AI visibility check
Does Grok name you when buyers ask?
Grok draws on training memory, a web search and a search of X, by xAI’s own description. Grok is in development for the Visibility Plan.
A growth strategist replies by email within two business days. No card required. Or book a call.
GrokThree names come up across the web and X.
- Firm B
- Firm A
- Firm C
You: not named in the answer
Where its names come from
Training memory with a cutoff xAI puts in spring 2026, or a search. Without its search tools, xAI says, Grok knows nothing current.
What it reads when it searches
Two documented tools. A web search whose provider xAI does not name, and a search of posts and profiles on X.
What changes the answer
Whether a search ran at all, and personalisation from the buyer’s X account, whose defaults xAI has not published.
Your plan
What the plan will read when Grok joins.
Grok is in development for the Visibility Plan. When it joins, its part of the plan reads the same five parts, every number dated.
Inside the plan
Five parts of the plan. Every number dated.
- 01Named or not
Whether each assistant names you from memory and with the live web.
memoryweb- ChatGPT1 of 83 of 8
- Claude0 of 82 of 8
- Gemini2 of 83 of 8
- Perplexityalways searchesweb only2 of 8
- Copilot0 of 81 of 8
- Overviewsalways searchesweb only2 of 8
Missing from memory is a footprint problem. Missing from search is a page problem.
- 02Who instead
The companies named in your place, and how often.
- 01Firm B52
- 02Firm A45
- 03Firm C29
- 04Firm D23
- 05You16
Whatever your deck says, these are the names your buyers hear.
- 03Said, and right
What each assistant says about you, checked against the facts.
“Plans start at the Team tier and it connects to
two ERP systems.”Three today. The answer reads a 2023 listing, not your site.
Named with a wrong fact is not a win. It is a finding.
- 04Sources behind it
The pages, lists, reviews, clips and threads the answers read.
1 on your site10 outside
- Comparison lists3
- Review sites2
- Directories1
- Forums and threads2
- Video and podcasts2
Most of an answer is written outside your domain.
- 05What to ship next
What your growth strategist would ship first for each gap, and the monthly receipt.
- Comparison pageStaged · Page
- Directory fixStaged · Listing
- Review askStaged · Reviews
- Shoot-day clips and repliesStaged · Clips
Waiting for your approval
A tool scores the gap. An expert closes it.
The read
How Grok decides who to name.
One post, one answer, one screen is a sample of one. The plan reads the whole shape.
- Firm B
- Firm A
- Firm C
Two feeds
xAI documents two search tools. A search of the web, and a search of X posts and profiles. They feed one answer.
xAI does not name the web provider, or say how the two feeds are weighed.
Nothing current without a search
xAI puts it plainly. Without its search tools, Grok has no knowledge of current events. Its current model learned the world up to spring 2026.
A new company or a corrected fact reaches the answer only through a search.
What xAI has not said
xAI does not publish how Grok ranks companies, whether its searches run by default in the app, which crawler indexes the web for it, or what personalisation defaults to.
Anyone who tells you how to rank in Grok is telling you something xAI has not.
The other assistants
Each one decides its own way.
- ChatGPT
Searches when it decides to, rewrites your buyer’s question, and remembers what you told it.
Memory vs. live web
How ChatGPT decides - Claude
Searches when it helps, cites what it read, and keeps memory on by default on personal accounts.
Citations and memory
How Claude decides - Gemini
Three Google surfaces read one index and name different companies.
Three Google surfaces
How Gemini decides
The playbook
How Throughline reads it.
- 01
Buyer’s words, never yours
A question with your name in it answers about you, not for you. We ask what a buyer asks before they have heard of you.
- 02
Both memories
What the assistant remembers and what it retrieves are read apart. They fail differently and are fixed differently.
- 03
Right, not just named
Every name we count is checked against the answer text, and the answers are kept. Every mention is checked against the facts. A confident wrong answer is recorded as what it is.
- 04
Dated, signed, asked again
Every number in the plan carries its date. The same questions are asked again, so the change is the finding. Your growth strategist signs it.
You read the plan. An expert did the asking.
Field Notes
Field Notes on how Grok decides.
- Explainer · 5 minRemembered or retrieved: the two ways an AI assistant can name your companyRead
- Field note · 3 minThe shortlist is written before the first callRead
Questions
Questions about Grok and your brand.
Does Grok use X posts to decide who to name?
xAI documents a search of X posts and profiles as one of Grok’s two search tools, beside a web search. It does not publish how the two are weighed or how companies are ranked in an answer.
Does Grok know about a company that launched this year?
Only through a search. xAI states that without its search tools Grok has no knowledge of current events, and its current model learned the world up to spring 2026.
Can I pay to be recommended by Grok?
xAI has not published a programme for it. Reports in 2025 described an intention to let advertisers appear in Grok’s suggestions. We have not found a primary confirmation that in-answer ads are live.
What does the Visibility Plan cover?
ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot and Google’s AI Overviews, for a week of your buyers’ questions. Grok is in development. Whether you are named, who is named instead, what is said about you and whether it is right, the pages behind each answer, and what to ship next. Every number dated.
How it starts
See who your buyers are told to consider.
- 01
You request a check.
- 02
A growth strategist reviews your company and replies within two business days.
- 03
Your Visibility Plan follows the call. Where you stand, and what to ship next.