ChatGPT Wrong Business Information? Fix Your Hours and Phone

A customer calls the number ChatGPT gave them, and it rings a phone you cancelled two years ago. ChatGPT wrong business information like this costs you jobs, and there's no "edit" button to fix it.

You can't edit a ChatGPT answer directly. Find the page or listing that still shows the old hours or phone number, fix it there, then wait for ChatGPT to read it again. Start with your website, then Google Business Profile, Bing Places, Yelp and Apple Business, and flag the bad answer with the thumbs down.

The good news is that the wrong detail almost always lives somewhere you can reach. This guide shows you where ChatGPT, Copilot and Google AI pick up your details, how to find the exact page that's wrong, the order to fix things in, and how long each fix takes.

Key takeaways

• ChatGPT repeats what it finds online. Fix the source, not the chat.
• Each AI tool leans on different listings, so one fix rarely covers all of them.
• A Bing listing synced to Google can only be fixed in Google.
• Yelp edits show right away; new or imported Bing Places listings typically take 7-12 days to publish.
• Clean details help AI get you right. They don't make AI recommend you.

Where does ChatGPT get wrong business information?

ChatGPT gets business details from web searches, from the pages it cites, and from outside data partners that OpenAI mostly doesn't name. If any of those still carry your old hours or phone number, ChatGPT can repeat them.

OpenAI's own help page on ChatGPT search says ChatGPT may share a user's location with "trusted third-party providers that help provide more local information, such as nearby business listings."

OpenAI names only OpenTable, Resy and Yelp, for restaurant bookings. It doesn't name the rest. So part of the picture is hidden, and anyone who claims to know the full list is guessing.

The part you can see comes from outside testing. In BrightLocal's 2026 Local AI Visibility Study, business websites made up 42% of the sources AI answers cited for local businesses. Google Business Profile made up 28.6% and Yelp 9.5%. BrightLocal found ChatGPT hardly uses Google Business Profile, and links its results to Yelp and Bing.

Other AI tools work differently. Microsoft's help page for its work version, Copilot Chat, says it searches Bing for web answers. Google's AI answers lean on Google Business Profile, according to the BrightLocal study.

Claude, per Anthropic's help page, uses live web search and shows its sources.

That's why a fix in one place often leaves the wrong number showing somewhere else. Say you run a two-van plumbing business and you update Google. Google's AI may pick it up sooner, while ChatGPT keeps reading an old Yelp page.

See what AI says about your business: get a free AI audit → Enter your website and we show you how AI search reads it and what to fix first.

How common is ChatGPT wrong business information?

Wrong contact details in AI answers are common, not rare. Insites compared ChatGPT's answers for 10,000 US local businesses with their Google profiles in July 2026. All the details matched for only 55.58%, and the phone number was wrong for 30.09%.

Insites is upfront about the limits. Some of those "wrong" numbers may be call-tracking numbers, and some mismatches may come from out-of-date Google profiles rather than from ChatGPT. Either way, the number a customer sees isn't always the one you want them to call.

This matters more each year. In BrightLocal's Local Consumer Review Survey 2026, 45% of US consumers said they used ChatGPT or another AI tool to find local businesses, up from 6% a year earlier.

So if ChatGPT has your old number, you're not unlucky. You're normal, and the fix is the same for everyone.

Find the exact page that has the old details

Before you change anything, find out where the wrong detail is coming from. Five minutes of checking can save you from editing ten listings when only one was the problem.

Step 1: Ask the way a customer would

Open a temporary chat in ChatGPT so your own history doesn't shape the answer. Ask plain questions a customer types, like "What time does [your business] open on Saturday?" or "What's the phone number for [your business] in [your town]?"

Step 2: Open the sources

When ChatGPT searches the web, its answer often shows citations or a Sources button. Click each one and look for the wrong hours or number on that page. OpenAI warns that "search results and citations can be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect," so the cited page is your first suspect.

Step 3: Search for the old detail itself

Put your old phone number in quotes and search it on Google and Bing, for example "(555) 010-0123" (made-up number). Do the same with an old street address. Every page that comes up is a page an AI tool might read.

Step 4: Log every wrong answer

Write down what you asked, what was wrong and where it came from. Ask each question three or four times over a week, because answers change. In the BrightLocal study, repeat runs of the same ChatGPT local search overlapped by only 23% on average.

Here's a blank log, with two made-up example rows:

Pro tip: ask ChatGPT straight out where it got a detail. It won't always know, but sometimes it names the directory, which saves you a search.

Fix the source, in this order

Fix the places you control first, starting with the ones the most AI tools read. Most fixes take a few minutes each, and the order matters, because some listings copy each other.

Step 1: Fix your own website

Your website is the biggest single source AI answers cite for local businesses, so make it the master copy. Put your name, address, phone and hours in plain text on your contact page and in the footer, not only inside an image. Delete or update old pages, PDF menus and price sheets that still show the old number.

A facts block like this works well on a contact page:

Example only [Your Business Name] [street], [town, state ZIP] Phone: (217) 555-0142 Hours: Monday to Thursday 8am-5pm, Friday 8am-1pm, closed weekends We no longer use our old number, (217) 555-0199.

That last line helps. It tells anyone reading, people or AI, that the old number is out of date.

If your site has schema (the hidden code that tells AI your business details), check that its phone and hours match the page. Our guide to schema markup for small businesses shows what that code looks like. Also make sure your site isn't blocking ChatGPT's crawler; this guide to the file that can block ChatGPT explains how to check.

Step 2: Fix your Google Business Profile

Google's AI answers lean on this profile, and other listings copy from it. Go to Edit profile, then Hours, and set your main hours. Google says it reviews changes "before we update them live on your profile," according to its Business Profile help page. Google doesn't say how long this takes; check the edit status in your profile.

Step 3: Fix Bing Places, and watch for the sync trap

Bing feeds Copilot, and BrightLocal links ChatGPT's local results to Bing too. Here's the catch many owners miss. If your Bing listing is synced with Google, Bing's own help page says direct editing isn't available: "Update the listing in Google, and then sync it with Bing Places."

Bing lets you sync weekly, biweekly or monthly. Pick weekly so a fix in Google reaches Bing sooner. New or imported listings go through a publishing process that "typically takes 7-12 days."

The same page warns that syncing may create duplicate listings, so search Bing for your business name afterward. If you find a second listing with the old number, report it as a duplicate.

Step 4: Fix your Yelp page

Yelp is one of the listings ChatGPT links to most for local businesses, according to the BrightLocal study. Log in to Yelp for Business, open Business Information, edit the field and save. Yelp says owner updates "will appear on your page immediately," though moderators check them afterward, according to Yelp's support center.

Use your real, direct local number. Yelp's business information guidelines say Yelp may reject third-party tracking numbers, and cell numbers on unclaimed pages.

Step 5: Check your Apple Business place card

Apple Business is free, and its place cards show your hours and details across Apple Maps, Safari and Spotlight, according to Apple's March 2026 announcement. If you claimed Apple Business Connect before, your listing moved over automatically. Check its hours match your website.

Step 6: Clean up Facebook and your trade directories

Update your Facebook page, then the directories your trade uses. A dentist might check Healthgrades and Zocdoc, a roofer Angi and the local chamber of commerce, a lawyer Avvo. Start with any directory that showed up in your log.

Some old directories won't answer, or you can't log in. Send a short note through their contact form:

Hello, I own [business name] at [address]. Your listing shows our old phone number, [old number]. Our correct number is [new number], and our hours are [hours]. You can confirm both on our website at [web address]. Please update the listing. Thank you, [your name].

Step 7: Flag the bad answer in ChatGPT

Once your sources are fixed, give the wrong answer a thumbs down. OpenAI's help center says, "If you find an answer is incorrect, please provide that feedback by using the 'Thumbs Down' button." Treat it as a report, not a repair. The real fix is the work you did in steps 1 to 6.

Expect the whole list to take an afternoon. Our sister guide on which listings to claim for ChatGPT goes deeper on setting each one up from scratch.

If you'd rather hand it off, our done-for-you AI SEO setup fixes your name, address, phone and hours so they match everywhere. We also check how ChatGPT, Claude, Google AI and Copilot see you, add the code AI reads and fix AI crawler access. It's $349 one-time (normally $497), with no subscription, done in 48 hours, and it comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

How long until ChatGPT shows the right hours?

There's no fixed answer, because OpenAI doesn't publish a timeline for when ChatGPT picks up a change. What you can control is how fast each source updates, and some of those timings are official.

A sensible plan is to re-test once a week for four weeks. Use the same questions from your log and a fresh temporary chat each time.

Expect a mixed picture at first. Because answers change from run to run, you might see the right number on Tuesday and the old one on Thursday. Our guide to why ChatGPT recommendations change explains how to test fairly so one odd answer doesn't send you chasing ghosts.

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What if the problem is holiday hours, a move or a tracking number?

Some wrong answers come from special cases that a normal listing update won't catch. Here are the four that trip up owners most.

Holiday and seasonal hours

Set holiday hours as special hours in Google Business Profile, not by changing your main hours. Google's special hours guide walks through it: Edit profile, Hours, then Special hours. A landscaper who shuts for two weeks in January should add those dates and leave the normal hours alone.

You moved or changed your number

Old addresses and numbers hide in places you forget: an old website page, a PDF flyer, a chamber of commerce listing from 2019. Search the old detail in quotes, as in the finding step, and work through every result. Keep the old line forwarding to the new one for a few months if you can.

Call-tracking numbers

A call-tracking number is a separate phone number that forwards to your main line so you can count calls from one place. They're useful for ads, but scattered across listings they make your business look like it has five phone numbers. Use your main local number on your website and every listing, and keep tracking numbers inside your ads.

Service-area businesses

If you're a mobile dog groomer or a roofer who works from home, you can hide your street address on most listings. Your phone number and hours still need to match everywhere. Say what towns you cover in plain words on your website so AI tools don't guess.

Pro tip: if ChatGPT says you're closed, check Google first. Cloutly points out that anyone with a Google account can suggest a closure, so look at your profile's status before you chase other listings.

What can't you control about ChatGPT answers?

You can't edit ChatGPT, force it to re-read your site, or get a date for when it will. You can only fix what it reads and keep checking.

Here's the honest list of what's out of your hands:

• The unnamed data partners. OpenAI names only OpenTable, Resy and Yelp, for restaurant bookings. It doesn't name the rest, so you can't log in to all of them.
• Old scraped directories. Some sites copied your details years ago and never answer email.
• Run-to-run changes. The same question can get a different answer an hour later.
• Older training data. If ChatGPT answers from memory without searching, the old detail may stay until a newer model comes out.
• Whether you get named. Clean, matching details help AI get your business right. They don't guarantee ChatGPT, Copilot or Google AI will recommend you. Nobody can promise that.

That's not a reason to skip the work. ChatGPT wrong business information costs you calls every week it stays live, and most of it traces back to a handful of listings you can fix.

Frequently asked questions

Can I just tell ChatGPT my correct hours?

Telling ChatGPT your correct hours inside your own chat changes your own chats at most, not what it reads for your customers. ChatGPT builds answers for other people from web pages and listings. Fix those sources instead, then flag the wrong answer with the thumbs down.

Does fixing my Google Business Profile fix ChatGPT?

Fixing your Google Business Profile helps, but it often isn't enough for ChatGPT on its own. BrightLocal's 2026 study found ChatGPT hardly uses Google Business Profile, and links its results to Yelp and Bing. Fix Google first, then Bing Places, Yelp and your website.

Why does Bing Places not let me edit my listing?

Bing Places blocks direct edits when a listing is synced with your Google Business Profile. Bing's help page says to update the listing in Google and let the sync carry it over. New or imported listings typically take 7-12 days to publish.

Does the thumbs down button fix a wrong answer?

The thumbs down button sends OpenAI feedback that an answer was wrong, but OpenAI doesn't promise to correct it or say when. Use it after you've fixed your sources. The fixed sources are what change future answers.

Will fixing my details make ChatGPT recommend my business?

Fixing your details makes it more likely AI tools describe your business correctly. It doesn't make ChatGPT recommend you, and no one can promise that. AI answers change from one run to the next, so track how often you appear over a few weeks.

The short version

ChatGPT repeats what it reads, so the fix is never inside ChatGPT. Find the page that still shows your old hours or number, fix it there, and work outward: your website, Google Business Profile, Bing Places, Yelp, Apple Business, then Facebook and your trade directories. Watch for the Bing sync trap, use one local phone number everywhere, and set holiday hours as special hours.

Then give the bad answer a thumbs down and re-test once a week for a month. Some sources update the same day, others take a week or two, and ChatGPT itself gives no timeline. Fixing ChatGPT wrong business information won't make AI recommend you, but it stops AI sending your customers to a dead line.

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