Who does AI recommend for plumbers in Houston?

In our October 2026 check, Perplexity and Gemini named Abacus Plumbing (15 of 20 checks), Texas Quality Plumbing (12 of 20 checks) and Nick's Plumbing & Sewer Service, Inc. (10 of 20 checks) most often across 10 buyer questions asked three times each.

Do Perplexity and Gemini recommend the same plumbers?

Only partly. 16 of the 60 plumbers named were named by both. Perplexity named Abacus Plumbing most (9 of 10 questions); Gemini named Texas Quality Plumbing most (9 of 10 questions).

Which websites does AI cite for plumbers in Houston?

The most-cited sites were angi.com (36 of 60 answers), texasqualityplumbing.com (28 of 60 answers) and thumbtack.com (28 of 60 answers). Of all 736 citations, 48.9% went to company websites, 30.3% to directories and review sites and 12.0% to best-of lists.

Was ChatGPT measured?

Not measured in this edition: our OpenAI API credit was at $0 when the answers were collected, so no ChatGPT number is shown or estimated.

How was this measured?

We asked Perplexity and Gemini the same 10 buyer questions through their APIs, three times each (October 2, 2026). A plumber counts as named when its name is written in the answer itself in at least 2 of the 3 runs; a link alone does not count. Every answer and citation is published as JSON.

← All industries

Original research · October 2, 2026

Who AI recommends for plumbers in Houston, and which sources it cites

We asked Perplexity and Gemini 10 questions a homeowner in Houston would ask, three times each (60 answers, October 2, 2026). Abacus Plumbing was named most: in 15 of 20 question checks. 60 plumbers were named on at least one check. The most-cited site was angi.com, in 36 of 60 answers. ChatGPT was not measured in this edition.

By Matt Turley60 answers736 citations10 questionsPerplexity and GeminiChatGPT not measured

Every answer as JSON ↓How we measured it Cite this

Table 1 · Who gets named

The plumbers AI named

A check is one question on one AI tool, asked three times. A plumber counts on a check when it was named in at least 2 of the three answers. Perplexity and Gemini together make 20 checks.

plumbers in Houston named by majority, October 2026 (top 15 of 60)
#	Business	Checks named (of 20)	Perplexity (of 10)	Gemini (of 10)	Answers naming it (of 60)
1	Abacus Plumbing	15	9	6	41
2	Texas Quality Plumbing	12	3	9	36
3	Nick's Plumbing & Sewer Service, Inc.	10	3	7	30
4	Roto-Rooter	10	4	6	28
5	John Moore Services	8	5	3	24
6	Belknap Plumbing Systems	5	2	3	14
7	Wedgeworth Plumbing	4	3	1	14
8	Santhoff Plumbing	4	1	3	12
9	Village Plumbing, Air & Electric	4	2	2	12
10	Plumbing System Pros	3	1	2	12
11	Eco-Plumber	3	0	3	12
12	The Houston Plumbing Company	2	1	1	8
13	Zoom Drain	2	1	1	7
14	Texans Water Heater	2	1	1	6
15	Hot Water Guys	2	1	1	5

Small sample, read it as a snapshot: 10 questions, two AI tools, three runs each, on October 2, 2026. A lead of one or two checks is within the run-to-run noise. This says nothing about the quality of anyone's work, and a plumber missing here was simply not named in most runs of these answers.

Table 2 · By AI tool

Perplexity and Gemini only partly agree

16 of the 60 plumbers named were named by both tools. The rest were named by one tool only.

Each AI tool on the same 10 questions
AI tool	Answers	Named by majority	Named most	Citations per answer
Perplexity sonar	30	32	Abacus Plumbing (9 of 10 questions, 90.0%)	16.9
Gemini gemini-2.5-flash	30	44	Texas Quality Plumbing (9 of 10 questions, 90.0%)	7.6
ChatGPT	Not measured in this edition

Chart · Source types

What the answers read before they name anyone

Every site an answer cited, counted once per answer and sorted by type with the same rules as our September study of AI answer sources.

Both tools736 citations

49%30%12%

Perplexity508 citations · 16.9 per answer

44%30%15%

Gemini228 citations · 7.6 per answer

60%31%

Company websites Directories and review sites Best-of lists and comparisons Reddit, forums, social and video News, docs and reference

Table 3 · Top cited sites

The 15 sites cited most

Counted as answers citing the site at least once, out of 60. These are the pages to be on.

angi.comDirectories and review sites36 60.0%

texasqualityplumbing.comCompany websites28 46.7%

thumbtack.comDirectories and review sites28 46.7%

rotorooter.comBest-of lists and comparisons27 45.0%

nicksplumbing.comCompany websites25 41.7%

bestpickreports.comDirectories and review sites24 40.0%

chron.comBest-of lists and comparisons24 40.0%

forbes.comNews, docs and reference22 36.7%

abacusplumbing.netCompany websites21 35.0%

consumeraffairs.comDirectories and review sites21 35.0%

johnmooreservices.comCompany websites21 35.0%

homeadvisor.comDirectories and review sites19 31.7%

homeguide.comDirectories and review sites19 31.7%

bbb.orgDirectories and review sites18 30.0%

newsbreak.comCompany websites18 30.0%

Answers citing each site, by AI tool
Site	Type	Perplexity (of 30)	Gemini (of 30)
angi.com	Directories and review sites	18	18
texasqualityplumbing.com	Company websites	12	16
thumbtack.com	Directories and review sites	21	7
rotorooter.com	Best-of lists and comparisons	18	9
nicksplumbing.com	Company websites	18	7
bestpickreports.com	Directories and review sites	18	6
chron.com	Best-of lists and comparisons	24	0
forbes.com	News, docs and reference	15	7
abacusplumbing.net	Company websites	15	6
consumeraffairs.com	Directories and review sites	12	9
johnmooreservices.com	Company websites	14	7
homeadvisor.com	Directories and review sites	9	10
homeguide.com	Directories and review sites	0	19
bbb.org	Directories and review sites	18	0
newsbreak.com	Company websites	18	0

What to do with it

If you run a plumber in Houston

Your customers already ask these AI tools who to call. The answers above are what they get back. The plumbers named are the ones whose names show up on the sites the AI reads: the directories, review sites and best-of lists in Table 3, plus their own websites.

So start with the sites in Table 3. Make sure you are listed on the directories and review sites there, with your name written the same way everywhere. Find out who wrote the best-of lists and whether you belong on them. Then make your own site say plainly what you do, where you work and why people pick you, in the words a homeowner uses.

Do not judge from one answer. The names move from run to run, which is why every check here is three runs and a name only counts when it shows up in most of them.

See your own business

Are you one of the plumbers AI names?

This page covers the whole city. The AI Answer Check runs the same test on your own business: the questions your customers ask, three runs each on ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini, whether you are named, who is named instead, and the three fixes worth the most. I read every report before it goes out.

AI Answer Check, $299 →Or book a 20-minute call

Method

How we measured it

The 10 questions (frozen for this edition)

best plumber in Houston
who is the best plumbing company in Houston
emergency plumber in Houston for a burst pipe, who should I call
top rated plumber in Houston TX
best company for water heater replacement in Houston
best plumber for slab leak repair in Houston
best drain cleaning and sewer line company in Houston
affordable plumber in Houston with good reviews
family owned plumbing company in Houston
recommend an honest plumber in Houston that won't overcharge me

AI tools

Perplexity: Perplexity API, sonar model, live web search; cited URLs from the citations field. 30 answers.
Gemini: Google Vertex AI, gemini-2.5-flash with Google Search grounding; cited URLs from grounding chunks. 30 answers.
ChatGPT: Not measured in this edition: our OpenAI API credit was at $0 when the answers were collected, so no ChatGPT number is shown or estimated.

These are the APIs, not the consumer apps. Nobody was signed in and there was no system prompt: the question was the whole input. Each question went to each tool three times on October 2, 2026.

Who counts as named

A list of the businesses the answers recommend was built first by reading every answer. Then each answer was checked for each name in its text, with links and citation chips removed, so a cited link alone never counts. Spelling variants count as one name: curly or straight apostrophes, hyphen variants, and “&” or “and”. A name counts on a question and tool when it appears in at least 2 of the three runs. Directories, review sites and platforms are never ranked.

Sources

A citation is a URL the API itself returns as a source (Perplexity's citations list, Gemini's grounding sources resolved from Google's redirect links). Each site counts once per answer. Source types come from a written rulebook, not a person reading every page, so some pages land in the wrong group, mostly between company sites, blogs and lists.

Data

Every run, with its timestamp, tool, model, question, full answer text and citations, is in the JSON file for this page (60 of 60 answers stored in full). Questions with ChatGPT, and more cities, come in the next edition. Part of the Who AI recommends, 2026 series, with electrical work in Dallas, HVAC in Dallas, HVAC in Houston, plumbing in Dallas, roofing in Dallas and AI chatbots for websites.