AI Visibility Report · October 2026 · HVAC

Who AI recommends when your AC quits.

We asked ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude and Meta AI the questions homeowners in Austin, Round Rock and Cedar Park really ask, over and over. Here's which HVAC companies they named, and how often.

Find your company How we measured

1,800
AI answers collected: 5
AI assistants tested: 224
local HVAC companies named: 15%
best score, Advanced Air Conditioning + Heating

Find your company

City

Answer type

AI assistant

Type of question

All cities, answers with web search. 222 companies named across 1,500 answers. The bar is the share of answers that named each company.

Sort by

Bar scale 0–20%. The thin line on each bar is the 95% range: AI answers vary, so treat close ranks as ties.

How each AI answered

Not every answer names a company.

Share of web-search answers in All cities, by what the AI did.

ChatGPT63% named companies

Gemini72% named companies

Perplexity99% named companies

Claude76% named companies

Meta AI82% named companies

Named companies
Sent to a directory
Asked a follow-up
General advice only
No local info

Where AI looks

What AI cites when it answers.

Share of answers in All cities that cited each kind of source.

Business websites66%

Angi15%

Reddit15%

YouTube10%

Yelp10%

An answer can cite several kinds of source, so these add up to more than 100%.

The questions

What we asked, and who AI recommended.

Written the way homeowners actually type. Each one was asked several times of every assistant in each city.

Best
“who's the best ac company in your city? want someone who actually knows what they're doing”
1. 1. Airco Air Conditioning, Electrical and Plumbing23%
2. 2. McCullough Heating, Air Conditioning & Plumbing21%
3. 3. Advanced Air Conditioning + Heating20%
Best
“just moved to your city, need a good hvac company for the house. who do people around here use?”
1. 1. Airco Air Conditioning, Electrical and Plumbing33%
2. 2. Alamo Austin Air Conditioning & Heating31%
3. 3. Advanced Air Conditioning + Heating28%
Best
“top rated hvac company near me”
1. 1. Koala Cooling & Plumbing12%
2. 2. One Hour Heating & Air Conditioning12%
3. 3. Radiant Plumbing, Air Conditioning, & Electrical12%
Emergency
“AC is blowing hot air and it's 100 degrees. who can come out TODAY in your city”
1. 1. Austin Air Conditioning41%
2. 2. Precision Heating & Air29%
3. 3. Koala Cooling & Plumbing27%
Emergency
“ac stopped working saturday night in your city, is there anyone that does emergency repair on weekends without charging a fortune”
1. 1. Aire Serv43%
2. 2. Precision Heating & Air29%
3. 3. Abacus Plumbing, Air Conditioning, & Electrical28%
Emergency
“emergency ac repair near me open now”
1. 1. One Hour Heating & Air Conditioning23%
2. 2. Aire Serv23%
3. 3. ABA Heating and Cooling20%
Problem
“my outside unit is running but the lines are iced over and the house wont cool down. who should i call in your city for this”
1. 1. Aire Serv37%
2. 2. Precision Heating & Air21%
3. 3. Advanced Air Conditioning + Heating17%
Problem
“furnace smells like something burning when it kicks on. who do i call in your city for that, is it dangerous”
1. 1. Aire Serv31%
2. 2. Precision Heating & Air13%
3. 3. One Hour Heating & Air Conditioning13%
Problem
“water dripping from the ac unit in my attic, need someone to come look at it near me”
1. 1. The Home Depot9%
2. 2. Aire Serv9%
3. 3. Koala Cooling & Plumbing8%
Replacement
“our ac is 15 years old and keeps breaking. who should we get quotes from in your city for a new system”
1. 1. Airco Air Conditioning, Electrical and Plumbing35%
2. 2. Koala Cooling & Plumbing35%
3. 3. Advanced Air Conditioning + Heating28%
Replacement
“thinking about switching to a heat pump in your city. which companies actually know heat pumps and arent just pushing whatever they have in stock”
1. 1. Advanced Air Conditioning + Heating23%
2. 2. McCullough Heating, Air Conditioning & Plumbing21%
3. 3. Intelligent Air Services, LLC (iAir)19%
Maintenance
“who does ac tune ups in your city? want it checked before summer”
1. 1. Austin Air Conditioning32%
2. 2. A-Plus Air Conditioning & Home Solutions31%
3. 3. Aire Serv27%
Maintenance
“is an hvac maintenance plan worth it? who has a good one near me”
1. 1. Austex Air Conditioning & Heating13%
2. 2. Advanced Air Conditioning + Heating9%
3. 3. Casa Mechanical Services7%
Cost
“how much does a new ac unit cost in your city? who gives fair quotes”
1. 1. Koala Cooling & Plumbing21%
2. 2. Advanced Air Conditioning + Heating19%
3. 3. Casa Mechanical Services15%
Cost
“got quoted $14k for a new hvac system in your city and that seems crazy high. who can i get a second opinion from”
1. 1. Excellence HVAC37%
2. 2. Austin Air Conditioning32%
3. 3. Precision Heating & Air20%
Trust
“looking for an honest ac repair guy in your city who wont try to sell me a whole new system when it just needs a part”
1. 1. Honest Air Conditioning and Plumbing31%
2. 2. McCullough Heating, Air Conditioning & Plumbing15%
3. 3. Advanced Air Conditioning + Heating12%
Trust
“hvac companies near me with actually good reviews, not fake ones”
1. 1. Advanced Air Conditioning + Heating9%
2. 2. McCullough Heating, Air Conditioning & Plumbing8%
3. 3. Britton Service Group4%
Specific needs
“we have a 1970s house in your city with old ductwork and some rooms never get cool. who fixes duct problems”
1. 1. Christianson Air Conditioning19%
2. 2. Precision Heating & Air17%
3. 3. Austin Air Conditioning13%
Specific needs
“need a new ac but cant pay for it all at once. who does hvac financing in your city”
1. 1. Advanced Air Conditioning + Heating39%
2. 2. AIRSTRIKE HVAC29%
3. 3. ABA Heating and Cooling28%
Specific needs
“small office building in your city, the rooftop units need service. which hvac companies do commercial and not just houses”
1. 1. CG Service Pros53%
2. 2. Schneider Mechanical29%
3. 3. Setpoint Services25%

How we measured

Same questions, asked again and again.

AI assistants rarely give the same list twice, so one screenshot proves nothing. We asked each question 5 times per assistant per city with web search on, plus once from memory, and counted how often each company came up.

Answers come from each company's API (ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, Meta AI), not their consumer apps, and can differ from what the apps show.
Each question is asked several times per engine because AI answers vary; rates are the share of answers naming a business, with 95% ranges.
Only real, verified businesses located in Travis, Williamson or Hays county that do HVAC work are listed. Every answer still counts in the totals, including ones that named businesses we couldn't verify.
"With web search" answers are the main score. "Without search" shows what each AI knows from training alone.

Assistant	Model tested	Location given
ChatGPT	gpt-5-nano	City setting + question
Gemini	gemini-3.1-flash-lite	City in the question
Perplexity	perplexity/sonar	City setting + question
Claude	claude-haiku-5-5	City setting + question
Meta AI	muse-spark-1.3-contributor	City setting + question

Collected Oct 8 and Oct 9 with Spot, CloseDog's tracking tool. 20 questions, 1,800 answers in total.

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