Howseen Academy › Module 1: Understand GEO
Howseen Academy · Lesson 1.4
The AI engines that matter, and how they differ
ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode all answer buying questions, but they do not read the same pages. Know the differences before you act.
By Raphaël Aubry, founder of Howseen AI · Updated By the end of this lesson, you can
- Name the five AI answer surfaces that matter for most brands
- Explain the difference between an answer from memory and an answer from live search
- Adapt your plan to the engine your buyers use
The engines
Which AI engines should a brand watch?
Five answer surfaces matter for most brands today: ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and Google AI Mode. Claude, from Anthropic, is a sixth one worth watching.
- ChatGPT: the assistant most people think of first. With search on, it reads the web and shows sources.
- Gemini: Google's assistant, inside its own app and many Google products.
- Perplexity: an answer engine built around search, which always shows its sources.
- Google AI Overviews: the AI summary at the top of a normal Google search.
- Google AI Mode: a separate, conversational search tab in Google.
- Claude: the assistant made by Anthropic.
“AI Mode and AI Overviews may use different models and techniques, so the set of responses and links they show will vary.”
How answers are built
Answer from memory or from live search: what is the difference?
An AI can answer from what it learned during training, or search the web first. Only answers built from live search show sources, and only those react quickly to new pages.
Training data is a snapshot of the web taken months before you ask. You cannot change it quickly. Live search is different: the AI runs searches at the moment of the question, reads a few pages, and writes its answer from them. This is the part GEO can move in days or weeks, because a new or better page can be read the next time someone asks.
Each company runs its own crawler for this. OpenAI uses OAI-SearchBot to surface websites in ChatGPT search, separate from GPTBot which collects training data (OpenAI, Overview of OpenAI crawlers). Perplexity says PerplexityBot is designed to surface and link websites in its results, and is not used to train AI models (Perplexity, Perplexity crawlers).
“Sites that are opted out of OAI-SearchBot will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers, though can still appear as navigational links.”
Google is the special case. AI Overviews and AI Mode use Google Search itself, and the Google-Extended setting does not change whether your site appears in Google Search (Google Search Central, Google's common crawlers (Google-Extended)). You will set these bots up in lesson 3.1.
The numbers
How differently do the engines cite sources?
Very differently. In our data, Google AI Overviews cited YouTube in 45.0% of its answers while ChatGPT never did, and Perplexity used over three times more links per answer than ChatGPT.
| Engine | Answers | With 1+ source | Links per answer | Cites YouTube | Cites Reddit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | 1,164 | 97.8% | 5.2 | 0.0% | 0.9% |
| Gemini | 1,106 | 60.1% | 5.6 | 1.0% | 4.8% |
| Perplexity | 1,098 | 100% | 17.4 | 0.5% | 4.9% |
| Google AI Overviews | 867 | 89.3% | 7.3 | 45.0% | 10.4% |
| Google AI Mode | 1,096 | 80.9% | 3.7 | 27.4% | 4.9% |
Source: Howseen study, 5,331 answers, 41,711 source links from 5,724 distinct domains. Two more facts from the same data: Perplexity spreads its links widely (its 10 most cited domains get 8.7% of its links, against 22.1% to 22.9% on Google AI surfaces), and Google AI Mode attaches the fewest links, 3.7 per answer.
What it changes
What does this change for your plan?
Check each engine before you act. A video can win on Google AI Overviews and do nothing on ChatGPT. A thread can matter on one engine and not on another.
- If your buyers search on Google, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode matter first, and video is worth testing there.
- If your buyers use ChatGPT, focus on clear pages on your own site and on the third-party pages ChatGPT cites for your questions.
- Perplexity reads many sources per answer, so being present on several trusted sites helps more than winning one.
- Never judge your visibility from one engine. A brand can be named often on one and be missing on another.
Tip. To compare engines on your own questions, use the per-engine view in Howseen (lesson 4.5), or read the full study, engine by engine.
In Howseen
Which engines does Howseen track on each plan?
Starter tracks ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews. Pro adds Perplexity and Google AI Mode. Business adds Claude, on up to 50 questions every 3 days.
Howseen asks each of your buyer questions to these engines on a schedule: every 3 days on Starter and Pro, every day on Business. The answers are real answers captured from each engine, with their sources. See the engines Howseen tracks and the plan details on the pricing page.
Questions, answered
Which AI engine matters most for my brand?+
The one your buyers use. B2B buyers often ask ChatGPT, shoppers often meet Google AI Overviews in a normal search. If you do not know, track several engines for a few weeks and compare.
Why does ChatGPT give a different answer than Perplexity?+
They run different searches, read different pages and use different models. In our data, Perplexity used 17.4 links per answer and ChatGPT 5.2, so the short list of brands can differ.
Can I change what an AI learned during training?+
Not quickly. Training data is a snapshot taken months earlier. GEO works on the live search part of the answer, which reads current pages.
Does blocking GPTBot remove me from ChatGPT?+
OpenAI says the two settings are independent: GPTBot is for training, OAI-SearchBot is for ChatGPT search. Blocking OAI-SearchBot is what removes you from ChatGPT search answers.
Does Howseen track Claude?+
Yes, on the Business plan, on up to 50 questions every 3 days. Starter and Pro track the engines listed on the pricing page.
See who AI recommends instead of you
Howseen runs your buyer questions on the AI engines every few days, shows who gets named instead of you, and writes the pages that close the gap.
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