Businesses in ChatGPT is an OpenAI beta, announced on November 10, 2026, with two parts: Business Hub, where a company claims and verifies its listing, corrects its details, adds a product feed and sees how often ChatGPT mentions it, and Business Agents, a labeled chat that answers customers' questions on the business's behalf. Anyone eligible can start claiming now at no cost, but agents are limited at launch to eligible US ecommerce and online service businesses with a website.
This guide covers what OpenAI has actually documented: who is eligible, how claiming and verification work, product feeds, agent setup, the data you get, ads, privacy and the limits. Where OpenAI hasn't published a step, the guide says so rather than guessing at screens.
Businesses in ChatGPT vs ChatGPT Business: not the same product
The names are close enough to cause real confusion, so settle this first.
| Businesses in ChatGPT | ChatGPT Business | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A way for a company to manage how it appears to ChatGPT users, plus an optional customer-facing agent | A paid ChatGPT workspace plan for your own staff |
| Formerly called | New product, beta from November 10, 2026 | ChatGPT Team (renamed August 29, 2025) |
| Who uses it | Owners and marketers representing the business | Employees using ChatGPT at work |
| Cost | Free for now (no Ads account or Enterprise agreement needed to claim) | Standard seats $20 per user per month billed annually or $25 billed monthly, per OpenAI's overview page on November 12, 2026 |
| Where you manage it | Business Hub | The workspace admin console |
OpenAI's rename FAQ says ChatGPT Team became ChatGPT Business "to better reflect how customers use ChatGPT today," with no change to features or pricing at the time. If you were looking for that plan, the comparison in ChatGPT Business vs Claude Team vs Gemini is the better read. Everything below is about Businesses in ChatGPT.
Who this is for and what you will have at the end
This is for small business owners, ecommerce managers and the IT admin who ends up owning "that new ChatGPT thing." By the end you will know whether your business can claim a profile today, what you need ready before you start, what verification involves, how a product feed and a Business Agent fit in, and what Business Hub will and won't tell you.
What Business Hub and Business Agents do
OpenAI describes Business Hub as the place where "businesses can claim their business, manage their information, and see insights" on how people engage with them in ChatGPT. Once verified, a business can update key details and add self-service product feeds with pricing and availability.
A Business Agent sits on top of that. When a business shows up in an answer, a user can open its profile and choose to start a conversation with the business to explore its offerings and ask follow-up questions. OpenAI says this chat happens "in a clearly labeled conversation, separate from ChatGPT's independent answers."
Two details from OpenAI's press briefing, reported by Digiday, matter for planning:
- OpenAI builds the agent from the instructions and product feed you supply. "We aren't allowing folks to bring their own agents," said Benji Shomair, OpenAI's VP of monetization.
- The agent doesn't take the order. When a shopper is ready to buy, it sends them to your own site; Shomair said "it's up to the business on how they want to close the transaction."
Who is eligible
Eligibility differs for the profile and for the agent.
Claiming a profile. OpenAI says any eligible business located where ChatGPT is available can claim through Business Hub, and that eligibility depends on industry, location and its verification and integrity checks. You must own the business or be authorized to represent it. At launch:
- Claiming is available to eligible businesses with a website.
- Local stores and restaurants can currently claim only an existing US listing.
- Eligible online businesses that can't find their listing may see an option to add it.
- You don't need an Ads account, a ChatGPT Enterprise agreement or a ChatGPT Business subscription.
Publishing a Business Agent. Agents are available only to eligible ecommerce and online service businesses in the US with a website. The help center adds that your business must also meet agent requirements for location, type of business and industry, and that some businesses can manage a profile without being eligible for an agent. OpenAI's Business Agents Policy says verification alone doesn't guarantee agent eligibility; OpenAI considers the business category and the agent's intended use before allowing it to publish.
Outside the US, including India. OpenAI doesn't publish a country list for Business Hub, and none of the sources checked for this article mention India specifically. Going by OpenAI's general rule, an online business in a country where ChatGPT is available may be able to claim a profile if one of the verification methods works there, while local listings and Business Agents remain US-only for now. OpenAI says it plans to expand to more markets and business categories over time but gave no dates.
Before you start: what to prepare
Claiming goes faster, and your profile is more useful, if the basics are consistent everywhere ChatGPT might read them.
- One business name, address and website. Use the same legal or trading name, address (if you have one) and website URL that appear on your site, your Google Business Profile and directory listings.
- A verification route you control. The main business phone number, a mailbox on your business domain, DNS access for your website domain, or your Shopify admin.
- Identity documents for the person managing the profile. The help center says Persona verification may ask for a government-issued ID, business registration information and proof that you are authorized to represent the business.
- Public policy pages. Shipping, returns, warranty, privacy and support pages with stable URLs. The agent answers questions about products and policies, so they need to exist and be current.
- A product feed, if you sell products: an export from your store platform (covered below).
How to claim and verify your business
OpenAI's help article "Setting up your business on ChatGPT" documents the flow at this level of detail:
- Sign in to ChatGPT with the account you want to manage the business from, and open Business Hub.
- Search for your business by name and select the listing that matches it. If you are an eligible online business and can't find it, use the option to add it if it appears.
- Confirm the ChatGPT account that will manage the business.
- Choose one of the verification methods offered and follow the prompts. OpenAI lists phone, business email, website domain or Shopify as the methods; which ones you see depends on the business.
- Wait for the claim decision. If the claim is pending, OpenAI emails you with a decision or a request for more information.
- After the claim is approved, complete identity verification with Persona. Until it is approved you can't publish changes to your business information, connect a product feed, view insights or create a Business Agent.
When the Persona check is approved, a blue check appears on your profile to show it has been claimed. Two other routes exist: if you received a claim invitation by email, open the personal link and sign in with the address that received it; and if your business already has an OpenAI account executive, you can claim through them. If Business Hub shows Contact support, the listing is locked and you need OpenAI support.
OpenAI hasn't published screenshots or exact field labels for each screen, so expect the wording to differ slightly and follow the prompts. Search Engine Roundtable's editor reported verifying through DNS and noted that the phone route uses a text or call to the main business number.
Adding product feeds
A product feed is how you give ChatGPT current prices and stock instead of relying on what it reads from your site. You have two documented options.
Shopify. Shopify merchants can connect their store from Business Hub or from the Shopify admin. Product details, prices and availability are then shared through Shopify Catalog, which already supplied eligible Shopify products to ChatGPT before this launch.
Upload a file. The help center describes uploading a CSV product feed that follows OpenAI's product feed specification. OpenAI's commerce feed specification lists nine required fields for basic product data:
item_id,title,description,url,brand,seller_name,image_url,availability,price
SKU-1001,Ceramic pour-over dripper,"Two-cup ceramic dripper, dishwasher safe",https://www.contoso.com/products/dripper,Contoso,Contoso Coffee,https://www.contoso.com/images/dripper.jpg,in_stock,24.99 USDPoints from the specification worth knowing before you export:
availabilitymust be one ofin_stock,out_of_stock,pre_order,backorderorunknown; an empty or unrecognized value rejects the row.priceis an amount followed by a currency code, such as24.99 USD.- Files are UTF-8. In CSV, quote any cell that contains commas, quotes or line breaks.
- Ads and checkout use extra fields such as
is_ads_eligible; you don't need them for discovery.
Connecting a feed doesn't publish an agent, and OpenAI is explicit that it doesn't guarantee ChatGPT will recommend your products. Keep the feed in sync with your store: a stale price in ChatGPT is worse than none. If you are still choosing a store platform, Shopify vs WooCommerce for a small shop compares the costs.
Setting up a Business Agent
OpenAI's product page summarizes the last step as: "Test your Business Agent and publish it when you're ready, using guidelines you control and information you set." Eligible Shopify merchants can connect their store and create an agent from that catalog.
OpenAI hasn't published a field-by-field guide for the Business Hub agent builder. The closest documentation is its help article on Sponsored Business Agents in Ads Manager, which describes an agent builder with these parts:
- Business info: what you offer, who it's for and where it's available, with links to product or service pages, your privacy policy and support.
- Guidelines: the agent's tone, when it should ask questions and what to do when it can't answer.
- Product feed for catalog recommendations, checked as indexed.
- Preview: agent name, header color and a one-sentence tagline.
- Test in ChatGPT: open a test conversation, try a starter and a follow-up a customer might ask, then adjust Business info or Guidelines and test again.
Treat this as a guide to what you will be asked for, not as the exact Business Hub screens; OpenAI says the two tools don't share settings yet. Practical guidelines to write: answer only from your own pages and feed, send buyers to the product URL to check out, hand off to your support page for orders, refunds and account problems, and never promise discounts or delivery dates the site doesn't state.
What data you get
Insights unlock after Persona approval and cover aggregated activity for the past 28 days:
- Mentions. For an online business, a mention counts when ChatGPT references your website; for a local business, when ChatGPT shows your location in a result, according to Digiday.
- Profile views and website clicks. OpenAI's tooltip notes that "Clicks don't confirm website visits or conversions," so compare them with your own analytics.
- Discovery topics: common themes across conversations where your website is cited.
What you don't get: individual prompts, chats or share of voice, which OpenAI told Digiday isn't part of this beta. A blank metric can mean activity hasn't reached the reporting threshold, data is still being collected or reporting is unavailable; it doesn't necessarily mean zero.
Ads and sponsored agents
The free Business Agent is what OpenAI calls the organic experience. "The sponsored agent is the paid experience, but the agent that sits behind it should be the same," Shomair told Digiday. A Sponsored Business Agent lets people start a chat from an eligible ChatGPT ad, and its help article says:
- It is set up in Ads Manager, separately from Business Hub, and requires the Conversion optimization campaign objective.
- Publishing the agent alone doesn't start ad delivery.
- It is rolling out to eligible advertisers in Ads Manager over the coming weeks.
OpenAI states that sponsored placements are clearly labeled and separate from ChatGPT responses, and that advertising doesn't influence ChatGPT's independent answers. Claiming, publishing an agent and advertising are three separate things; you can do the first two without spending anything.
Privacy
OpenAI's announcement is direct: "We don't share users' conversations or Business Agent chats with businesses. Insights are aggregated and are only available when there are enough conversations or interactions to meet certain thresholds." OpenAI hasn't published what those thresholds are, so a small business may see empty tiles for a while. For your own side, keep personal data out of agent guidelines and point customers to your normal support channel for anything involving an order or account.
Limitations, and how it compares with a Google Business Profile
- It is a beta. Screens, eligibility and pricing can change; Digiday reported that OpenAI didn't rule out charging later.
- Agents are US-only and limited to eligible ecommerce and online service businesses.
- It covers ChatGPT only, not other AI assistants or search engines.
- The blue check doesn't buy ranking. OpenAI says claiming "does not guarantee higher placement or sales."
- You control the inputs, not the answers. ChatGPT's independent answers can still cite other sources about you.
| ChatGPT Business Hub | Google Business Profile | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free during beta | Free, per Google |
| Online-only businesses | The first group eligible for agents | Not eligible: needs a location customers can visit, or must travel to customers |
| Verification | Phone, business email, website domain or Shopify, then Persona ID check | Chosen by Google: phone, text, email, video recording, live video call or mail |
| Insights | Mentions, profile views, website clicks, discovery topics, 28 days | Search keywords, calls, reviews, bookings and more |
| Reviews | Not mentioned in OpenAI's documentation | Core feature |
Keep both. They reach different people, and the consistent details you maintain for one help the other.
For small businesses and IT admins: GEO and being cited
Claiming a profile is not the same as being cited in ChatGPT's answers. Mentions are counted when ChatGPT references your website, so the work that gets you cited, often called generative engine optimization (GEO), still applies:
- Let OpenAI's search crawler in. OpenAI's crawler documentation says OAI-SearchBot surfaces websites in ChatGPT search, and sites that opt out of it won't be shown in ChatGPT search answers. GPTBot is the training crawler and can be blocked separately. Check that your firewall or CDN bot rules don't block OAI-SearchBot either.
- Answer the questions customers ask on your own pages: pricing, shipping, returns, compatibility. Discovery topics will show which themes come up.
- Keep name, address, website and policies consistent across your site, Business Hub, Google Business Profile and directories.
- Own the admin access. Use a shared business mailbox and a named owner for the Business Hub account, and record who passed Persona verification, so the profile isn't tied to one employee who might leave.
For the difference between ChatGPT subscriptions and OpenAI's developer platform, see OpenAI API vs ChatGPT subscription.
Checklist
- Confirm you want Businesses in ChatGPT, not the ChatGPT Business plan.
- Check eligibility: website, business type, country; agents need a US ecommerce or online service business.
- Prepare a consistent name, address, website, policy pages and a verification route you control.
- Claim in Business Hub, verify, then pass Persona.
- Connect Shopify or upload a CSV feed with the nine required fields.
- Write agent guidelines, test, then publish.
- Review insights against your own analytics every few weeks.
What we checked
- Tried to open OpenAI's announcement, the "Setting up your business on ChatGPT" help article and the ChatGPT Business release notes on 2026-11-12; openai.com and help.openai.com returned HTTP 403 to our fetch tool, so their wording was confirmed through search-engine excerpts of those pages and cross-checked against reporting that quotes them (Search Engine Roundtable, VentureBeat, Digiday).
- Confirmed the launch date (November 10, 2026), beta status and US ecommerce and online service limit for Business Agents in OpenAI's Developer Community announcement, TechCrunch and VentureBeat.
- Cross-checked the privacy wording ("We don't share users' conversations or Business Agent chats with businesses") between OpenAI's announcement excerpt, the community post and VentureBeat.
- Confirmed "free for now" only in Digiday's report of OpenAI's briefing; OpenAI's own pages say no Ads account or Enterprise agreement is needed but do not state a price.
- Read the nine required product feed fields and the
availabilityvalues on developers.openai.com/commerce/specs on 2026-11-12, and OAI-SearchBot and GPTBot descriptions on developers.openai.com/api/docs/bots. - Checked Google Business Profile eligibility (support.google.com guidelines), verification methods and the "free Business Profile" wording on business.google.com on 2026-11-12.
- Not tested: claiming a live business or building an agent. Business Hub screen labels may differ from the help-article wording quoted here.
Last tested: 2026-11-12
References
- OpenAI: Introducing Businesses in ChatGPT - https://openai.com/index/introducing-businesses-chatgpt/
- OpenAI: Businesses in ChatGPT, Claim your business - https://openai.com/business/businesses-in-chatgpt/
- OpenAI Help Center: Setting up your business on ChatGPT - https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001635-setting-up-your-business-on-chatgpt
- OpenAI Help Center: Setting up a Sponsored Business Agent in Ads Manager - https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001651-setting-up-a-sponsored-business-agent-in-ads-manager
- OpenAI: Business Agents Policy - https://openai.com/policies/business-agents-policy/
- OpenAI Developer Community: Introducing Businesses in ChatGPT in beta - https://community.openai.com/t/introducing-businesses-in-chatgpt-in-beta/1414865
- OpenAI Developers: Product feeds specification - https://developers.openai.com/commerce/specs/file-upload/products
- OpenAI Developers: Overview of OpenAI crawlers - https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/bots
- OpenAI Help Center: ChatGPT Business release notes - https://help.openai.com/en/articles/11391654-chatgpt-business-release-notes
- OpenAI Help Center: ChatGPT Business rename FAQ - https://help.openai.com/en/articles/12111915-chatgpt-business-rename-faq
- OpenAI Help Center: ChatGPT Business overview - https://help.openai.com/en/articles/8792828-chatgpt-business-overview
- Digiday: OpenAI's new business agents give brands a free way into the conversation it's also selling as an ad - https://digiday.com/marketing/openais-new-business-agents-give-brands-a-free-way-into-the-conversation-its-also-selling-as-an-ad/
- VentureBeat: OpenAI lets you claim your business in ChatGPT - https://venturebeat.com/technology/openai-lets-you-claim-your-business-in-chatgpt-and-set-up-a-custom-agentic-ai-customer-sales-rep
- TechCrunch: OpenAI rolls out new business profiles (November 10, 2026) - https://techcrunch.com/2026/11/10/openai-rolls-out-new-business-profiles-making-chatgpt-just-a-little-bit-more-like-google/
- Search Engine Roundtable: Businesses in ChatGPT now live - https://www.seroundtable.com/chatgpt-business-hub-42505.html
- Google Business Profile Help: Guidelines - https://support.google.com/business/answer/3038177
- Google Business Profile Help: Verify your business on Google - https://support.google.com/business/answer/7107242
- Google: Business Profile - https://business.google.com/us/business-profile/
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