Most businesses can’t build a ChatGPT Business Agent yet. Ours can’t.
Agents launched alongside business profiles, as a way for someone to start a conversation with your business from inside ChatGPT. With so few available to test, it’s the part of the launch with the most speculation and the least evidence.
What follows is what OpenAI has said, what the Business Hub code names, and what’s worth preparing while you wait.
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What a Business Agent is
When a business appears in a ChatGPT response, people can click to see its profile. If the business has an agent, they can choose to start a conversation with it to explore what it offers and ask follow-up questions.
OpenAI’s example is someone comparing products who asks about the differences between two options and which features fit their needs. The agent answers from the business’s information.
OpenAI describes three boundaries:
- The agent conversation is clearly labelled.
- It’s separate from the person’s original ChatGPT conversation.
- It’s distinct from ChatGPT’s independent answers.
That last point matters. An agent speaks for the business. ChatGPT’s own answer is still ChatGPT’s.
Who’s eligible
At launch, Business Agents are available to eligible ecommerce and online service businesses in the United States. OpenAI says it plans to expand to more markets and business categories over time.
Two conditions apply:
- You need a claimed business profile first.
- Your business type has to be eligible.
Our profile is verified, and it’s a software company. Its Agent builder page said “Agent builder isn’t available yet”, with a note that it’s rolling out gradually by business type.
So a verified profile doesn’t guarantee an agent. From what we’ve seen so far, access looks limited to ecommerce businesses in practice. That’s our observation, not OpenAI’s stated policy, which also names online service businesses. To find out for your business, open Agent builder in Business Hub.
What an agent can and can’t do
OpenAI says an agent answers questions and helps people explore a business’s offerings.
Third-party guides report that agents can’t take orders or bookings. OpenAI’s announcement doesn’t state that limit, so treat it as reported.
Sponsored agents
OpenAI says businesses can sponsor their Business Agent and use it as the destination for ChatGPT ads. Sponsored placements are clearly labelled and separate from ChatGPT’s responses.
In practice, that means an agent can be reached two ways: when your business comes up in an answer, or through an ad.
What agents report
The Business Hub Overview page has an Agent insights tab. The code that the page loads names three agent metrics:
- Conversations
- Multi-turn conversations
- Product clicks
The code describes these as covering “ads and organic conversations”. It also names separate reporting for intents, quality, improvements, and a target.
We haven’t seen any of this with data in it, because we don’t have an agent. A name in the code shows that a feature exists there. It doesn’t show how it behaves.
OpenAI says it doesn’t share users’ conversations or agent chats with businesses.
How to prepare if you don’t have access
OpenAI’s example has an agent answering “using the business’s information”. We don’t know exactly what that covers, so the safe preparation is the work that makes your profile and website accurate.
Write down the questions customers ask
Start with the ones your sales or support team hears most:
- How does pricing work?
- What’s included, and what isn’t?
- Where do you operate or ship?
- How do I book, order, or get started?
- What’s your guarantee or return policy?
Answer each one on your website
Published answers are the safe bet, whatever an agent draws on. A clear pricing page, a returns page, and a short FAQ cover most of that list.
Add your products
A product feed puts your prices and availability in Business Hub. See how to add products to ChatGPT with a product feed.
Keep your profile complete
Category, description, hours, and contact details are the basics a customer asks about.
Check back
Open Agent builder every few weeks. The rollout is gradual, and nothing in Business Hub told us when our business type would be included.
What we don’t know
- Which business categories are eligible, beyond ecommerce and online services.
- When agents will reach other countries.
- How much control a business has over what its agent says.
- Whether having an agent affects how often ChatGPT mentions a business.
We’ll update this when we can build one and test it.
An agent needs a claimed profile first. Our guide to setting up a ChatGPT business profile covers that.
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Sources and method
The description of agents, eligibility, sponsorship, and privacy is from OpenAI’s announcement of November 10, 2026. The Agent builder message is what we saw on Rankability’s own profile on November 11, 2026. The agent metrics come from the code the Business Hub page loads in the browser, read the same day. The limit on orders and bookings is reported by third-party guides. We have not built or tested a Business Agent.