# Preferly

> Preferly is an AI visibility audit for businesses. It shows a business what the 10 leading AI models say about it: how often they recommend it, who they recommend instead, and where they contradict its website. Then it gives a prioritized plan to fix what it finds. The check is free. The full report is $99, paid once, with no subscription.

Preferly asks AI models the questions a new customer would ask, with web search on. Most questions don't name the business, so the results show whether AI recommends it when nobody asks about it by name.

## What you get

- Free check: 3 AI models, 5 customer questions, on screen in about a minute. You get a score from 0 to 100 with its four parts, how often AI named the business, how many competitors AI recommended instead, up to 2 places where AI contradicts the website, whether AI tools can reach the site, and the top fix. One free check per email address. A code sent by email confirms the address. The free report is also emailed to that address, with a link back to it.
- Full report: $99, one-time payment, ready in about 5 minutes. It covers 10 leading AI models and 8 questions. You get every competitor AI recommends, by name, with the sources AI cited for them. You also get the full text of every answer, and every claim AI made about the business checked against its website, with the evidence. It shows which AI crawlers the site lets in and whether they can load and read it. Every fix comes in priority order, with the steps and code you can paste. You see the report on screen, it arrives by email, and it comes as a PDF.
- AI Fix Pack (full report): every fix in one markdown document, to paste into your own AI assistant or hand to a developer. Copy it in one click or download it as a .md file.
- Free re-scan (full report): one per order, any time in the 30 days after the report is delivered. It asks the same questions of the same models again and shows the results before and after.
- Agent-readiness checks: whether an AI agent acting for a customer could use the site, for example whether it can tell what each form field is for, send a form without a CAPTCHA, and follow links that lead somewhere. The free check shows each check's result; the full report adds what each one found and how to fix it. They aren't part of the score.
- Agent friction test (full report only): a test agent starts at the homepage in a real browser and tries to reach the business's booking page, contact form or similar, the way an AI agent acting for a customer would. The report shows how far it got and what stopped it. It isn't part of the score.
- Guarantee (full report): If your report finds no fixes, email us within 7 days and we'll give you a full refund.

## Pricing

- Free check: $0. One per email address.
- Full report: $99, paid once. No subscription, nothing renews. No trial: the free check is the way to try it.
- Included with the full report: one free re-scan within 30 days.
- Guarantee: If your report finds no fixes, email us within 7 days and we'll give you a full refund.
- Visitors referred by a creator get 20% off.

## The score

A score from 0 to 100 in four parts:

- Visibility (40): how often AI recommends the business when the question doesn't name it, weighted by rank.
- Accuracy (25): the share of checkable things AI said about the business that match its website.
- Sources (15): how often AI cites the business's own site or profiles.
- Access (20): whether AI tools are allowed in, can load the site, and can read its key facts.

## How to read a result

- Each question goes to each model once, through the model's API, with a neutral instruction. AI apps add their own instructions, personalization and memory, so a signed-in user may see a somewhat different answer.
- Answers vary from run to run, so a result is a snapshot. Every result shows its date and the exact questions.
- Preferly flags a contradiction only when it can quote the part of the website that disagrees. The owner decides which source needs updating.

## AI agents: coming soon

Personal AI agents (Hark, Meta Muse, OpenAI dots, Grok Bot) are not in the report yet. Today Preferly asks AI models through their APIs.

## Not covered yet

Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot are not checked yet. Personal AI agents are coming soon.

## Free AI crawler check

https://www.preferly.ai/ai-crawler-check checks a site's robots.txt rules for 14 AI crawlers and whether its homepage loads for an automated visitor. Free, no email. It reads only robots.txt, the homepage and /llms.txt.

## PreferlyBot

Preferly's crawler identifies itself as `PreferlyBot/1.0 (+https://preferly.ai/bot)`.

- It runs only when someone requests a check, with one exception: once, in October 2026, it ran for a public research study of 4,111 small business websites (https://www.preferly.ai/research/ai-crawler-study). It made the free AI crawler check's two requests to each site (robots.txt, then the homepage), fetched the homepage only where robots.txt allowed PreferlyBot, and sent one request at a time to each site. Sites that returned an error or a bot check were checked once more a few minutes later.
- The free AI crawler check, on our website or in ChatGPT, reads only robots.txt, the homepage and /llms.txt, when someone asks for it.
- The free check and the full report read robots.txt, the homepage and some of the pages the homepage links to. These are plain page requests: no JavaScript runs.
- The agent-readiness checks also request up to 25 of the site's own links, to find broken ones.
- The full report also runs the friction test in a real browser. That browser runs JavaScript, follows links and clicks only buttons that don't submit anything.
- It never types, fills in fields, submits forms, books, buys or signs in. It never clicks to accept cookies or terms, and never solves a CAPTCHA.
- The browser lets only requests that read a page through (GET, HEAD and OPTIONS) and blocks everything else.
- In the browser test, a small AI model picks which link or button to try next, only among ones that can't submit anything.
- The browser test and the link checks follow robots.txt rules for PreferlyBot.
- If a site rate-limits it (HTTP 429), it waits a few seconds, tries once more, then reports it and stops.
- When configured, its requests are signed with Web Bot Auth (HTTP Message Signatures), so a site can verify they come from PreferlyBot. The public key is at https://www.preferly.ai/.well-known/http-message-signatures-directory.
- It never disguises itself or tries to get past bot protection. If a site challenges it, Preferly reports that and stops.

## Contact

- [Contact](https://www.preferly.ai/contact): the email address for questions about a check, a report, a payment or a refund.

## Pages

- [Home](https://www.preferly.ai/): what the free check and the full report include.
- [Example report](https://www.preferly.ai/example): a full report for a fictional business, built from a real run with the names changed.
- [Pricing](https://www.preferly.ai/pricing): the free check and the $99 one-time full report, what each includes, and the guarantee.
- [About](https://www.preferly.ai/about): who runs Preferly and how we work.
- [Free AI crawler check](https://www.preferly.ai/ai-crawler-check): are AI crawlers blocked from your site?
- [AI visibility audit](https://www.preferly.ai/ai-visibility-audit): what an AI visibility audit should show you.
- [Code fixes](https://www.preferly.ai/ai-visibility-fixes): the fix plan and the AI Fix Pack.
- [Competitors in AI answers](https://www.preferly.ai/track-competitors-in-ai): which competitors AI recommends instead of you.
- [Is AI recommending your competitors?](https://www.preferly.ai/is-ai-recommending-my-competitors): how to check, by hand or with Preferly.
- [Methodology](https://www.preferly.ai/methodology): how Preferly asks the questions, checks the answers and calculates the score.
- [PreferlyBot](https://www.preferly.ai/bot): what the crawler fetches and what it never does.
- [Creator program](https://www.preferly.ai/refer): earn $20 for each new buyer you refer; your audience gets 20% off the full report. Approval required.
- [Privacy policy](https://www.preferly.ai/privacy): what Preferly collects, who it shares it with, how long it keeps it, and your rights.
- [Terms of service](https://www.preferly.ai/terms): the terms for the free check and the full report, including payment, refunds, the re-scan and report links.
- [Start a free check](https://www.preferly.ai/start)
- [Buy the full report](https://www.preferly.ai/start?plan=full)

## Guides

- [How many small business websites block AI crawlers? (2026 study)](https://www.preferly.ai/research/ai-crawler-study): We checked 3,693 small and local business websites in 26 US cities and metro areas.
- [Guides](https://www.preferly.ai/guides): plain answers to the questions business owners ask about AI search.
- [How do I get ChatGPT to recommend my business?](https://www.preferly.ai/how-to-get-chatgpt-to-recommend-my-business): You can't submit your business to ChatGPT.
- [Why does ChatGPT recommend my competitor instead of me?](https://www.preferly.ai/why-ai-recommends-competitors): Usually because your competitor is named on more of the pages ChatGPT reads: directories, "best of" lists, review sites and articles.
- [Where do ChatGPT and other AI tools get information about my business?](https://www.preferly.ai/where-ai-gets-business-information): From two places: what a model learned in training, and what its web search finds when someone asks.
- [Why does AI give the wrong hours for my business, and how do I fix it?](https://www.preferly.ai/ai-wrong-business-hours): AI usually repeats an outdated source: an old directory listing, a duplicate map listing, holiday hours never removed, or hours shown only in an image on your site.
- [What is generative engine optimization (GEO), and does my business need it?](https://www.preferly.ai/what-is-generative-engine-optimization): Generative engine optimization, also called GEO or AEO, means making your business easy for AI tools like ChatGPT and Gemini to find, read, describe correctly and recommend.
- [Does schema markup help my business show up in AI answers?](https://www.preferly.ai/schema-markup-for-ai-search): It helps AI tools and search engines read your facts correctly, but it won't get you recommended on its own, and Google says no special markup is needed for its AI features.
- [How do I get my business into Google AI Overviews, and fix what they say?](https://www.preferly.ai/google-ai-overviews): Google says a page needs to be indexed and eligible for a snippet to appear as a link in AI Overviews or AI Mode, with no separate sign-up.
- [Should I block AI crawlers like GPTBot from my website?](https://www.preferly.ai/should-i-block-ai-crawlers): It depends on what you want to block.
- [How do I let AI crawlers like ChatGPT access my site?](https://www.preferly.ai/allow-ai-crawlers-in-robots-txt): Make sure your robots.txt doesn't disallow the AI crawlers you want, and that no bot check turns them away.
- [Is Cloudflare blocking AI crawlers from my website?](https://www.preferly.ai/is-cloudflare-blocking-ai-crawlers): It might be.
- [What is an llms.txt file, and do I need one?](https://www.preferly.ai/what-is-llms-txt): llms.txt is a proposed Markdown file at yoursite.com/llms.txt that summarizes your business and links your key pages for AI tools.
- [How can my dental practice show up when patients ask AI for a dentist?](https://www.preferly.ai/ai-search-for-dentists): AI recommends practices it can find and confirm: ones whose sites list services, insurance accepted, hours, emergency availability and location in plain text, with consistent listings and reviews on the sites AI reads.
- [How can my law firm show up when people ask AI for a lawyer?](https://www.preferly.ai/ai-search-for-lawyers): AI names firms it can match to the exact legal problem and place.
- [How can my restaurant show up when people ask AI where to eat?](https://www.preferly.ai/ai-search-for-restaurants): AI recommends restaurants it can match to a cuisine, a neighborhood, a price and a time.
- [How can my plumbing, HVAC or electrical business show up when people ask AI who to call?](https://www.preferly.ai/ai-search-for-home-services): AI names contractors it can match to the job, the area and the urgency.
- [Meta's AI assistant is now a shopping channel. Does it recommend your business?](https://www.preferly.ai/meta-muse-shopping): Meta says shopping is the most common use of Muse, its AI agent: over 25% of weekly users shop with it, and the average purchase is over $200, travel included.