Can you pay to become ChatGPT's #1 recommendation?

Not reliably. OpenAI doesn't sell places inside ChatGPT's answers. But anyone can pay for, or write, the "best X in Malaysia" lists that ChatGPT reads when it searches, and in our Malaysian tests it used those lists while rarely saying who wrote them. Even so, the agency that paid for top spots on two lists was not ChatGPT's steady number one.

If someone has offered you a paid spot in a "best in Malaysia" article, here's what such pages did, and didn't do, in our tests.

Why do "best X in Malaysia" lists matter for ChatGPT's recommendations?

"Best X in Malaysia" lists matter because ChatGPT searches the web before it recommends a business, and these lists answer that exact question. OpenAI says ChatGPT ranks search results using "multiple factors intended to help users find relevant, reliable information"¹. A dated list of providers fits that search closely.

In our test of "best AI SEO, GEO or AI visibility service or tool in Malaysia", ChatGPT linked a "best" or "top" list, or a directory ranking, in 9 of its 12 answers. We also checked 712 answers to other Malaysian buying questions. About one in six linked such a list. For clinic questions, it was about one in three (CSV).

Ahrefs measured this differently, by source link rather than by answer, across 750 software, product and agency prompts not limited to Malaysia. It found that "across all source links, 'best X' blog lists represented 43.8% of all page types"².

Does ChatGPT notice when a "best" list is sponsored or self-published?

ChatGPT rarely mentioned who wrote the lists it used in our Malaysian tests. Disclosures stayed on the source page; only the names reached the answer.

In our category, three of those four answers named the list's publisher as the first pick. One list said its publisher appeared first "as publisher", not as a ranking, yet ChatGPT still put it first without passing on the note.

Across other trades, ChatGPT named the list's publisher in 23 of the 34 answers, usually among rivals. The most-used example was a clinic's own "best aesthetic clinics" page, which put the clinic first under a publisher disclosure. None of the list pages we could open from those trades was labelled sponsored, so there the issue was who wrote the list, not who paid.

Did paying for two "top 10" lists make one agency ChatGPT's #1?

Paying for two "top 10" lists didn't make one agency ChatGPT's number one, though it was named often. Call it Agency A. It paid for two lists that ranked it first: a labelled sponsored post on a marketing news site and a paid announcement on a news portal. It also appeared on unpaid lists and a directory ranking.

• ChatGPT named Agency A in 4 of 6 answers about AI SEO, GEO or AI visibility services, more than any other provider. It put Agency A first only once. The links beside Agency A in those answers went to a directory ranking and LinkedIn company pages; the sponsored list turned up in its search results once and was never linked.
• Gemini, in its one answer that searched, drew on both paid pages and cited the paid announcement for Agency A's tool without saying it was paid. It listed that tool fifth of five.

Our reading: paid lists may add to a footprint, but here directory and LinkedIn pages did the visible work, and paying didn't buy #1.

Is it wrong to pay for a place on a "best of" list?

Paying for a labelled placement isn't wrong in itself. Google says "buying and selling links is a normal part of the economy of the web for advertising and sponsorship purposes", as long as such links are marked as sponsored or nofollow³. Both paid pages in our test carried clear labels.

The gap is on the reading side: a customer who opens the page sees "sponsored", but one who reads only ChatGPT's answer usually doesn't. ChatGPT's own ads are a different thing, sold by OpenAI and shown below the answer, as covered in can I pay to get cited by ChatGPT?

How do I check a "best X" answer from ChatGPT?

Check a "best X" answer from ChatGPT by opening the pages it used before you trust its order.

1. Open the source links under the answer.
2. Look for a label: "sponsored", "this content is provided by", "publisher disclosure" or an advertising contact.
3. Check whether the top business wrote the list. If it did, treat the order as marketing.
4. Ask again. The names change between runs, as our different-answer test shows.

What can't our test tell me about paid lists and ChatGPT?

• Whether paying would work for you. We saw one paying agency in one category, so we can't show cause and effect.
• The ChatGPT app. We used OpenAI's API without chat history; your app's answers can differ.
• Every list. Sixteen list pages couldn't be checked, most because they blocked us, so we don't know whether they carried labels.

How can my business get onto "best" lists and into ChatGPT's answers honestly?

There's a real opening: in our tests, ChatGPT linked directory rankings and independent lists, and never linked the two paid pages.

1. Request EasyFound's free check. See what ChatGPT says when customers ask for the best in your trade, such as "Who's the best physio in Petaling Jaya for back pain? I sit at a desk all day." Then go through it with us on a free call.
2. Complete your directory listing on the sites that rank your trade, the ones ChatGPT linked in your free check, and ask real customers to review you there.
3. Ask independent list writers to consider you. Some invite corrections by email; send facts they can check, never a payment.
4. Earn press with something new, such as a customer story or your own data, rather than buying a paid announcement or press release.
5. If you publish your own comparison, say you wrote it and explain your criteria.

We built EasyFound, an AI SEO service for Malaysian businesses, to do this legwork: we see which lists and pages six AI tools lean on for your trade, in English, Malay and Chinese, then get your facts onto them. The free check below is where it starts.