites, because ChatGPT draws on more than Google.
The test is small: one day, one data provider, businesses matched by name. It says what appeared on the cards, not why a business was chosen.
Ram works at RankControl, an AI SEO and AEO platform. RankControl's AI visibility tracker tracks citations across 7 AI engines: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini, Grok, Google AI Mode and Google AI Overviews. The full write-up has the setup steps.