ChatGPT, Gemini, AI Overview and AI Mode: what’s the difference?

ChatGPT and Gemini are assistants people open and ask directly. AI Overview is the AI summary at the top of some Google searches. AI Mode is a separate way of searching Google, more like a conversation. Here’s what each one is, where people find it, and what it means for your business.

ChatGPT

Made by

OpenAI

Where people find it

Its own app and website, which people open on purpose.

For questions about local businesses, ChatGPT often searches the web before answering, and lists the pages it used. Otherwise, it answers from what it learned when it was built.

Its search uses its own crawler, called OAI-SearchBot. OpenAI says sites that block it won’t appear in ChatGPT’s search answers.

Gemini

Made by

Google

Where people find it

Its own app and website. It’s also replacing Google Assistant on a growing number of Android phones.

Gemini can use Google Search when it answers. But it’s a separate product from Google’s search results, and it doesn’t always name the same businesses as AI Overview or AI Mode.

Google AI Overview

Made by

Google

Where people find it

At the top of some Google searches, above the normal results.

AI Overview is a summary written by AI. Google says it only shows one when its systems decide it adds something to the normal results. So it appears for some questions and not others.

People don’t switch it on. They search Google as they always have, and the summary is just there. It’s an AI answer people read without ever opening an AI app.

Google AI Mode

Made by

Google

Where people find it

A separate mode in Google Search, opened from the results page or the Google app.

AI Mode is built for longer questions and follow-ups, more like a conversation than a search. Google says it can split a question into several related searches at once, which it calls “query fan-out”. It then writes one answer from the results, with links to the pages it used.

Why they name different businesses

• Different makers. OpenAI and Google build their assistants on different technology.
• Different searches. Each one runs its own searches and reads its own pages. Even AI Overview and AI Mode, both made by Google, can read different pages for the same question.
• Chance. None of them gives the same answer every time.

So a business can be named in most of one assistant’s answers and hardly any of another’s. Average them out and that difference disappears. That’s why Visility always measures each assistant on its own.

Which one matters most?

It depends on who’s asking. Someone who searches Google out of habit may see an AI Overview whether they meant to or not. Someone who uses ChatGPT for everything will ask ChatGPT. You can’t tell which one a particular person used, so it’s worth knowing where you stand on all four.

What’s different in the UK

The assistants tailor their answers to the country a question comes from. People here use UK words, like solicitor rather than attorney, or estate agent rather than realtor. The assistants also read UK sources, such as review sites and professional registers. A measurement built for the US shows what Americans see. We explain more in why Visility works only with UK businesses.

Sources

• Google Search Central, AI features and your website
• OpenAI, Overview of OpenAI crawlers