What this study found
We asked ChatGPT "Who is the best [category] in Toronto?" 375 times across 25 service categories and three model versions. One directory, Best in Hood, was cited in 37% of answers; Google's own pages were cited in none. Eleven categories had one business named in at least 12 of 15 answers. The same question asked five times gave the same first pick all five times in 13% of cases. The study did not test whether any business paid for its directory placement.
The working assumption in local SEO is that review volume on Google decides who gets recommended. If that carried over to AI assistants, ChatGPT's answers to "who is the best [category] in Toronto" should cite Google Business Profiles, Yelp and local news, and the businesses named should be the ones with the most Google reviews. This study recorded which sources ChatGPT actually cites and which businesses it actually names, so the assumption could be checked against counts rather than examples.
The category list was locked at 07:50 ET on 17 October 2026, before any answers were collected.
Every figure in this study, with its source
All 375 raw API responses, the flattened answer set, the coded extractions and the scripts are held in the project archive and can be supplied to a reviewer on request.
Best in Hood (bestinhood.com) was cited in 137 of the 375 answers. Its homepage says each list is built from public Google Maps ratings and review counts. Its pricing page sells a $50 one-time Basic listing and a $100-a-year Premium listing described as "Top spot on the page, guaranteed for one year." On the six Toronto category pages we checked, no listing was labelled as paid, and page order did not follow star rating alone. This study did not test whether any named business paid for a placement. DaSilva Consulting has no affiliation with Best in Hood.
Every answer carried at least one citation link, and 251 different sites were cited in total. Google's own pages were cited in zero answers, Yelp in five, BlogTO in one and the Toronto Star in none. HomeStars was second at 65 answers and Reddit threads third at 40.
The same data as the chart above, as a table
Downward Dog Yoga Centre was the first-named yoga studio in all 15 answers. Spadina Auto Service was named in all 15 auto mechanic answers and led 13 of them. Search Engine People was named in all 15 SEO agency answers. Outline Financial appeared in 14 of 15 mortgage broker answers and The Cabinet Salon in 14 of 15 hair salon answers. In 11 of 25 categories, one business was named in at least 12 of 15 answers. In three categories (daycare, family doctor, financial advisor) no business reached half the answers; across 15 family doctor answers, no clinic or physician was named more than twice.
Independent businesses dominated: of 1,648 business mentions, 92 (6%) were national or multi-location chains.
Who ChatGPT recommends, by category. "Named in" counts answers that listed the business as an option; "first pick" counts answers that led with it. Each category has 15 answers.
Across 75 category-and-model groups of five runs, all five runs agreed on the first-named business in 10 groups (13%). On average, the most common first pick appeared in 59% of runs. Of the 582 businesses named, 369 (63%) were named by only one of the three model versions and 55 (9%) by all three. 356 of 375 answers (95%) said there was no single best option.
Per-model behaviour across 125 answers each
Worked example, dentist: gpt-6.1-sol named no dentist in three of its five answers, the University of Toronto Faculty of Dentistry clinics in one, and Baywell Dental Centre and Bay Bloor Dental in one, each time asking which neighbourhood the user was in. gpt-5.6-sol named The Richmond Dental Centre in all five answers and led with it in four.
In the mortgage broker category, ChatGPT's three most-named brokers (Outline Financial, True North Mortgage, Ratehub.ca) are Best in Hood's top three. In auto repair, ChatGPT's three most-named shops (Spadina Auto Service, EuroMechanic, Central Import) are all on Best in Hood's five-name list. In hair salons, one of ChatGPT's top three (PERFECT X HAIR) is on the Best in Hood list; The Cabinet Salon and Take Khair Beauty came from other sources. Best in Hood was cited in 18 of 25 categories, most often auto mechanic (15 of 15 answers), then barber, mortgage broker, personal trainer and roofer (10 of 15 each).
The same 25 prompts rerun at the next ChatGPT model release, to see whether the cited sources and the named businesses move together. A separate study of Canadian online shopping prompts, collected 24 October 2026, is published alongside this one.
Every substantive change to this page since publication
