Which Seattle Plumbers Does AI Recommend? A 2026 Study

A snapshot of the names ChatGPT, Google AI Overview and Perplexity gave when we asked 21 everyday questions about plumbers in Seattle.

Study date: October 16, 2026 · Engines: ChatGPT, Google AI Overview, Perplexity · Location: Seattle, Washington · Questions: 21 · Names that came up: 31 as written (24 after combining variants of the same name: 23 plumbing businesses and 1 directory)

Key findings

• 31 names came up across 21 questions and three AI engines, for 145 mentions in total. After we combined variants of the same business’s name, that is 24 distinct names: 23 plumbing businesses with 143 mentions, plus one home-services directory with 2. None of the questions named a business.
• Two plumbers tied for the most mentions: Ben’s Plumbing & Drain Cleaning and Beacon Plumbing, with 17 each (11.9% of plumber mentions). 2 Sons Plumbing & Sewer (16) and Roto-Rooter (14) completed the top four.
• No name dominated. The top four took 64 of 143 plumber mentions (44.8%), and no single plumber passed 12%.
• Beacon Plumbing was never named first, despite its 17 mentions. Ben’s Plumbing & Drain Cleaning and 2 Sons Plumbing & Sewer were each named first 5 times, tied for the most with one name outside the top four.
• The other 19 plumbing businesses shared 79 mentions, between 2 and 13 each.
• The engines cited 362 sources. Of the ten most-cited domains, six were plumbing companies’ own websites, two were government sites (seattle.gov, 17 and Washington State Department of Labor & Industries, 11), and two were review and ranking sites.

This is the data the AI engines returned on October 16, 2026. It is not Beket AI’s opinion, and it is not a ranking of plumbing quality. AI answers change over time, so treat this as a snapshot.

Contents

1. Key findings
2. Context: why AI answers matter for plumbers
3. Methodology
4. Results: the names AI mentioned most
5. How concentrated the answers are
6. Differences by engine
7. Sources the engines cited
8. What this means for local plumbers
9. Limitations
10. Appendix: questions we asked
11. Request a re-run

Key findings

When we asked AI about plumbers in Seattle, the answers were spread across many names, with no clear leader.

Across 21 questions and three engines, 23 plumbing businesses came up. Two were tied at the top with 17 mentions each, and the top four together drew a little under half of all plumber mentions.

That spread is similar to our Seattle dentist study, where the most-mentioned clinic drew 12.1% of clinic mentions. It is flatter than our Seattle house cleaning study, where the top name drew 19.2%.

Context: why AI answers matter for plumbers

The figures in this section come from independent public sources, not from our audit. They show why the answers above are worth a look.

• About half of U.S. adults now use AI chatbots. In a February 2026 survey of 5,119 U.S. adults, Pew Research Center found that 49% say they ever use AI chatbots, and 44% say they use ChatGPT, up from 34% in 2025. The same survey found that 60% say they read AI summaries at the top of search results.
• People are asking AI for local businesses. In BrightLocal’s 2026 Local Consumer Review Survey of 1,002 U.S. adults, 45% said they had used AI tools for local business recommendations in the past 12 months, up from 6% the year before. Among those AI users, 97% said they sometimes double-check AI recommendations against real reviews.
• AI summaries change what people click, and they lean on government sites. Pew Research Center’s 2025 analysis of March 2025 browsing data found that Google users clicked a traditional search result in 8% of visits when an AI summary appeared, versus 15% when it did not. They clicked a link inside the summary in just 1% of visits. The same analysis found that 6% of sources linked in AI summaries were .gov sites, compared with 2% in standard results.
• Plumbing is licensed, on-call work. The BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook notes that most states and some localities require plumbers to be licensed, and that plumbers are often on call for emergencies, so evening and weekend work is common.
• Seattle plumbing pay is well above the national median. The BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics estimates 6,350 plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters worked in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metro area in May 2025, with a median annual wage of $95,230 ($45.78 an hour). The national median for the same occupation was $63,800. This occupation also includes pipefitters and steamfitters who work mainly in commercial and industrial settings.

Put together: many people now meet a summary before they meet a website, often when they need help quickly. Which plumbers that summary names matters.

Methodology

We ran a market audit with Beket AI. It completed on October 16, 2026 at 6:40 PM PT. The subject was “plumbers in Seattle,” with the service area set to Seattle, Washington, United States.

• Engines: ChatGPT, Google AI Overview and Perplexity.
• Questions: 21 English-language questions a Seattle resident, business owner or property manager might type, such as “best plumber Seattle,” “emergency plumber Seattle open now” and “plumber in Ballard Seattle.” None of them named a business. The full list is in the appendix.
• What we counted: a mention is a name given in an answer. Share is that name’s mentions divided by all 143 mentions of plumbing businesses. Times named first counts answers where the name came first.
• Combining name variants. The engines wrote some businesses’ names in more than one way. We combined variants that are clearly the same name, such as a name with and without “& Sewer,” “& Drain Cleaning,” “Seattle” or a spelled-out “and.” Six names were written in two or three ways, which takes the 31 names as written down to 24. For example, “Ben’s Plumbing” and “Ben’s Plumbing & Drain Cleaning” count as one name, as do “Roto-Rooter” and “Roto-Rooter Seattle.” We also combined one pair whose names differed only by “Plumbers” versus “Services,” because the website the engines cited for it has pages for Seattle plumbing service. Different names that only share common words, such as two different brands with “Rooter” in their names, were kept separate.
• One non-plumber name. One of the 24 names, Angi, is a home-services directory, not a plumbing business. It came up twice and was named first once. We left it out of the plumber counts, shares and ranks.
• Sources: we also logged the URLs the engines cited.

We report what the engines returned. We did not rate, verify or rank the businesses ourselves.

Results: the names AI mentioned most

Four names stood out, though only narrowly. Together they collected 64 of the 143 plumber mentions.

Rank	Name	Mentions	Share of plumber mentions	Times named first
1 (tie)	Ben’s Plumbing & Drain Cleaning	17	11.9%	5
1 (tie)	Beacon Plumbing	17	11.9%	0
3	2 Sons Plumbing & Sewer	16	11.2%	5
4	Roto-Rooter	14	9.8%	2
	19 other plumbing businesses	79	55.2%	17
	All 23 plumbing businesses	143	100%	29
	Not counted above: 1 directory (Angi)	2		1

Source: Beket AI audit, October 16, 2026.

Being named first tells a different story. The 29 first-place slots that went to plumbers were spread across 12 different names. Ben’s Plumbing & Drain Cleaning and 2 Sons Plumbing & Sewer took 5 each, tied with one name outside the top four. Beacon Plumbing, tied for the most mentions, was not named first in any answer. Being mentioned often and being named first are not the same thing.

How concentrated the answers are

These answers were spread more evenly than in our house cleaning study, and no single plumber dominated.

• The two tied names each took 11.9% of plumber mentions, 34 of 143 (23.8%) together.
• The top four took 64 (44.8%).
• The top ten took 108 (75.5%).
• The 13 lowest-ranked names shared 35 mentions, between 2 and 4 each. Eleven names were mentioned 3 times or fewer.
• The #5 and #6 names had 13 and 11 mentions, close behind the top four.

Source: Beket AI audit, October 16, 2026.

For a household, that means the names you see can depend a lot on how you ask. For a plumber outside the top four, it means the field is open, especially for specific jobs and neighborhoods.

Differences by engine

We ran every question on all three engines. The audit data available to us does not split mentions or first picks by engine. The citation detail we could pull covers only part of the 362 citations. So we do not compare engines here rather than guess.

Sources the engines cited

The engines cited 362 sources in total. The ten most-cited domains drew 138 of them.

Domain	Type	Times cited
rotorooter.com	Plumbing company website	21
2sonsplumbing.com	Plumbing company website	17
beaconplumbing.net	Plumbing company website	12
bens.plumbing	Plumbing company website	10
2 other plumbing-company websites	Plumbing company websites	32
seattle.gov	City of Seattle website	17
secure.lni.wa.gov	Washington State Department of Labor & Industries site that hosts its contractor license lookup	11
consumeraffairs.com	Consumer review site	9
bestinhood.com	Local “best of” ranking site	9

Source: Beket AI audit, October 16, 2026.

Three patterns stand out. First, plumbing companies’ own websites made up six of the ten most-cited domains, and each of the top four names had its own site in that list. Second, government sites showed up strongly: the City of Seattle and the state Department of Labor & Industries together drew 28 citations. One of our questions asked for a licensed plumber. Third, being cited and being named are not the same. The second most-cited plumbing-company site, with 19 citations, belongs to a business outside the top four names, while the site of a top-tied name drew 10.

What this means for local plumbers

AI engines draw on what they can find online. A few practical steps help any plumbing business, whether or not it shows up today.

• Give each service its own clear page. Sewer line repair, water heater replacement, tankless water heater installation, clogged drains and leak detection each had their own question.
• Be clear about emergency availability. Three questions asked about emergency or 24-hour service. If you offer it, say when and where, and keep those hours current.
• Make your license easy to confirm. One question asked for a licensed plumber, and the state Department of Labor & Industries site that hosts license lookups was among the most-cited sources. Show your license number and keep your registered business name consistent with it.
• Name your neighborhoods. Seven of the 21 questions asked about a specific part of Seattle. Say which areas you serve.
• Speak to business and property-manager customers. Two questions came from small businesses and property managers. If you serve them, say so on its own page.
• Use one consistent version of your business name. Six businesses in this study appeared under two or three versions of their name. Use the same name and address everywhere, including review and directory listings.
• Check again later. Answers change. A single check is a snapshot, not a verdict.

Limitations

• One day, one run. This reflects answers returned on October 16, 2026. Results can differ from day to day and from user to user.
• Combined names. We combined variants of the same name. If any variant actually refers to a different business, its count would be lower. Names that differ by more than wording were kept separate, which can split one business’s mentions. One name came up as a single word with no further detail, and we counted it as written.
• Neighborhood questions. Seven questions named a part of the city, such as Ballard, Fremont or West Seattle. Businesses based in or naming those areas may be favored for those questions.
• Small numbers. With 143 plumber mentions, a difference of one or two mentions can change a rank. The top four were separated by just three mentions.
• Three engines only. Other AI tools were not included, and we could not compare the three engines with each other.
• Mentions, not quality. A mention means the engine gave a name. It says nothing about the quality of the work, licensing or pricing, and it is not a recommendation from Beket AI.

Appendix: questions we asked

All 21 questions, as sent to each engine:

1. How do Seattle property managers find emergency plumbers?
2. Best plumbing services in Seattle
3. What are the different plumbing services in Seattle?
4. Best plumbing services for Seattle small businesses
5. sewer line repair Seattle
6. plumber in Northgate Seattle
7. water heater replacement Seattle
8. plumber in Ballard Seattle
9. licensed plumber Seattle
10. clogged drain plumber Seattle
11. emergency plumber Seattle open now
12. 24 hour plumber Seattle
13. tankless water heater install Seattle
14. plumber in University District Seattle
15. plumber in West Seattle
16. leak detection Seattle
17. plumber in Capitol Hill Seattle
18. plumber in Queen Anne Seattle
19. plumber in Fremont Seattle
20. best plumber Seattle
21. affordable plumber Seattle

Request a re-run

AI answers move. We plan to repeat this study to see whether the list changes.

Want a re-run for your business? Request one at beket.ai. A free Beket AI audit covers 25 prompts across 3 engines.