Query fan-out tool
See the web searches ChatGPT and Claude run to answer a question. Instead of asking a language model to guess them, GEOFast puts your question to ChatGPT's app, as a signed-out visitor in the US, and to Claude with web search, and reads the searches each actually ran and the pages each cited.
Ask a question, see what ChatGPT and Claude searched.
Write the question the way a buyer would ask it, before they know your name. Each engine's searches, the pages it cited and its answer show beside it.
How the query fan-out tool works.
- 01
Asks ChatGPT and Claude your question
Once each, at the same time: ChatGPT through its app as a signed-out visitor in the US sees it, read by our data provider, and Claude through its API with web search, as a visitor in the US. That's how GEOFast's tracking reads each of them.
- 02
Reads the searches each ran
ChatGPT's app keeps its own record of each web search it made while answering, and Claude names each search it runs; both in order. If ChatGPT's app doesn't answer within a minute, its API answers with web search on, and the result says so.
- 03
Lists the pages each cited
Each page's title and site, linked, with the engine's answer under them, all shown as the engine gave them. A switch moves between ChatGPT's and Claude's.
- 04
Keeps it for seven days
Anyone who asks the same question in the next seven days gets that answer at once. Then the question and answer are deleted.
Query fan-out, as Google describes it.
Google's description
Google says AI Overviews and AI Mode may use a query fan-out technique, issuing multiple related searches across subtopics and data sources, and find more supporting pages while a response is written.[1] How fan-out shapes AI Overviews
What each verdict means.
- Searches
Each web search the engine ran, in its own words. A page that answers them is one it could find while answering.
- No search
The engine answered from what it already knew. Asked another day, it may search.
- Cited pages
The pages it linked as sources. Being cited isn't being recommended: an answer can link a page and name another brand.
- Through the API
ChatGPT's app didn't answer in time, so its API answered with web search on. API answers can differ from the app's. Claude is always asked through its API.
Questions about the Query fan-out tool for ChatGPT and Claude.
What is query fan-out?
The web searches an AI engine runs to answer one question: it splits the question into several searches, reads what comes back and writes one answer from it. Google uses the term for AI Overviews and AI Mode. ChatGPT's app records the searches it runs, and Claude names each one, which this tool shows side by side. Fan-out in AI Overviews
Are these the searches the engines really ran, or a guess?
The ones they ran. The tool reads ChatGPT's searches from its own record of answering your question, and Claude's from the searches it calls while answering; no model is asked to imagine them. Ask again and they can differ, as the answers can. Why answers change
Why did an engine run no searches?
ChatGPT and Claude answer some questions from what they already know, without searching the web. Then there are no searches to show, and usually no cited pages either.
How do I use the searches for my pages?
Check that a page of yours answers each search in the words it uses, and that the engines' search crawlers, OAI-SearchBot for ChatGPT and Claude-SearchBot for Claude, may crawl your site. Get cited by ChatGPT
Why ChatGPT and Claude, and not Gemini or Perplexity?
Those two say which searches they ran: ChatGPT's app keeps a record of them, and Claude names each search it calls. Gemini's app doesn't show its searches, and Perplexity reports only how many it ran. On GEOFast's paid plans, the Sources page shows the searches for every tracked prompt, from each engine that reports them.
Do you keep the questions I ask?
For seven days, so the next person who asks the same question gets the answer at once, with a salted hash of your IP address to count your five a day. Then the question and answer are deleted.
Is the query fan-out tool free?
Yes, with no account: five new questions a day, and any question someone asked in the last seven days at once.
Where each fact comes from.
Google's page was read on October 20, 2026. Google changes it, so check it before you act.
- 1Google: AI Features and Your Websitedevelopers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/ai-features
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