Why does my firm show up in ChatGPT but not in Google's AI answers?

The short answer is that ChatGPT and Google’s AI answers mostly cite different websites, so showing up in one tells you little about the other.

Kevin Indig’s H1 2026 analysis found that roughly 91% of citations appear on only one AI platform. A separate Writesonic study across 161,000 prompts found the major platforms share only about 17% of their cited sources, and around 70% of cited sources show up on just one.

These systems aren’t converging on the same sources, and the gap isn’t a glitch anyone can tune away. It’s how they retrieve right now.

Track relevant AI platforms

Say a firm is cited often by Perplexity, sometimes by Google AI Mode, and never by ChatGPT or Gemini. A blended score might still show “moderate visibility,” masking the fact that the firm is completely absent from two major platforms.

The real picture is a strong position in Perplexity and no presence at all in ChatGPT or Gemini. That calls for different work on each platform, and the average hides the gaps you can actually act on.

So check presence first, as a yes or no for each AI platform. How often you’re cited is a second question.

The audience is moving too

Where people do their AI searching keeps shifting, which makes betting on one AI platform riskier than it looks. ChatGPT’s share of AI search activity fell from roughly 78% to 56% in six months. Gemini rose to around 30%, and Claude sits near 10%.

A firm that built everything around ChatGPT eighteen months ago was working a shrinking share of the audience, and a blended number wouldn’t have shown it.

How to build the prompt set and run it

Build a real prompt set. Write thirty to fifty questions, in the words a hurt person would actually type, covering the situations your firm takes: “Do I have a case if I was rear-ended and felt fine at the scene,” “How much does a personal injury lawyer cost in Sacramento,” “Should I accept the insurance company’s first offer.”

Run them on each AI platform separately. That means ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Perplexity, Gemini and Claude. For every prompt, record whether you were mentioned, whether you were cited with a link, and which sources it used instead.

The third column is the valuable one. It’s a map of the evidence layer for your market, meaning the sites ChatGPT, Google and the rest lean on, and it usually explains the other two columns.

How to read the results

Track visibility by prompt and platform. Put your target prompts in rows and AI platforms in columns, then mark where your firm appears. If you are missing mostly from one platform, that platform may rely on sources where your firm has little presence. If you are missing across several platforms for the same topic, the problem is more likely the underlying content or authority around that topic. Those are different problems with different fixes, and one blended score hides the difference.

Add Search Console data when available. Google’s Generative AI performance report shows impressions from AI Overviews and AI Mode, broken out by page, country, and device. If the report is available in your property, start tracking it now so you have a baseline to measure against.

The takeaway

ChatGPT and Google’s AI answers often cite different websites, so your firm can appear in one and be absent from another. Measure each platform separately using the questions your clients actually ask before relying on any combined visibility score.

Then look at where the gaps cluster. If you are missing from one platform, build presence on the sources that platform tends to cite. If you are missing across the same topic everywhere, the problem is more likely your content and authority around that subject. Recheck monthly, because usage and visibility can shift between platforms.

What law firms ask about ChatGPT and Google’s AI answers