How do data and API companies get recommended by ChatGPT?

Short answer: ChatGPT and Perplexity, when they search the web, name the vendors whose own pages answer the developer's exact question. One page per task, plain pricing and limits, honest comparison pages, an llms.txt file and readable docs. On our own data API that moved ChatGPT answers citing us from 1.2% to 8.8% of tracked questions in about two weeks.

What the assistant is looking for

A developer asks "which API has historical prices for X, and what does it cost". The assistant runs a few searches, reads the top pages and quotes the ones that answer directly. Vendors get named when a page:

• matches the task in its title and first paragraph ("X price history API", not "the data platform for modern teams")
• states price, free tier, rate limits and coverage in plain numbers
• compares itself to the alternatives fairly, so it is useful to quote
• is easy to parse: llms.txt, an OpenAPI file, docs that load without a login

What we measured on our own API

We run a trading-card price data API launched in September 2026. Each week we asked ChatGPT (gpt-4.1-mini with web search) and Perplexity the same 160 to 170 buyer and developer questions and logged every citation.

All three of its first outside customers found it through AI answers. It is a small, early case, and we share the raw questions and answers on request.

How to check your own category

1. Write the 20 questions a developer asks before picking a vendor like you.
2. Run them in ChatGPT and Perplexity with search on. Note who is named for each.
3. For every question you lose, find the page that won and what it answers that yours does not.
4. Ship the missing page, then re-run the same 20 questions a week later.

Want it done for you?

We run this as a 30-day pilot for data and API companies: the 20-question check, 5 answer pages shipped with your approval, and a day-30 re-run. See the pilot, or email your API's URL and the 3 questions you most want to win to ops@maehwalabs.com for a free 10-question check.