Query fan-out tool
The short answer
Query fan-out is what an AI engine does with a question before it answers: the engine turns the question into several web searches and reads the pages they return. Type a buyer question. This query fan-out tool sends it to ChatGPT with web search on and shows the searches ChatGPT launched, word for word.
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The searches, in the order ChatGPT ran them
Questions about query fan-out
What is query fan-out?
Query fan-out is the step between a question and an AI answer. The engine does not search your question as you typed it: it writes several web searches of its own, reads the pages they return, then answers from those pages.
Why do these searches matter?
The pages an engine reads are the pages those searches return. If your pages do not come up for them, the engine does not read you for that question. The AI visibility checker shows whether ChatGPT and Claude name your brand on 5 buyer questions.
Are these the real searches or a guess?
The searches are real. ChatGPT’s interface for developers returns each web search it ran along with its answer, and the tool prints them as received. Nothing is generated. We add 1 instruction to your question: answer as you would for a buyer, and name companies.
Will I get the same searches every time?
Not always. AI answers change from one run to the next, and so can the searches behind them. This tool shows 1 run, and the same question asked again within 24 hours shows the same result.
Which engine does the tool ask?
The tool asks ChatGPT, with web search on, 1 time per question. Claude, Perplexity and Gemini write their own searches, and this tool does not show them. For Google, the AI Overview checker shows the AI Overview of a search expression and the pages it cites.