The Direct Index
Compare · restaurants and fast food · as of 2026-10-14

Chicago or San Francisco: 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. San Francisco: 1,149 business websites scanned, 67% take a booking or an order on their own site, 40% turn an AI crawler away, 40% score A or B. Numbers as of 2026-10-14.

ChicagoSan Francisco
Business websites scanned1,568 of 1,730 with a site1,149 of 1,269 with a site
Take a booking or an order on their own site66% of 1,150 reachable67% of 856 reachable
Turn an AI crawler away at the edge45% of 1,150 reachable40% of 856 reachable
Score A or B38% 603 sites40% 463 sites
Chicago · United States

A 235 · B 368 · C 245 · D 152 · F 568

San Francisco · United States

A 188 · B 275 · C 175 · D 94 · F 417

Shares are over the reachable sites of each index, latest scan of each; A or B over all scanned. Methodology · Markdown · JSON · All cities ranked.

Findings

What the index found in each city

Menu or price list
ChicagoSan Francisco
HTML page65% 75164% 544
none26% 29528% 239
PDF5% 633% 28
elsewhere3% 365% 40
image0% 51% 5
Direct booking or ordering
ChicagoSan Francisco
own site41% 47441% 355
vendor on own site25% 28225% 216
none22% 25824% 206
third party8% 967% 56
marketplace3% 403% 23
Site builder
ChicagoSan Francisco
Unknown38% 44238% 324
WordPress28% 32421% 177
Squarespace17% 19522% 185
BentoBox6% 717% 60
Wix3% 325% 47
Webflow3% 382% 17
Weebly2% 273% 28
Booking and ordering vendors
ChicagoSan Francisco
Toast201135
OpenTable12166
DoorDash Storefront5751
ChowNow3213
Resy2322
BentoBox2215
Square037
SevenRooms230
Tock230
DoorDash08

Menu, channel and builder shares are over the reachable sites (1,150 in Chicago, 856 in San Francisco). 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.

AssistantChicago: about a businessSan Francisco: about a businessChicago: asked the way people askSan Francisco: asked the way people ask
ChatGPTnot askednot asked100% of 31 placesnot asked
Gemininot askednot asked100% of 36 placesnot asked
Month by month

Chicago / San Francisco, month by month

Each cell reads Chicago / San Francisco. A month is final once it ends; the current month updates hourly. Each city's dated pages: Chicago, San Francisco.

MonthSites scannedBook or order on their own siteTurn a crawler awayScore A or B
October 2026 so far1,729 / 1,26866% / 67%45% / 40%603 / 463
More

Keep comparing

United States: every city · Rankings · Pick two other cities · Chicago on a map · San Francisco on a map