The directory ChatGPT reads first for local business names is Foursquare

ChatGPT reads Foursquare first

Sixty to seventy percent of the local business names a customer reads inside a ChatGPT answer come from a directory most service-business owners have never logged into. The directory is Foursquare, a places database that signed a partnership with OpenAI in December 2024.

If you run a dental practice, a medspa, an HVAC business, an in-home care service, or a small law office, here's the change to know about. When a future customer asks ChatGPT for a recommendation in your city, ChatGPT looks up the answer mostly in Foursquare. Foursquare carries roughly 100 million business listings across 200 countries. Google Business Profile (the free Google listing every local business owner has probably already claimed) is the third directory ChatGPT reaches for.

The afternoon job for the operator is short. Open foursquare.com, search for the practice or shop by name, claim the listing, and fill in the seven core fields. The work takes about 30 to 45 minutes per location and decides whether the customer hears the practice name or hears a competitor's.

Why Foursquare ended up inside ChatGPT

OpenAI and Foursquare announced a places-data partnership in December 2024. The partnership is the plumbing behind the answer ChatGPT gives a customer asking for a dentist or an HVAC tech in their city. Foursquare's database of about 100 million points of interest across more than 200 countries is what ChatGPT reads first when the question is local.

Two Spanish SEO researchers, Yaggoseo and Natzir Turrado, measured the share and put it at 60 to 70 percent of ChatGPT local results coming from Foursquare. Mediaelx, a digital agency, reported the numbers in May 2025. A 2026 guide from Niseus reported over 70 percent in the same range. Local Falcon, a Google Maps and AI rank tracker, reports the same order of operations: Foursquare first, then the Bing Places web index, then Yelp, then the Better Business Bureau and industry directories, then your website.

Most operators have spent the last decade on Google Business Profile. They have not opened Foursquare. The directory carried on as a back-end places database after Foursquare shut down its consumer-facing city guide app in 2024. That back-end is now where the names ChatGPT picks come from.

The Thursday afternoon job

Open foursquare.com in a browser. Click the "Claim Your Business" link in the footer. Search for the practice or shop by name and city. Two paths from there.

If a listing exists for the business, click "Claim this venue" and follow the verification flow. Foursquare verifies by phone call to the listed business number, by mail to the listed address, or by a code sent to the email on the business website. The verification step takes one or two business days. While you wait, you can still edit and submit updates.

If no listing exists for the business, click "Add a new venue" and create it. The form asks for the same seven core fields either way. Name. Category (dentist, medspa, HVAC contractor, attorney, home care agency). Street address. Phone number. Hours for each day of the week. A short description of the business in one or two sentences. The website URL.

Upload at least three photos. The front of the building, the inside of the waiting room or reception area, and one of the team or the owner. Click save. The listing is now in the database ChatGPT reads first when a customer asks for a recommendation in your city.

The next 15 minutes go to consistency. Open Bing Places (Microsoft's equivalent of Google Business Profile, which ChatGPT also reads) at bingplaces.com. Check that the business name, address, phone number, and hours match the Foursquare listing exactly. Open Google Business Profile and do the same check. The same business name, address, and phone across every listing is what the Foursquare back-end, the Bing back-end, and the Google back-end all compare against when they decide whether to name your record in an answer.

The test the next morning

Open ChatGPT on your phone. Type the kind of question one of your customers would type. "Best pediatric dentist near me." "HVAC tech in the city for an emergency this week." "Medspa for laser hair removal close to me." Read the names ChatGPT lists.

If the practice name is in the answer the day after you saved the Foursquare listing, the work landed faster than usual. More often the change shows up over the next two to four weeks as ChatGPT refreshes its read of the database. Ask the same question one week later and again at the four-week mark. Keep a note of which answers name the practice and which name a competitor.

A 2026 industry guide from Cited makes the underlying point plain. ChatGPT narrows the field to a handful of names rather than returning a long list. How complete and consistent the directory listing is matters more than how close the customer is. A complete Foursquare listing with the same name, address, phone, and hours that match your website beats a half-finished listing for a competitor across town.

The second part of the test is the review check. When ChatGPT falls back from Foursquare to Bing Places, the reviews that decide who shows up come mostly from Facebook and Yelp. A September 15, 2025 Whitespark study looked at 153 queries across 9 US cities and found Facebook was the leading Bing Places review source in 8 of those 9 cities, ahead of Yelp by about half again as many businesses. The Google reviews most operators have been collecting for years land in a separate system that Bing Places does not read. The Facebook page and the Yelp page each need their own pass for hours, phone, address, and a few recent customer reviews.

The three directories, in order

Three directories now decide whether ChatGPT names a local business in an answer to a customer.

Foursquare is the first. Sixty to seventy percent of the answer comes from there. Most operators have never opened it.

Bing Places is the second. When ChatGPT falls back to Bing Places, the reviews that decide who shows up come mostly from Facebook and Yelp rather than Google. The Whitespark research published September 15, 2025 looked at 153 queries across 9 US cities and found Facebook leads as a Bing Places review source in 8 of those 9 cities.

Google Business Profile is the third. It's the back-stop when Foursquare and Bing Places come up short on a question.

Most service-business owners have already claimed their Google Business Profile. The directory that decides what your customers see when they ask ChatGPT is Foursquare. The afternoon to open foursquare.com, claim the listing, fill in the seven fields, and check the same details on Bing Places is the catch-up. The catch-up is small. The cost of skipping it is a customer hearing a competitor's name when she asks ChatGPT for a recommendation in your city tonight.