---
title: Boston vs New York: which city's businesses can AI agents use? · The Direct Index
url: https://directindex.org/compare/boston/new-york?format=md
---

[The Direct Index](https://directindex.org/)
[Scanner](https://directindex.org/scan)[Cities](https://directindex.org/cities)[Rankings](https://directindex.org/rankings)[Search](https://directindex.org/search)[Guides](https://directindex.org/guides)[About](https://directindex.org/about)

 [Compare](https://directindex.org/compare) · restaurants and fast food · as of 2026-10-15

# Boston or New York: whose businesses can AI agents use?

Boston: 839 business websites scanned, 66% take a booking or an order on their own site, 35% turn an AI crawler away, 41% score A or B. New York: 3,790 business websites scanned, 58% take a booking or an order on their own site, 31% turn an AI crawler away, 41% score A or B. Numbers as of 2026-10-15.

| | Boston | New York |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Business websites scanned | 839 of 930 with a site | 3,790 of 19,107 with a site |
| Take a booking or an order on their own site | **66%** of 665 reachable | 58% of 3,154 reachable |
| Turn an AI crawler away at the edge | 35% of 665 reachable | **31%** of 3,154 reachable |
| Score A or B | 41% 341 sites | 41% 1,562 sites |

[Boston](https://directindex.org/city/boston) · [United States](https://directindex.org/country/us)
**********

A 142 · B 199 · C 145 · D 95 · F 258

[New York](https://directindex.org/city/new-york) · [United States](https://directindex.org/country/us)
**********

A 593 · B 969 · C 665 · D 452 · F 1111

Shares are over the reachable sites of each index, latest scan of each; A or B over all scanned. [Methodology](https://directindex.org/methodology) · [Markdown](https://directindex.org/compare/boston/new-york?format=md) · [JSON](https://directindex.org/api/compare/boston/new-york) · [All cities ranked](https://directindex.org/rankings?kind=restaurants).

 Findings

## What the index found in each city

Menu or price list

| | Boston | New York |
| --- | --- | --- |
| HTML page | 63% 417 | 64% 2,031 |
| none | 28% 185 | 28% 871 |
| elsewhere | 5% 33 | 4% 123 |
| PDF | 4% 28 | 4% 113 |
| image | 0% 2 | 0% 14 |
| on the page | 0% 0 | 0% 2 |

Direct booking or ordering

| | Boston | New York |
| --- | --- | --- |
| own site | 43% 285 | 39% 1,242 |
| none | 24% 159 | 23% 734 |
| vendor on own site | 23% 153 | 19% 600 |
| third party | 7% 46 | 12% 378 |
| marketplace | 3% 22 | 6% 200 |

Site builder

| | Boston | New York |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Unknown | 40% 269 | 40% 1,269 |
| WordPress | 22% 149 | 19% 607 |
| Squarespace | 18% 122 | 17% 544 |
| BentoBox | 10% 64 | 9% 278 |
| Wix | 5% 30 | 6% 187 |
| GoDaddy Website Builder | 0% 3 | 2% 68 |
| Weebly | 2% 13 | 2% 52 |

Booking and ordering vendors

| | Boston | New York |
| --- | --- | --- |
| [Toast](https://directindex.org/vendors/toast) | 137 | 328 |
| [Resy](https://directindex.org/vendors/resy) | 28 | 274 |
| [OpenTable](https://directindex.org/vendors/opentable) | 52 | 155 |
| [BentoBox](https://directindex.org/vendors/bentobox) | 18 | 115 |
| [DoorDash Storefront](https://directindex.org/vendors/doordash_storefront) | 24 | 107 |
| [ChowNow](https://directindex.org/vendors/chownow) | 9 | 89 |
| [Square](https://directindex.org/vendors/square) | 7 | 87 |
| [Grubhub](https://directindex.org/vendors/grubhub) | 5 | 73 |

Menu, channel and builder shares are over the reachable sites (665 in Boston, 3,154 in New York). Vendor counts are sites whose booking or ordering runs through that vendor, direct or marketplace, from the daily vendor pass.

 Assistants

## Where the assistants send people

Asked, with web search on, about the top-ranked businesses (the website, where to book, where to order) and the way people ask ("best pizza delivered tonight"). The share of answers that pointed to the business's own site or a direct vendor. Measured in the cities on the probe schedule; "not asked" elsewhere.

| Assistant | Boston: about a business | New York: about a business | Boston: asked the way people ask | New York: asked the way people ask |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| ChatGPT | not asked | not asked | 94% of 34 places | not asked |
| Gemini | not asked | not asked | 88% of 32 places | not asked |

 Month by month

## Boston / New York, month by month

Each cell reads Boston / New York. A month is final once it ends; the current month updates hourly. Each city's dated pages: [Boston](https://directindex.org/city/boston), [New York](https://directindex.org/city/new-york).

| Month | Sites scanned | Book or order on their own site | Turn a crawler away | Score A or B |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| October 2026 so far | 930 / 4,308 | 66% / 58% | 35% / 31% | 341 / 1,562 |

 More

## Keep comparing

[United States: every city](https://directindex.org/country/us) · [Rankings](https://directindex.org/rankings?kind=restaurants) · [Pick two other cities](https://directindex.org/compare) · [Boston on a map](https://directindex.org/city/boston/map) · [New York on a map](https://directindex.org/city/new-york/map)

#### The Direct Index

[Why direct](https://directindex.org/why)[What agent-direct means](https://directindex.org/agent-direct)[About and principles](https://directindex.org/about)[Methodology](https://directindex.org/methodology)[Privacy](https://directindex.org/privacy)[Terms](https://directindex.org/terms)

#### Use it

[Free scanner](https://directindex.org/scan)[City indexes](https://directindex.org/cities)[Search the index](https://directindex.org/search)[Rankings](https://directindex.org/rankings)[What assistants recommend](https://directindex.org/assistants)[Ask the index](https://directindex.org/ask)

#### Vendors and help

[Booking and ordering vendors](https://directindex.org/vendors)[Do their terms allow agents?](https://directindex.org/vendors/terms)[Vendor verification](https://directindex.org/vendors/verification)[Website builders](https://directindex.org/builders)[Who can fix this](https://directindex.org/providers)[For agencies](https://directindex.org/agency)

#### For agents

[llms.txt](https://directindex.org/llms.txt)[llms-full.txt](https://directindex.org/llms-full.txt)[OpenAPI](https://directindex.org/openapi.json)[MCP server](https://directindex.org/.well-known/mcp/server-card.json)[A2A agent](https://directindex.org/.well-known/agent-card.json)[Direct feeds](https://directindex.org/direct.json)

#### Data

[Open data, CSV and JSON](https://directindex.org/data)[The quarterly edition](https://directindex.org/editions)[City data, JSON and Markdown](https://directindex.org/cities)[Sitemap](https://directindex.org/sitemap.xml)

Business listings from OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL. Scores under the same licence.

```json
{"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://directindex.org/#org","name":"The Direct Index","url":"https://directindex.org/","logo":"https://directindex.org/favicon.svg","founder":{"@type":"Person","name":"Antonio Curado"},"description":"Independent measurement of whether AI agents can find, read and act on a business's own website."},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://directindex.org/#site","url":"https://directindex.org/","name":"The Direct Index","publisher":{"@id":"https://directindex.org/#org"},"inLanguage":"en","potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://directindex.org/scan?url={url}"},"query-input":"required name=url"}},{"@type":"WebAPI","name":"The Direct Index API","url":"https://directindex.org/openapi.json","documentation":"https://directindex.org/llms-full.txt","provider":{"@id":"https://directindex.org/#org"}}]}
{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Dataset","name":"Boston vs New York: which city's businesses can AI agents use?","url":"https://directindex.org/compare/boston/new-york","description":"Boston: 839 business websites scanned, 66% take a booking or an order on their own site, 35% turn an AI crawler away, 41% score A or B. New York: 3,790 business websites scanned, 58% take a booking or an order on their own site, 31% turn an AI crawler away, 41% score A or B. Numbers as of 2026-10-15.","license":"https://opendatacommons.org/licenses/odbl/1-0/","creator":{"@id":"https://directindex.org/#org"},"isPartOf":{"@id":"https://directindex.org/#site"},"distribution":[{"@type":"DataDownload","encodingFormat":"application/json","contentUrl":"https://directindex.org/api/compare/boston/new-york"},{"@type":"DataDownload","encodingFormat":"text/markdown","contentUrl":"https://directindex.org/compare/boston/new-york?format=md"}]}
```