Asked for a local business, Grok usually names no one
We asked Grok the questions buyers ask about six local trades in 14 cities, three times each, and counted every business it named. Most of the time it named none.
By the AIGROW Team · data under CC BY 4.0
- Answers
- 1,008
- Named no one
- 771
- Gemini named no one
- 0
- Calls failed
- 0
Asked for a local business, Grok usually names no one: in the September 2026 AIGROW Index it named no business in 76.5% of 1,008 answers about six local trades in 14 cities. Gemini, asked the same questions, named at least one every time. About software, Grok named no one in only 8.8% of its answers.
Findings
Offline answers only. A failed call counts in neither share.
Grok named no business in 76.5% of its answers about local trades.
771 of 1,008 answers about six trades in 14 cities. Gemini, asked the same questions on the same pages, named at least one business in all 1,008 of its answers. An empty answer is not a failed call: none of the 1,248 calls to Grok failed.
On 42 of the 84 local pages, Grok named no one at all.
Each question was asked three times. Of the 336 local questions, 227 came back empty every time and 49 named someone every time, so the silence repeats rather than coming and going.
The trade made the biggest difference: from 97.6% empty answers to 31.0%.
Quietest: Plumbers. Least quiet: Gyms. Every trade was asked the same questions in the same 14 cities, so the places cannot explain the gap.
By country, from 90.6% in Italy to 60.4% in United Kingdom.
Each country's questions were asked in its own language. By city, from 100.0% of answers empty in Verona to 45.8% in London.
About software, Grok named no one in only 8.8% of its answers.
21 of 240 answers about four kinds of software, 20 of them about one: Restaurant POS systems. Gemini named at least one product in every answer.
When Grok did name businesses, Gemini named 66.4% of them on the same page.
168 of the 253 different businesses Grok named on the 42 local pages where it named anyone. When an answer named someone, Grok gave 3.3 names on average and Gemini 5.3.
By kind of business
The quietest first. Names per answer counts only the answers that named someone.
| Kind of business | Answers | Named no one | Names per answer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plumbers | 168 | 97.6% | 2.8 |
| Dentists | 168 | 97.0% | 3.0 |
| Accountants | 168 | 92.9% | 3.1 |
| Lawyers | 168 | 92.3% | 3.9 |
| Real estate agencies | 168 | 48.2% | 3.4 |
| Restaurant POS systems | 60 | 33.3% | 3.2 |
| Gyms | 168 | 31.0% | 3.2 |
| Accounting software | 60 | 1.7% | 3.4 |
| CRM software | 60 | 0.0% | 3.2 |
| Email marketing software | 60 | 0.0% | 3.1 |
By city
Local trades only, asked in the language of each country.
| City | Country | Answers | Named no one |
|---|---|---|---|
| Verona | Italy | 72 | 100.0% |
| Turin | Italy | 72 | 97.2% |
| Rome | Italy | 72 | 88.9% |
| Berlin | Germany | 72 | 83.3% |
| Munich | Germany | 72 | 83.3% |
| Barcelona | Spain | 72 | 80.6% |
| Milan | Italy | 72 | 76.4% |
| Manchester | United Kingdom | 72 | 75.0% |
| Austin | United States | 72 | 73.6% |
| Madrid | Spain | 72 | 69.4% |
| Chicago | United States | 72 | 68.1% |
| Los Angeles | United States | 72 | 65.3% |
| New York | United States | 72 | 63.9% |
| London | United Kingdom | 72 | 45.8% |
What this does not show
- No web search
- Every answer came from what the model already holds, asked through its API with no web search, no location and no chat history. Grok in its own app or on X, with search on, can answer differently.
- No reasons
- The study keeps the names each answer gave, not the words around them, so it cannot say why Grok named no one.
- A sample
- 104 pages of the September 2026 Index: six local trades in 14 cities of five countries, and four kinds of software. Other trades, places and months may differ.
- ChatGPT and Claude
- Both were asked on these pages, but through a reseller since dropped from the Index, whose answers named someone far more often than the same assistants did when asked directly. Gemini was asked through the same gateway as Grok, so the comparison is with Gemini alone.
Citing this study
AIGROW Team, Grok and local businesses, September 2026, aigrow.gg/research/grok-local-businesses-2026. The figures and the data are published under CC BY 4.0: reuse them with a link to this page.
Does Grok name your business?
The free scan asks ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Grok your own customers' questions and shows who they name instead of you.
Edition September 2026 · data under CC BY 4.0