Should local businesses prioritise their Yelp profile for ChatGPT?

Yes, but not because Yelp will suddenly dominate every ChatGPT answer. Yelp is now one of several licensed data sources ChatGPT draws on for local queries, and independent studies show it's a strong source in some tests and completely absent in others. Keep your Yelp profile accurate and well-reviewed as part of a broader citation strategy, rather than treating it as the single lever that gets you recommended.

What's actually new: the Yelp-OpenAI data deal

On 23 July 2026, Yelp and OpenAI announced a non-exclusive data licensing deal that gives ChatGPT access to Yelp's reviews, ratings, photos, and business information for local queries. It's non-exclusive, so Yelp can keep licensing the same data to other companies, much as it already does with Apple Maps and Yahoo. In scale terms, the deal gives ChatGPT access to 330 million user reviews and 8 million business listings. Part of OpenAI's motivation is simply freshness and depth: Yelp brings more than 20 years of accumulated review data that OpenAI doesn't have to build from scratch. The two companies also plan to integrate Yelp's Request a Quote feature directly into ChatGPT, which would let users contact a plumber without leaving the chat window.

This isn't Yelp's first brush with OpenAI's models. Yelp has used OpenAI's models since at least April 2024 to power its own Yelp Assistant feature, a conversational tool for browsing its own listings. The new deal flips that relationship, feeding Yelp's data into OpenAI's product instead.

How ChatGPT uses Yelp data today

Four types of Yelp data now feed into ChatGPT: reviews, ratings, photos, and core business information such as hours, address, phone, category, and service area. When ChatGPT draws on this data, Yelp branding and links appear alongside the response, similar to how a citation card works.

ChatGPT doesn't rely on Yelp alone, though. It cross-checks trusted data across Google Business Profile, Yelp, Apple Maps, Bing Places, Facebook, and local directories before answering a "best plumber near me" style query. That matters because, as we've written before, AI engines barely agree with each other, so a single blended visibility score hides the real picture, and the same logic applies within a single engine pulling from multiple directories.

How much weight Yelp really carries vs. Google Business Profile

The evidence here is genuinely mixed.

BrightLocal's analysis of citations found Yelp is the most common source for ChatGPT in local search by some distance, while Google Business Profile wasn't a top ChatGPT source (though Apple's version was). But the same analysis, looking across Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode and ChatGPT combined, found Google Business Profile makes up 28.5% of all citations across the platforms studied. A separate citation-volume study pushed Yelp's lead even further, finding Yelp alone received 512,680 citations in Q4 2025, 3.4 times more than the second-ranked platform, across 28 million AI responses to local queries.

Set against that is a much more sceptical snapshot. Testing ChatGPT on plumber queries across 20 Florida cities on 21 October 2026, researchers found Yelp, the BBB and Google Reviews were never named as a source in any of the 20 answers. Instead, the sources ChatGPT actually cited were mostly review and "best of" directories like ConsumerAffairs, BestProsInTown, RatingsNearMe, ServiceAgent, Expertise.com, ThreeBestRated, Thumbtack, Angi, Birdeye and city "top rated" sites. The same researchers note that AI answers change from run to run and day to day, so their results are a snapshot, not a permanent ranking.

A separate 10-market plumber-tracking test landed somewhere in the middle, finding ChatGPT cited sources about 40% of the time, often linking to Yelp or Angi profiles. The same report flagged that Perplexity leaned on directories even harder, recommending a company with no website at all in 3 of 10 markets, pulling entirely from Yelp and BBB data. This fits the pattern we've seen elsewhere: different AI engines cite different sites for the same question, and topping Google doesn't guarantee a mention in ChatGPT.

What the independent studies show about AI's plumber recommendations

Beyond which directory gets cited, the bigger finding is how few businesses get recommended at all. An independent benchmark of 982 US plumbers found only 35% ever get recommended by ChatGPT, based on asking for the best plumber in 16 metros, four ways each, 64 checks in total. That's a reminder that the fight isn't just "Yelp vs Google Business Profile". It's getting into the recommended set at all, something we've covered in why being cited by AI isn't the same as getting recommended.

Practitioners who've run these tests point to citation consistency as the real lever. One AEO-focused source warns that your name, address, and phone must render identically across Yelp, Angi, BBB, HomeAdvisor, Nextdoor, and the local chamber, because models penalise contradiction; if three directories list three different phone numbers, the model reaches for a competitor whose data agrees with itself. The same practitioners advise businesses to aim for review depth and breadth, since 500 Google reviews with zero Yelp presence looks lopsided to an AI model.

Why Yelp still matters even beyond ChatGPT

Even setting AI aside, Yelp isn't shrinking. It reported 2025 net revenue of $1.46 billion, with 22 million new reviews added in 2025 and 330 million cumulative reviews, up 7% on the prior year. Service categories, the bucket plumbers fall into, are now Yelp's growth engine: advertising revenue from services categories rose 8% year over year to a record $948 million in 2025. Paying advertiser activity in services held up too, with active claimed business locations up 8% year over year across categories in 2025. Yelp itself frames the OpenAI deal as an extension of a distribution strategy it already runs with Yahoo and Apple Maps, betting that human reviews become more valuable as AI generated content fills more of the internet.

What a local business should actually do about its Yelp profile

Keep your Yelp listing accurate. Fill in hours, service area and category properly, and keep collecting genuine reviews there alongside Google. Match your name, address and phone exactly across Yelp, Google Business Profile, Angi, BBB and any trade directories, since the evidence suggests inconsistency is what pushes AI engines towards a competitor. Don't treat Yelp as a silver bullet; given how much AI Overviews now shape search generally, with AI Overviews appearing on 68% of local searches against just 39% for the traditional map pack, spreading effort across Google Business Profile, Yelp and a handful of trade directories is the safer bet. For a structured way to see where your gaps are, Sited's free AI visibility scorecard will show which platforms currently mention your business and which don't.

Our view: the Yelp-OpenAI deal is worth reacting to, but not worth over-reacting to. Treat it as one more reason to keep your Yelp data clean, not as a reason to abandon Google Business Profile or assume you're covered.

The real limitation here is that no study in this space is stable. Citation patterns shift between runs, cities and even days, as the Florida plumber study itself admits, so any snapshot (including this one) should be read as directional rather than definitive.

Frequently asked questions

Does ChatGPT always cite Yelp for plumber searches?

No. Results vary by study: one Florida snapshot found Yelp was never cited across 20 plumber queries, while a 10-market test found ChatGPT cited sources about 40% of the time, often linking to Yelp or Angi.

Is Google Business Profile still important for AI visibility?

Yes. Across Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode and ChatGPT combined, Google Business Profile made up 28.5% of all citations in one analysis, even though it wasn't a top ChatGPT-specific source.

What's the single biggest fix for local AI visibility?

Citation consistency. If your name, address and phone differ across Yelp, Angi, BBB and other directories, AI models have no confident fact to state and tend to recommend a competitor instead.

Will the Yelp-OpenAI deal make Yelp exclusive to ChatGPT?

No. The deal is explicitly non-exclusive, and Yelp already supplies data to Apple Maps and Yahoo, with room for further AI provider deals.

How many plumbers actually get recommended by ChatGPT?

An independent benchmark of 982 US plumbers found only 35% ever appear in ChatGPT's recommendations across 64 checks spanning 16 metros, which suggests getting cited matters less than getting into that recommended set at all.