Large Language Model Test: ChatGPT's Top Pick Changed on 2 of 5 Questions
We split 15 brand names into tokens and asked ChatGPT the same five buyer questions, the kind a person asks when choosing a product, three times each, and some answers held still while some didn't.
We split 15 brand names into tokens and asked ChatGPT the same five buyer questions, the kind a person asks when choosing a product, three times each, and some answers held still while some didn’t.
Data from Search Shift’s own tests of October 19, 2026: 15 brand names split into tokens, and five buyer questions put to ChatGPT three times each.
- Medium: Large Language Model Test: ChatGPT’s Top Pick Changed on 2 of 5 Questions
- RankControl, an AI SEO and AEO platform
- Google Doc
- Google Sites: ChatGPT’s top pick changed on 2 of 5 questions in our October test
Numbers in the post
| Number | What the post says | Source | Data from |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 of 5 | On October 19, 2026 we asked ChatGPT five buyer questions, three times each, and compared the products it named. Across the 5 buyer questions in that test, ChatGPT’s top pick changed for 2, though 22 of the 28 products it named showed up in all three runs. | Search Shift test | October 19, 2026 |
| 22 of 28 | Across the 15 answers, 22 of the 28 products ChatGPT named showed up in all three runs, and the 6 that didn’t hold came from two lists, 2 from the CRM answers and 4 from the mattress answers. | Search Shift test | October 19, 2026 |
| 15 of 15 | On October 19, 2026, we fed 15 brand names to o200k_base, the open-source tokenizer GPT-4o uses, and every one of the 15 came out as two or three tokens. Common words stayed whole, plumber among them; ClickUp split into Click and Up, Lemonade into Lemon and ade, and Mailchimp into Mail and chimp. Pipedrive came out as P, iped and rive, Ruggable as R, ugg and able, and Policygenius as Policy, gen and ius, three pieces each. | Search Shift test | October 19, 2026 |
| 1,748 words = 2,411 tokens | For scale, RankControl’s 1,748-word blog post on brand sentiment came out at 2,411 tokens. | Search Shift test | October 19, 2026 |
| 13 of 15 | In the 15 answers from our October 19, 2026 test, ChatGPT cited a median of nine sources and ran a single search in 13 of the 15. | Search Shift test | October 19, 2026 |
The five buyer questions, three runs each
| Number | What the post says | Source | Data from |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 of 6 | For “best crm for small business” it named 6 products across the three runs and put HubSpot CRM first every time. Four of the 6 appeared in all three runs, while Salesforce’s starter plan dropped out of the list after one run and Less Annoying CRM took its place. | Search Shift test | October 19, 2026 |
| 5 of 5 | For “best accounting software for freelancers” it named 5 products and all 5 showed up in every run, yet the top pick still moved: Wave, then QuickBooks, then Wave. | Search Shift test | October 19, 2026 |
| 3 of 7 | On October 19, 2026, we asked ChatGPT for the “best mattress for side sleepers” three times, same question each time, and it put Casper first once and Helix twice. For “best mattress for side sleepers” it named 7 products, and only 3 appeared in all three runs, with the top pick Casper, then Helix twice. | Search Shift test | October 19, 2026 |
| 5 of 5 | For “best project management tool for small teams” it named 5 products, all 5 in every run, with ClickUp first each time. | Search Shift test | October 19, 2026 |
| 5 of 5 | The question about “best email marketing platform for ecommerce” went the same way, with 5 products, all 5 in every run, and Klaviyo first each time. | Search Shift test | October 19, 2026 |
- Reference: https://medium.com/@thesearchshift/large-language-model-test-chatgpts-top-pick-changed-on-2-of-5-questions-ce9fea6e36be
- Reference: https://rctrl.com
- Reference: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1f6c6XfddpcWSCAFTIjZbyE7ES1K7hSgvbCtGBzgoh6o/edit?usp=sharing
- Reference: https://sites.google.com/view/search-shift-notes/chatgpt-top-pick-test
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