Yelp says its reviews now power ChatGPT: what a Boulder business should check

Yelp says its ratings and reviews now feed ChatGPT's local answers. Its August 6, 2026 shareholder letter says they "recently began powering ChatGPT's local experience in relevant categories." OpenAI's help pages name Yelp only as a restaurant reservation provider. Either way, a Boulder owner's job is the same: check ChatGPT, fix your Yelp page, and never ask for Yelp reviews.

Our Front Range AI Visibility Index cannot settle the question: it captured answers in June 2026, before Yelp said its reviews were in ChatGPT, and records which businesses were named, not which sources were cited.

What has Yelp said about ChatGPT?

That it licenses its data to OpenAI, that Yelp ratings and reviews now power ChatGPT's local answers in some categories, and that Yelp Reservations and Waitlist work inside ChatGPT. The record:

• February 12, 2026. Yelp's fourth-quarter results said it had recently signed an agreement with OpenAI.
• May 8, 2026. Its quarterly SEC filing listed OpenAI among new data licensing agreements.
• August 6–7, 2026. Its second-quarter shareholder letter said Yelp ratings and reviews had recently begun powering ChatGPT's local experience in relevant categories. The quarterly filing a day later said a Request-a-Quote integration with ChatGPT was expected within weeks.
• August 10, 2026. Yelp's blog announced Yelp Reservations and Waitlist in ChatGPT for US and Canadian restaurants, and described Yelp reviews, ratings, photos and business details appearing in the chat.

Yelp has not said which categories count, the deal's terms, or how ChatGPT decides when to use Yelp content. Its June 2026 description of its licensing contracts says, in general, that partners must promptly remove content deleted from Yelp.

What has OpenAI said?

Less. OpenAI's help page on searching the web with ChatGPT names Yelp as a restaurant reservation provider alongside OpenTable and Resy, as do its release notes for August 10, 2026. Neither mentions Yelp reviews, ratings or photos.

The help page, last updated in late August 2026, also says:

• ChatGPT may share a user's location with trusted third-party providers for local information "such as nearby business listings or weather reports". It does not name them.
• ChatGPT search sometimes sends rewritten queries to partner search providers; the page points to Microsoft's and Shopify's privacy policies.
• A site is eligible only if it lets OAI-SearchBot crawl it, and placement is not guaranteed. The crawler guide covers that robots.txt line.

What does each company say, side by side?

Yelp describes a content deal and booking tools; OpenAI's pages describe only the booking.

Foursquare's listings page, updated April 2026, says its places data powers apps including OpenAI's, without naming a ChatGPT feature; OpenAI has not named Foursquare. Anyone selling certainty about which source ChatGPT used for your business is guessing.

How do you check what ChatGPT says about your business?

Ask your customers' questions in a fresh chat with web search on, and record whether you are named, how you are described and what is cited. Our guide to checking whether ChatGPT recommends you sets out the method. For Yelp, note three more things.

1. Whether Yelp appears. A Yelp link, rating or photos, or a Reserve option that hands off to Yelp.
2. Whether the facts match. If ChatGPT repeats stale hours or an old address from your Yelp page, fix Yelp first. OpenAI's help page says results can be outdated and to open the cited source.
3. Where the question comes from. OpenAI says ChatGPT may estimate location from an IP address, and suggests naming a city, neighborhood or ZIP code. Run "best [your category] in Boulder" and "[your category] in North Boulder", not only "near me" from your desk.

What should you check on your Yelp page?

Claim it: Yelp says claiming is free and does not make you an advertiser. Then work through these rows, each from Yelp's support pages. Owner edits show at once, but Yelp's moderators can revert them.

Should you ask customers for Yelp reviews?

No. Yelp asks businesses not to ask anyone, including customers, mailing lists, friends and family, and says its software may not recommend reviews that look requested. It also rules out staff contests, asking after a survey, and any freebie, discount or payment for a review or its removal.

Where Yelp finds evidence of paid reviews, it can post a Compensated Activity Alert on the page. Google's policy is different: it allows asking genuine customers, without incentives and without asking only the happy ones.

Why keep your facts identical on Yelp, Google and your site?

Nobody publishes which record an answer used, so make every record say the same thing. Yelp and Google both want the name customers actually use, with nothing added. Hours, address and phone should match everywhere.

A wrong fact can hurt even when you are named. Five of the 70 businesses in our Index graded Compromised: named alongside a signal working against them, such as a listing marked closed or conflicting addresses. The local AI search guide covers consistency, and the Google Business Profile guide covers Google's fields.

What should you not do?

Don't buy, trade for or filter reviews, and don't game the listing.

• Don't pay for reviews. Google and Yelp ban incentives for any review; the FTC's rule at 16 CFR Part 465 bans paying for positive or negative ones.
• Don't gate. Sending only happy customers to review sites breaks Google's ban on selectively soliciting positive reviews.
• Don't open a second Yelp page or add keywords to the name.
• Don't buy Yelp ads for ChatGPT's sake. Neither company has said advertising affects what ChatGPT shows.

Where does the free scan fit?

It covers your own site, not Yelp. The free scan reads the page you give it plus robots.txt, sitemap.xml and llms.txt: 26 scored checks across eight dimensions, in seconds. It does not query ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google, and cannot see your Google Business Profile or Yelp page.

In Boulder County, the Boulder page shows what our batches found here, and we would rather go through results in person.

Where we apply this

The trades and cities our research covers, and the service behind it.

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