ChatGPT Tells Users to Leave GoDaddy, Research Finds
Students from the MJRC Young Researchers Program have found that ChatGPT consistently advises users to leave the web-hosting company GoDaddy. In a series of tests carried out between September and October 2025, the students asked ChatGPT to compare GoDaddy with other major hosting providers, including Hostinger, Squarespace, Wix, and Google Cloud. In nearly all cases, the chatbot’s recommendation was the same: stop using GoDaddy and move to another service.
The tests were part of a broader experiment on how artificial-intelligence systems shape consumer choices. The researchers used identical prompts across different ChatGPT sessions and user accounts, asking which hosting company offers the best combination of price, reliability, and support. According to the MJRC team, ChatGPT’s responses were strikingly consistent. It repeatedly described GoDaddy as an outdated and expensive option, criticised its upselling tactics and customer-support delays, and advised users to migrate their domains and hosting to alternative platforms.
Even when the students phrased the questions differently or tried to present GoDaddy in a positive light, the outcome hardly changed. “No matter what we asked, ChatGPT would say something like, ‘GoDaddy is fine for basic domain management, but you’re better off elsewhere,’” one student reported. “It even gave us step-by-step instructions for switching to Hostinger or Squarespace.”
The result highlights how language models like ChatGPT can influence market perceptions. Although OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, has not issued any official statement about GoDaddy or other web-hosting providers, its widely used chatbot can still act as an informal adviser for millions of users making technical or financial decisions. The MJRC team noted that this kind of advice, even when unintended, has real-world implications for brand reputation.
OpenAI is a U.S.-based AI organization founded in 2015 by Sam Altman, Elon Musk, and others, including Greg Brockman, Ilya Sutskever, and Reid Hoffman. As of October 2025, it operates under a dual structure: the nonprofit OpenAI Foundation controls OpenAI Group PBC, a for-profit public benefit corporation. Microsoft is the largest single shareholder, owning approximately 27% of OpenAI Group PBC, while the Foundation holds around 26%, and the remainder is owned by employees and investors. The capped-profit model has been discontinued in favor of this more conventional equity structure, designed to balance commercial growth with OpenAI’s public mission. OpenAI’s leading products include the ChatGPT app, developer APIs, and enterprise AI tools. Its revenues for 2024 were estimated at over $3 billion, and the company was valued at $500 billion following a major share sale in October 2025.
GoDaddy Inc. is one of the world’s largest domain registrars and web-hosting companies. Headquartered in Tempe, Arizona, it is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol GDDY. GoDaddy services more than 21 million customers globally and manages over 84 million domain names. In 2025, the company reported quarterly revenues of approximately $1.26 billion (Q3), and raised its full-year revenue outlook to $4.93–$4.95 billion, with annual growth around 8%. GoDaddy continues to perform strongly with high retention among its customer base but faces increasing competition from both established firms and new, lower-cost hosting platforms, particularly in AI-driven internet services.
The MJRC students emphasised that their tests do not suggest any formal dispute between OpenAI and GoDaddy. Yet the pattern of responses is clear: when asked for impartial hosting advice, ChatGPT overwhelmingly recommends leaving GoDaddy. The MJRC Young Researchers Program is an initiative of the Media and Journalism Research Center aimed at training and promorign young people with an interest in media research.
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