Many of your buyers pay for ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude, especially in B2B. Paid tiers run stronger models, yet of the eight AI visibility tools we priced for agencies, only one tracks them separately. So we checked whether the paid models recommend different brands.

RankBits asks each question to both a lighter model and a flagship model of the same assistant, in the same scan. Here is what about 310 paired questions per engine show:

  • They mostly agree on whether you’re named: 96% of the time on ChatGPT, 92–93% on Gemini and Claude.
  • They often disagree on who else is named: the brand mentioned first differs in about 40% of answers.
  • They read different sources: a typical pair of answers shares only 13–25% of its cited domains.
  • The direction varies by engine. Paid ChatGPT and Gemini named the brand less often; paid Claude named it more often.

How we compared them

  • Same question, same scan, two models. Each question was sent to an assistant’s lighter model and its flagship model through the vendor’s API, with web search on.
  • Sample: about 310 questions per engine that don’t name the brand (306 ChatGPT, 316 Gemini, 318 Claude), across 10 brands, June to October 2026.
  • Models changed during the period. For ChatGPT, the lighter side ran OpenAI’s mini and Luna models and the flagship side GPT-5.5 to GPT-6.1 Sol. For Claude, it was Haiku against Sonnet. For Gemini, a Flash model against Gemini 3.1 Pro, later newer Flash releases.
  • “Paid” is approximate. Consumer apps change which model each plan gets. Free ChatGPT is reported to run the Luna line while Plus defaults to Sol. Google limited free Gemini users to Flash-Lite on 9 October 2026. Claude’s free plan reportedly defaults to Sonnet, so our Claude comparison is Haiku against Sonnet rather than app against app.
  • Small sample: 10 brands, mostly software companies. Treat the gaps as directional.

Finding 1: paid models aren't more generous to you

Bar chart of brand naming rate, lighter vs flagship model on the same questions: ChatGPT 9.8% vs 7.2%, Gemini 16.1% vs 12.7%, Claude 13.5% vs 16.0%
Flagship ChatGPT and Gemini named the brand less often than their lighter models. Flagship Claude named it more often.
  • ChatGPT: 9.8% → 7.2%. The flagship answers were longer and listed more brands (1.85 tracked brands per answer, up from 1.21), yet named the scanned brand less often.
  • Gemini: 16.1% → 12.7%, with fewer brands per answer (2.20, down from 2.55).
  • Claude: 13.5% → 16.0%, with longer answers that named more brands (2.47, up from 1.59).

Being visible to free users doesn’t guarantee being visible to paid users, and the gap runs in different directions on different engines.

Finding 2: same verdict on you, different company around you

Grouped bar chart per engine: lighter and flagship models agreed on naming the brand 96.1% (ChatGPT), 91.5% (Gemini) and 92.5% (Claude) of the time; named the same brand first 60.2%, 57.5% and 61.7%; and shared 13%, 18% and 25% of cited domains
High agreement on the yes/no question, much lower agreement on rankings and sources.
  • Whether you’re named: the two models agreed 91–96% of the time. A miss on the free model is usually a miss on the paid one too, and the same goes for a win.
  • Who comes first: when both named some of the tracked brands, they put the same one first only 58–62% of the time. The overlap between their brand lists was about 0.55–0.61 (Jaccard index).
  • Your position, when both named you: usually identical, 78–95% of the time, but those samples are small (20–35 answers).

Finding 3: paid models read different sources

 ChatGPTGeminiClaude
Sources per answer, lighter → flagship15 → 914.3 → 3.94.9 → 7.6
Brand's own site among sources13.1% → 11.1%11.4% → 15.2%16.4% → 19.5%
Biggest shift in source mixReddit 11.7% → 23.4% of sourcesYouTube 9.7% → 13.6%Little change
Shared cited domains (average)13%18%25%
Median answer length (characters)2,156 → 3,3103,788 → 3,9672,090 → 3,684

ChatGPT’s count includes every page its search consulted, not only links shown in the answer. The source-mix rows include scheduled re-runs, which roughly double the number of answers.

  • Paid ChatGPT reads about six times as many pages, and Reddit’s share of them doubles. If your buyers use paid ChatGPT, community discussions matter even more.
  • Paid Gemini leans further on YouTube and pulls in brands’ own sites more often.
  • Claude’s tiers read similar kinds of sources; the flagship simply reads more of them.

Why most tools only track the free tier

Flagship answers cost more and take longer. Our per-answer API costs:

  • ChatGPT: $0.093 against $0.005, about 18× more, and 37 seconds against 6.
  • Claude: about 5× more, and 28 seconds against 10.
  • Gemini: about 4× more, and 21 seconds against 17.

That’s why most trackers skip flagship models, and why we price them into RankBits’ Pro plan.

What to do with this

  • Sell to businesses? Track the paid tiers too. Your buyers are disproportionately on them, and the top-named brand differs about 40% of the time.
  • Sell to consumers? The free models cover most of your audience. Check the paid ones occasionally.
  • Missing on the free model? You’re very likely missing on the paid one too. Fix the basics first: see how to get recommended by ChatGPT.
  • For paid ChatGPT, invest in honest Reddit presence. For paid Gemini, in YouTube answers to category questions.
  • Compare like with like. Don’t mix tiers in one trend line; track each tier separately.

RankBits Pro tracks paid-tier ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude separately from the free tiers, next to 14 other engines and search sources. Start with the free AI visibility checker or see plans.

Sources