---
title: Chicago vs San Francisco: which city's businesses can AI agents use? · The Direct Index
url: https://directindex.org/compare/chicago/san-francisco?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 2026-10-14

# 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.

| | Chicago | San Francisco |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Business websites scanned | 1,568 of 1,730 with a site | 1,149 of 1,269 with a site |
| Take a booking or an order on their own site | 66% of 1,150 reachable | **67%** of 856 reachable |
| Turn an AI crawler away at the edge | 45% of 1,150 reachable | **40%** of 856 reachable |
| Score A or B | 38% 603 sites | **40%** 463 sites |

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

A 235 · B 368 · C 245 · D 152 · F 568

[San Francisco](https://directindex.org/city/san-francisco) · [United States](https://directindex.org/country/us)
**********

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

 Findings

## What the index found in each city

Menu or price list

| | Chicago | San Francisco |
| --- | --- | --- |
| HTML page | 65% 751 | 64% 544 |
| none | 26% 295 | 28% 239 |
| PDF | 5% 63 | 3% 28 |
| elsewhere | 3% 36 | 5% 40 |
| image | 0% 5 | 1% 5 |

Direct booking or ordering

| | Chicago | San Francisco |
| --- | --- | --- |
| own site | 41% 474 | 41% 355 |
| vendor on own site | 25% 282 | 25% 216 |
| none | 22% 258 | 24% 206 |
| third party | 8% 96 | 7% 56 |
| marketplace | 3% 40 | 3% 23 |

Site builder

| | Chicago | San Francisco |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Unknown | 38% 442 | 38% 324 |
| WordPress | 28% 324 | 21% 177 |
| Squarespace | 17% 195 | 22% 185 |
| BentoBox | 6% 71 | 7% 60 |
| Wix | 3% 32 | 5% 47 |
| Webflow | 3% 38 | 2% 17 |
| Weebly | 2% 27 | 3% 28 |

Booking and ordering vendors

| | Chicago | San Francisco |
| --- | --- | --- |
| [Toast](https://directindex.org/vendors/toast) | 201 | 135 |
| [OpenTable](https://directindex.org/vendors/opentable) | 121 | 66 |
| [DoorDash Storefront](https://directindex.org/vendors/doordash_storefront) | 57 | 51 |
| [ChowNow](https://directindex.org/vendors/chownow) | 32 | 13 |
| [Resy](https://directindex.org/vendors/resy) | 23 | 22 |
| [BentoBox](https://directindex.org/vendors/bentobox) | 22 | 15 |
| [Square](https://directindex.org/vendors/square) | 0 | 37 |
| [SevenRooms](https://directindex.org/vendors/sevenrooms) | 23 | 0 |
| [Tock](https://directindex.org/vendors/tock) | 23 | 0 |
| [DoorDash](https://directindex.org/vendors/doordash) | 0 | 8 |

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.

| Assistant | Chicago: about a business | San Francisco: about a business | Chicago: asked the way people ask | San Francisco: 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 / 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](https://directindex.org/city/chicago), [San Francisco](https://directindex.org/city/san-francisco).

| Month | Sites scanned | Book or order on their own site | Turn a crawler away | Score A or B |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| October 2026 so far | 1,729 / 1,268 | 66% / 67% | 45% / 40% | 603 / 463 |

 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) · [San Francisco on a map](https://directindex.org/city/san-francisco/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":"Chicago vs San Francisco: which city's businesses can AI agents use?","url":"https://directindex.org/compare/chicago/san-francisco","description":"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.","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/chicago/san-francisco"},{"@type":"DataDownload","encodingFormat":"text/markdown","contentUrl":"https://directindex.org/compare/chicago/san-francisco?format=md"}]}
```