Does Meta AI recommend your brand?
See the answer, its sources and the rivals it names.
Meta AI answers questions inside WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook, on Meta's Muse Spark model, searching the web when it needs to. Referenced asks it your customers' questions and shows whether you're named.
Scans daily · Add-on from $29/month
1B
people used Meta AI every month across Meta's apps, Mark Zuckerberg said in May 2025.
6+
apps where Meta AI answers, from WhatsApp and Instagram to Facebook, Messenger, Threads and meta.ai.
Public figures, dates as stated.
How Meta AI decides what to say
Meta AI lives inside apps people already use every day. Meta says less than most about how it picks sources. Four things shape what it tells your customers.
It searches when it needs to
Meta AI can turn a question into a search and send it to search engines Meta doesn't name. Meta also runs its own crawler, Meta-WebIndexer, to improve Meta AI's search results.
Its sources sit under the answer
A Sources button under the answer lists the pages Meta AI drew on. Being one of them is how your own pages get in front of the person asking.
It draws on Meta's own apps too
Meta AI's new shopping mode, US first, recommends products and brands from Instagram, Facebook and Threads, and searches Marketplace. So your social accounts can shape answers as well as your website.
The answer changes from day to day
Ask the same question on two days and Meta AI can name different brands, because the pages its searches find change. One check tells you little. A daily trend tells you where you stand. Meta AI can also use what someone has shared and liked on Meta's apps.
The detail, step by step: What is GEO? Generative Engine Optimisation, explained
What tracking Meta AI shows you
Meta AI
Scanned 06:00
Yes, a few. Kettleworks rents you a machine with the beans. Acme sends freshly roasted coffee and lets you pause whenever you like, and Brewfolk has the most blends to try.
Brands in this answer
See what Meta AI says about your brand.
Your answers, the pages they cite and how often you're named, checked against your competitors.
How to rank in Meta AI
The tagged ones come from Meta's own documentation and announcements. The rest improve your odds without a guarantee, which is why it pays to measure.
Meta documents this
Let Meta's search crawler in
Meta says allowing Meta-WebIndexer helps Meta AI cite and link to your pages. Check your robots.txt and firewall don't block it. A robots.txt change can take up to 24 hours to reach Meta.
Improves your odds
Be on the pages it cites
Meta AI writes from what its searches return and lists those pages under Sources. Look at the pages it cites when it names a rival, and get your business covered there.
Meta documents this
Keep your Instagram and Facebook active
Meta AI's shopping mode, US first, recommends brands from public posts on Instagram, Facebook and Threads, and people can @-mention a brand to browse its posts. A public, current account gives it something to draw on.
Improves your odds
Make sure the big search engines have you
Meta hasn't said which search engines Meta AI uses today. When it added live web results in 2024, they came from Google and Bing. A page neither has indexed is unlikely to come back in its searches.
Improves your odds
Meta documents this
Meta AI questions, answered.
How do I track whether Meta AI recommends my brand? + −
Ask it the questions your customers ask, many times over, and measure whether you're named, in what position, which competitors it names instead and which pages it cites. Referenced does this through Meta's API. Meta AI is a premium add-on from $29 a month where it is offered. ChatGPT, AI Overviews and Perplexity are on every plan.
Is Meta AI the same as Muse Spark? + −
Not quite. Meta AI is the assistant inside WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, Messenger, Threads and meta.ai. Muse Spark is the model behind it, which Meta launched in April 2026 to replace Llama. Neither is Meta Spark, the augmented-reality effects studio Meta closed in January 2025.
Does Meta AI use Google or Bing? + −
Meta doesn't say any more. When Meta AI started answering with live web results in 2024, it used both Google and Bing. Today Meta says only that it sends searches to "select search engines", and it runs its own crawler, Meta-WebIndexer, to improve Meta AI's search results. Being indexed by Google and Bing still helps.
Should I block Meta's AI crawlers? + −
Only if you're happy to be left out of Meta AI's answers. Meta-WebIndexer feeds Meta AI's search results, and Meta says allowing it helps Meta AI cite and link to you. Meta-ExternalAgent collects content for uses such as training its models. You can block each one separately in robots.txt, and changes take up to 24 hours.
Can you pay to be recommended by Meta AI? + −
Not today, as far as Meta has announced. Meta sells ads in Facebook and Instagram feeds, not inside Meta AI's answers. Outside the UK and EU, it does use people's Meta AI chats to choose which ads they see elsewhere. To appear in the answer itself, your business needs to be on the pages and posts it draws on.
Does Referenced track Meta AI inside WhatsApp or Instagram? + −
No. Referenced asks Muse Spark your tracked questions through Meta's API, with web search on. That shows how Meta's model answers from the web. It can't see private chats, and it doesn't include the personalised or shopping answers someone might get inside WhatsApp, Instagram or Facebook, which draw on their own account.
Further reading
All articles →What is GEO? Generative Engine Optimisation, explained
GEO means getting your business named in the answers AI tools give, such as ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews. What it is, how it differs from SEO, and how you check it.
Read →LLM SEO: where AI gets what it says about your business
What AI reads before it describes your brand, what our scan data shows about where its sources come from, and which popular LLM SEO tactics you can skip.
Read →AI citations: what a link in an answer actually tells you
A link in an AI answer isn't a ranking, a click or an endorsement. Here's what it does tell you, with data from our own scans on how often citations change and how rarely they come with a recommendation.
Read →Track every AI engine
ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and Perplexity come with every plan. Add the others when your customers use them.
How visible is your brand in AI answers?
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