We track responses from most major AI models. We are the only company that can isolate between base model knowledge and search enhanced knowledge by tracking responses through the model's API and its consumer app.
AI models try first to answer prompts using its internal knowledge (base model). If the AI model does not inherently know how to respond to your prompt, it will retrieve responses from live search.
Company | Base Model | Consumer App | Search Integration |
Gemini | Gemini Search | AI Mode AI Overviews | |
OpenAI | ChatGPT | ChatGPT Search |
|
Anthropic | Claude |
|
|
Meta | Llama |
|
|
Perplexity |
| Perplexity |
|
DeepSeek | DeepSeek |
|
|
Microsoft |
| CoPilot |
|
Definitions
Base Model: This is the isolated base model knowledge, only accessible via API integration. This represents the information that the model was trained on.
Consumer App: What you see when you go to chatgpt.com or the ChatGPT mobile app. When users type in a prompt, the AI model either generates the answer from its base model knowledge (if the model has a base model) or it retrieves the answer from live search.
Search Integration: AI Mode and AI Overviews are not isolated platforms since they live within Google Search. These AIs combine traditional search infrastructure with AI capabilities
Our Methodology
Most competitors collect data from the consumer-facing app as their only methodology. So much like SEO tools of old, they scrape the consumer UI.
We do this too, but we also plug into the model maker API's as:
Clean, Reliable Data Collection: We pay the model providers for access to connect directly through their API. This provides us scaled access ensuring clean, reliable, repeatable data collection. Most competitors do not have this and are in a cat-and-mouse game, hoping not to have their IP blocked from accessing the consumer app.
Statistical Significance: Because we tap into the API, we can analyze 1M+ prompt responses per brand monthly, giving us statistically significant, reliable and robust metrics rather than small sample sizes.
Base Model Insights: The APIs are the only way to isolate the base model’s knowledge. There isn't a way to force this in the consumer app. This allows us to understand what AI's preferences are at its core. This is especially important as the consumer app and all agent experiences are built on top of the base models. So these agents inherit brand preferences from the base model.
Brand Building: API is a more stable measure of long-term AI brand building. It does not have access to live searches, so is less reactive to changes in search indexes. It shifts when there has been a true model update.