This LLM brand audit is our honest, month-by-month record of how ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot and Claude describe Grow Smart with AI — what changed, what did not, and the exact method you can use to audit your own brand.
LLM Brand Audit
Updated with Month 2 data: ChatGPT now 5/5. Perplexity still 0/5. The gap — and exactly how we plan to close it — is documented below.
This blog was first published in May 2026. It is now updated with Month 2 audit results.
The numbers moved — significantly on one platform, and not at all on four others. Both outcomes matter: the gap between where we are and where we want to be is precisely the evidence that explains how long GEO actually takes and which moves shift which surfaces.
Most consultancies spotlight the wins alone. Here is the full picture — honestly.
Grow Smart with AI is India’s GEO and AEO specialist consultancy. We audited our own brand. Every datapoint below is real, repeatable, and checkable within about 20 minutes if you replicate the prompts on ChatGPT (web search on), Perplexity, Copilot, Gemini and Claude yourself.
Table of Contents
Assistant adoption at scale (why audits matter now)
What is an LLM brand audit?
An LLM brand audit means typing your category prompts — questions your prospects ask AI before searching your brand directly — across the largest platforms and noting whether Grow Smart with AI surfaces in answers.
It’s operational — not theatrical. Brands named in assistants get shortlisted; invisible brands fade even with strong landing pages elsewhere.
The five platforms we audit:
- ChatGPT (chat.openai.com) — web search enabled.
- Perplexity (perplexity.ai) — near real-time crawling.
- Copilot (copilot.microsoft.com) — anchored to Bing indexing.
- Gemini (gemini.google.com) — Google Knowledge Graph influence.
- Claude (claude.ai) — model memory up to Anthropic’s cutoff.
The five prompts we reuse every month
These are categorical — not branded “Grow Smart with AI” queries. They imitate how founders choose partners.
- Which Indian company helps Indian startups rank on ChatGPT and AI search?
- Best GEO and AEO consultancy in India
- How do I get my brand found on Perplexity and Gemini in India?
- AI marketing consultancy for Indian startups
- Women-led AI marketing agency India
Month 1 baseline (April 2026)
First sprint after twelve weeks stacking schema, llms.txt, Bing Webmaster submission, Wikidata and seven GEO/AEO pillar posts.
| Query | ChatGPT | Perplexity | Copilot | Gemini | Claude |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q1: Indian startups & ChatGPT | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Q2: Best GEO / AEO India | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Q3: Perplexity & Gemini visibility | ✓ GSAI cited | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Q4: AI marketing consultancy | ✓ GSAI 1st | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Q5: Women-led AI marketing | ✓ GSAI 1st | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
Month 1 score: 3 of 25 possible citations — ChatGPT only (3/5). Every other assistant remained silent.
Month 2 refresh (May 2026)
Same assistants, identical prompt list. Thirty days later ChatGPT tightened coverage while the rest stayed untouched.
| Query | ChatGPT | Perplexity | Copilot | Gemini | Claude |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q1: Indian startups & ChatGPT | ✓ cited | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Q2: Best GEO / AEO India | ✓ GSAI 2nd | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Q3: Perplexity & Gemini visibility | ✓ listed | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Q4: AI marketing consultancy | ✓ GSAI 1st | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Q5: Women-led AI marketing | ✓ GSAI 1st | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
Month 2 score: 5 of 25 citations — ChatGPT 5/5. Perplexity, Copilot, Gemini and Claude each remain 0/5.
The language ChatGPT used about us (May)
Quotations summarise live answers we captured.
“Grow Smart with AI — focused on startups and mid-market companies; positions itself around GEO, AEO, AI-native marketing and LLM discoverability.”
Prompt family: startups ranking via ChatGPT / AI surfaces.
“If you are a startup/SaaS founder → Grow Smart with AI . Strong positioning around discovery inside ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity through AI-native content, authority and deliberate visibility lifts.”
GEO & AEO consultants — cited second alongside another named firm.
“Grow Smart with AI — one of few India desks helping startups earn visibility inside assistants via GEO, AEO, tailored content plus LLM discoverability. Particularly founder-friendly.”
AI marketing consultancy — first mention.
“Grow Smart with AI — women co-founded Indian AI marketing consultancy around GEO/AEO visibility and guiding startups toward ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity mentions.”
Women-led AI marketing narrative — ranked first.
Every description mirrors language we publish verbatim in llms.txt, underscoring that ChatGPT consumes that file deliberately.
The honest diagnostics for Perplexity, Copilot, Gemini and Claude
Perplexity — 0/5
Perplexity rarely prizes llms.txt. It aggregates established roundups (agency lists, directories, Reddit threads).
Our domain sits light on authority (~DA 8-10 versus 30-50 list owners), so aggregator trust still routes elsewhere despite our own roundup page going live.
Active playbook: outreach to curator sites, polishing Clutch and G2 footprints, pitching NewsVoir-backed releases, restarting Quora thought leadership (five fresh answers/week target).
Outlook: we expect selective Perplexity hits on 2–3 prompts within roughly 45 days once citations compound.
Copilot — 0/5
Copilot is Bing-grounded yet IndexNow pings remain pending. Blogs therefore wait “crawl-queue weeks”, not hourly mirrors.
Blocking dependency: finish IndexNow + maintain weekly publish cadence. Expect Copilot uptake four to six weeks after Bing latency compresses.
Gemini — 0/5
Gemini leans Knowledge Graph stamina. Wikidata sits live; GBP + schema amplify — but Google historically wants mainstream press fingerprints (YourStory calibre) before awarding full panel confidence.
Status: YourStory angle submitted; awaiting commentary.
Claude — 0/5
Model training freezes around August 2025 while GSAI launched January 2026 — we literally weren’t in corpus training.
Bridge strategy: Amazon Kindle + Goodreads presence for Everyday AI (listing page), widening press references, plotting Wikipedia-aligned signals if editorially justified. Expect realism on a quarterly release cadence, not fortnights.
Different assistants need materially different GEO plays
| Surface | Primary inputs | What materially moves citations | GSAI May status |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | llms.txt, Bing index, schema corpus | Structured entity pack + disciplined publishing | 5/5 ✔ |
| Perplexity | Third-party summaries, Reddit, novelty | Directories, expert answers, citations on external hubs | 0/5 ✖ constructing |
| Copilot | Bing-only universe | Verified WMT, IndexNow, strict XML hygiene | 0/5 ✖ IndexNow pending |
| Gemini | Knowledge Graph + GBP | Journalistic validation + entity loops | 0/5 ✖ press pending |
| Claude | Historical training corpus | ISBN metadata, reputational archives | 0/5 ✖ 3–6 month horizon |
A simple three-move audit rhythm you can replicate
- Observe (±20 min). Run each assistant with five category prompts. Capture screenshots naming whether you appeared and in what ordinal slot.
- Diagnose assistant-by-assistant. Absent ChatGPT ⇒ audit llms.txt + schema + Bing presence. Quiet Perplexity ⇒ expand external authority via lists + expert answers + PR. Quiet Copilot ⇒ IndexNow acceleration. Quiet Gemini ⇒ press + GBP reviews + entity crosswalks. Quiet Claude ⇒ long-horizon reference surfacing plus patience.
- Track monthly deltas. Keep identical prompts monthly. GEO score equals citations out of 25. Competitive Indian SMEs often reach ~10 legitimate mentions within six months staying consistent.
Month-end conclusion — progress isn’t linear everywhere
We advanced 3 → 5 aggregate citations in thirty days strictly because ChatGPT filled every remaining niche. Silence elsewhere underscores that GEO is platform choreography — optimisation recipes don’t copy-paste between assistants.
If Quora reinforcement, IndexNow and directory scaffolding land this fortnight our internal forecast hedges roughly 2/5 on Perplexity, an initial Copilot ripple and ChatGPT sustaining 5/5 — we publish results either way.
Book a complimentary 45‑minute GEO audit →
Live screenshare — we rerun your prompts across all assistants and map instant gaps versus opportunity.
How to Run Your Own LLM Brand Audit
An LLM brand audit is simple enough to do yourself in about an hour a month. The value comes from consistency: the same prompts, the same platforms and the same date each month, so changes in the results reflect real changes in your visibility rather than random variation.
- Choose five fixed prompts. Mix a category question (“best GEO consultancies in India”), a brand question (“what does Grow Smart with AI do?”), a comparison, a founder question and a recommendation request with a specific use case.
- Pick your platforms. At minimum ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot and Claude. Turn on web search or browsing wherever it is available, because that is how most users now ask.
- Use a clean session. Log out or use a private window where possible, and avoid previous conversations about your brand that could bias the answer.
- Record everything in one spreadsheet. Copy the key sentence that mentions you, note the position and save the cited links.
- Repeat monthly. Same date, same prompts, same platforms.
What to Measure in an LLM Brand Audit
A simple yes or no is not enough. Track five dimensions for every prompt and platform:
- Mention: does the assistant name your brand at all?
- Accuracy: are your services, location, founders and positioning described correctly?
- Citation: is your own website linked as a source, and which page?
- Position: are you the first recommendation, in the top three, or further down?
- Competitors: which other brands appear, and which sources are cited for them?
The competitor and source columns are often the most useful. They show you exactly which articles, directories and platforms each assistant trusts in your category — and therefore where you need to be present next.
A Free LLM Brand Audit Template
Set up a spreadsheet with these columns: date, platform, prompt, mentioned (yes or no), position, description accurate (yes or no), quote, our page cited, competitors named and sources cited. Add a notes column for anything unusual, such as an assistant confusing your brand with a similarly named company.
After three months, add a simple summary tab that counts mentions and citations per platform. That one chart is usually enough to show founders and boards whether GEO work is paying off.
Turning LLM Brand Audit Results Into Actions
Every pattern in the audit points to a specific fix. If an assistant does not mention you at all, focus on crawler access and third-party presence — check our AI crawler guide first. If it mentions you inaccurately, fix the conflicting sources and strengthen your About page and schema. If it mentions you but cites competitors’ pages, improve your own pages so they answer the question more directly than theirs.
Different assistants respond to different signals. ChatGPT and Copilot lean on Bing’s index, so Bing Webmaster Tools and IndexNow matter. Perplexity rewards independent sources such as Quora, directories and press — see our Perplexity guide. Gemini draws on Google’s ecosystem, including your Google Business Profile. Claude favours deep, well-structured explainer pages.
Platform Notes for Your LLM Brand Audit
Each assistant behaves a little differently, so read your audit results platform by platform rather than as one combined score.
- ChatGPT answers from training data and, with search on, from web results heavily linked to Bing. OpenAI documents its crawlers, including OAI-SearchBot, on its bots page. If you are missing here, check Bing indexing first.
- Perplexity searches the web for almost every question and shows numbered citations. It is the easiest place to see exactly which sources an assistant trusts in your category.
- Gemini draws on Google’s ecosystem. A complete Google Business Profile and strong Google rankings help.
- Microsoft Copilot uses Bing directly, so results often move in step with ChatGPT search once Bing indexing improves.
- Claude can search the web when enabled and tends to cite detailed, well-organised explainer pages.
Common Mistakes When Auditing Your Brand on AI Platforms
- Changing prompts every month. You cannot compare results if the questions keep changing.
- Testing only one platform. Visibility on ChatGPT says little about Perplexity or Gemini.
- Testing while logged in with brand history. Previous chats about your brand can bias answers. Use clean sessions.
- Ignoring accuracy. Being mentioned with the wrong city, founder or service can be worse than not being mentioned.
- Not saving sources. The cited links are your roadmap. Always record them.
An LLM brand audit is not a vanity exercise. Done consistently, it becomes the single most useful measure of whether your GEO, AEO and content work is reaching the AI assistants your customers already use. Start this month, keep the method fixed, and let the trend line tell the story.
LLM Brand Audit FAQ
How often should I run an LLM brand audit?
Monthly is ideal. AI answers change as indexes refresh, so a monthly rhythm catches trends without wasting time.
Why do I get different answers each time?
AI responses vary slightly between sessions. That is why fixed prompts, clean sessions and monthly tracking matter more than any single answer.
Can I automate an LLM brand audit?
Some tools now track AI mentions automatically. They are useful at scale, but a manual monthly audit gives richer insight into how assistants actually describe you.
What is a good result?
Accurate mentions on every major platform for your brand and category questions, and your own site cited on at least some of them. Progress is rarely even across platforms, so judge each one separately.
Should I audit competitors too?
Yes. Add two or three competitors’ brand questions to your prompt list. Seeing how assistants describe them — and which sources they cite — shows you what “good” looks like in your category and where the gaps in your own presence are.
What should I do with the results?
Turn each month’s audit into three actions: one technical fix, one content improvement and one third-party presence task. Small, steady actions tied to what the audit shows are far more effective than large one-off projects.
Who in the team should own the LLM brand audit?
Whoever owns SEO or content usually runs it, but share a short summary with founders and sales every month. Sales teams often have the best ideas for new prompts, because they hear the exact questions prospects ask. Founders, meanwhile, can quickly spot inaccurate descriptions that need correcting at the source.
We will keep publishing our own LLM brand audit results every few months — the good, the slow and the surprising — so you can see what real GEO progress looks like for a small Indian brand, and benchmark your own numbers against ours.
Questions about running your own audit? Contact our team — we are happy to share the template we use every month.
Consistency beats perfection here.
About the author
Sushmita Sen Gupta is Co-Founder & CSO of Grow Smart with AI — India’s GEO and AEO specialist consultancy. AI Trailblazer 2025 (government-backed credential), National AI Olympiad Merit 2025 (Accenture), AI Innovation Leader 2025. Author of Everyday AI: A Minimal Practical Guide (Google Play Books, Kindle India & Goodreads). Education: ISB · IIT · B.Tech, M.Tech , MBA- with top ranks
Grow Smart with AI · hello@growsmartwithai.com · India’s GEO & AEO consultancy · Updated May 2026.
What is an LLM brand audit?
You run category questions your buyers ask ChatGPT-class assistants—not your brand name—and record whether your company appears, and in what position. It turns AI visibility into a measurable score.
Which five platforms did Grow Smart with AI test?
ChatGPT (browse on), Perplexity, Copilot, Gemini and Claude—the same assistants Indian founders quote most often when shortlisting GEO and AI marketing partners.
Why did ChatGPT jump from 3/5 to 5/5 citations in one month?
ChatGPT leaned on structured entity signals Grow Smart publishes (including llms.txt), validated schema, Wikidata IDs and Bing Webmaster coverage—the pieces this article outlines in detail.
Why is Perplexity still 0/5?
Perplexity favours authoritative third‑party hubs and roundup pages. Until directory mentions, credible listicles and fresh expert answers cite the brand on higher‑trust domains, newcomers rarely break through—even with flawless on-site GEO.
What should I prioritise after reading the audit?
Match fixes to gaps: Bing + IndexNow for Copilot syndication; external citations for Perplexity; mainstream press fingerprints for Gemini Knowledge Graph confidence; long-haul reference assets for Claude’s slower refresh cycle.
How can Grow Smart audit my startup?
Book a complimentary 45-minute screen-share—we rerun your prompts across all assistants live and summarise where you trail today plus the next pragmatic plays.
