---
title: Chicago vs Los Angeles: which city's businesses can AI agents use? · The Direct Index
url: https://directindex.org/compare/chicago/los-angeles?format=md
---

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 [Compare](https://directindex.org/compare) · restaurants and fast food · as of 2026-10-14

# Chicago or Los Angeles: whose businesses can AI agents use?

Chicago: 1,568 business websites scanned, 66% take a booking or an order on their own site, 45% turn an AI crawler away, 38% score A or B. Los Angeles: 1,511 business websites scanned, 64% take a booking or an order on their own site, 41% turn an AI crawler away, 37% score A or B. Numbers as of 2026-10-14.

| | Chicago | Los Angeles |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Business websites scanned | 1,568 of 1,730 with a site | 1,511 of 1,694 with a site |
| Take a booking or an order on their own site | **66%** of 1,150 reachable | 64% of 1,148 reachable |
| Turn an AI crawler away at the edge | 45% of 1,150 reachable | **41%** of 1,148 reachable |
| Score A or B | **38%** 603 sites | 37% 561 sites |

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

A 235 · B 368 · C 245 · D 152 · F 568

[Los Angeles](https://directindex.org/city/los-angeles) · [United States](https://directindex.org/country/us)
**********

A 205 · B 356 · C 272 · D 149 · F 529

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/chicago/los-angeles?format=md) · [JSON](https://directindex.org/api/compare/chicago/los-angeles) · [All cities ranked](https://directindex.org/rankings?kind=restaurants).

 Findings

## What the index found in each city

Menu or price list

| | Chicago | Los Angeles |
| --- | --- | --- |
| HTML page | 65% 751 | 64% 729 |
| none | 26% 295 | 31% 353 |
| PDF | 5% 63 | 3% 30 |
| elsewhere | 3% 36 | 3% 35 |
| image | 0% 5 | 0% 0 |
| on the page | 0% 0 | 0% 1 |

Direct booking or ordering

| | Chicago | Los Angeles |
| --- | --- | --- |
| own site | 41% 474 | 43% 491 |
| none | 22% 258 | 25% 292 |
| vendor on own site | 25% 282 | 21% 238 |
| third party | 8% 96 | 7% 81 |
| marketplace | 3% 40 | 4% 46 |

Site builder

| | Chicago | Los Angeles |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Unknown | 38% 442 | 38% 438 |
| WordPress | 28% 324 | 27% 308 |
| Squarespace | 17% 195 | 15% 170 |
| BentoBox | 6% 71 | 5% 56 |
| Wix | 3% 32 | 5% 53 |
| Webflow | 3% 38 | 3% 39 |
| Weebly | 2% 27 | 3% 33 |

Booking and ordering vendors

| | Chicago | Los Angeles |
| --- | --- | --- |
| [Toast](https://directindex.org/vendors/toast) | 201 | 130 |
| [OpenTable](https://directindex.org/vendors/opentable) | 121 | 55 |
| [DoorDash Storefront](https://directindex.org/vendors/doordash_storefront) | 57 | 47 |
| [ChowNow](https://directindex.org/vendors/chownow) | 32 | 36 |
| [Resy](https://directindex.org/vendors/resy) | 23 | 32 |
| [BentoBox](https://directindex.org/vendors/bentobox) | 22 | 12 |
| [SevenRooms](https://directindex.org/vendors/sevenrooms) | 23 | 0 |
| [Tock](https://directindex.org/vendors/tock) | 23 | 0 |
| [Square](https://directindex.org/vendors/square) | 0 | 17 |
| [DoorDash](https://directindex.org/vendors/doordash) | 0 | 14 |

Menu, channel and builder shares are over the reachable sites (1,150 in Chicago, 1,148 in Los Angeles). 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 | Chicago: about a business | Los Angeles: about a business | Chicago: asked the way people ask | Los Angeles: asked the way people ask |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| ChatGPT | not asked | not asked | 100% of 31 places | not asked |
| Gemini | not asked | not asked | 100% of 36 places | not asked |

 Month by month

## Chicago / Los Angeles, month by month

Each cell reads Chicago / Los Angeles. A month is final once it ends; the current month updates hourly. Each city's dated pages: [Chicago](https://directindex.org/city/chicago), [Los Angeles](https://directindex.org/city/los-angeles).

| Month | Sites scanned | Book or order on their own site | Turn a crawler away | Score A or B |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| October 2026 so far | 1,729 / 1,692 | 66% / 64% | 45% / 41% | 603 / 561 |

 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) · [Chicago on a map](https://directindex.org/city/chicago/map) · [Los Angeles on a map](https://directindex.org/city/los-angeles/map)

#### The Direct Index

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#### 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.

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