Free Way to Find the Questions Buyers Ask AI

Most AI keyword tools invent questions. A language model guesses what buyers might ask, and you get a long list with no demand behind it. That is the problem covered in AI keyword generators give ideas, not demand data.

First-party sources work differently. They record wording that real people or real AI systems used. Three are free:

• Bing Webmaster Tools grounding queries: the phrases an AI used when it retrieved content it then cited.
• Google Search Console queries: what people typed into classic Google Search before seeing your pages.
• Sales and support notes: the exact questions buyers ask your team.

Together they give you a prompt list grounded in evidence. The next move is to collect all three before you write a single test prompt.

AI engines do not search for the prompt a user types. OpenAI's help page says ChatGPT search typically rewrites the user's query into one or more targeted queries that it sends to search providers. Google says AI Overviews and AI Mode may use a query fan-out technique, issuing multiple related searches across subtopics. The Gemini API docs say the model generates and runs its own search queries.

So the real retrieval input is model-generated. Nobody outside the engine sees it, with one exception. Bing's AI Performance report in Webmaster Tools lists grounding queries for Microsoft Copilot, AI summaries in Bing and select partner integrations. As of October 2026, that report is the only first-party window onto the queries an AI actually ran.

What this means: a prompt list, including one a tracking tool generates, tests your guess at user wording. Grounding queries show you the engine's wording. Treat the first as a proxy and the second as evidence. For the trade-offs of writing prompts yourself, see own prompts vs tool-generated prompts.

Set aside an hour. You need site owner access and a spreadsheet.

1. Verify your site in Bing Webmaster Tools. Go to https://www.bing.com/webmasters and add your site. You can import it from Google Search Console to skip separate verification.
2. Open the AI Performance report. Find the grounding queries view and export it or copy the rows. Note the date range. Our walkthrough of free Copilot citation data in Bing Webmaster Tools covers the report in more detail.
3. Pull question-shaped queries from Search Console. Go to https://search.google.com/search-console, open Performance, then Search results, then Queries. Add a query filter, choose Custom (regex) and paste this pattern:

^(how|what|why|which|who|is|can|does|should|best)\b

4. Export sales and support wording. Search your CRM notes, call transcripts and help desk tickets for questions asked before purchase. Copy them verbatim. Do not tidy the grammar.
5. Merge and tag. Put everything in one sheet with a column for source (Bing grounding, Search Console, sales, support). Group rows by buyer task, not by keyword.
6. Pick your test set. Choose the questions that appear in more than one source, plus any grounding query that cited a competitor's topic you also cover.

The full method, including how to group and prioritise, lives in the prompt research playbook.

Each source answers a different question, so read them separately.

Look for three patterns:

• Grounding queries that differ from your prompt guesses. That gap tells you your test prompts miss how the engine searches.
• Topics buyers ask about that no page of yours answers. Google's AI optimization guide says you do not need long-tail keyword variants. Topical fit matters more than exact phrasing, so cover the topic once, clearly.
• Specific facts buyers ask for (price, setup time, integrations). Stating them plainly on a page that crawlers can fetch gives an engine a sentence it can quote.

For how keywords and prompts relate, read keywords vs prompts in AI search.

This method is free, and it is honest about what it cannot see.

• Grounding queries are Bing-scoped. They cover Copilot and Bing surfaces. They do not tell you what ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude or Google AI searched.
• Grounding query data is a sample. Microsoft labels that metric as a sample of overall citation activity, so do not treat counts as totals.
• You only see queries where you were cited. Queries that retrieved competitors instead of you never appear in your report.
• Search Console's AI report has no queries. As of October 2026, Google's generative AI report shows impressions by page, country, date and device. Query data covers classic Search only.
• No API for grounding queries. As of our evidence, you export by hand.
• Personal context changes results. OpenAI says ChatGPT may use saved memories when rewriting a search query, so logged-in tests are not reproducible.

None of this data promises a citation. It tells you what to test and which topics to cover. What the models say remains outside your control.

Once you have a short list, the useful question is whether engines name you for it today. You can paste questions into each engine by hand, logged out, and note who gets named.

The free checker on this site does that snapshot for up to three buyer questions, either yours or ones written from your homepage, and scores the result. It is a point-in-time check, not continuous tracking.

If an engine never names you, check access before content. Confirm your robots.txt allows the retrieval bots (OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot, Claude-SearchBot) and that your key facts appear in the HTML before JavaScript runs. For other no-cost tools by job, see free AI SEO tools matched to the task.

What is a grounding query? A grounding query is a search an AI system runs to fetch sources before it writes an answer. It is usually different from what the user typed, because engines rewrite prompts into their own targeted searches. Bing Webmaster Tools shows grounding queries that led to your content being cited in Copilot and Bing AI summaries. No other engine publishes this data to site owners as of October 2026.

Does Google Search Console show AI Overviews queries? No. As of October 2026, Search Console's generative AI report shows impressions for AI Overviews and AI Mode, broken down by page, country, date and device. It has no query dimension, clicks or position. The regular Performance report shows classic Search queries, which are useful for human wording but are not the queries Google's AI features ran.

Should I optimise for every variation of a buyer question? No. Google's AI optimization guide says you do not need to worry about capturing every long-tail keyword variant. Research on GEO points to topical relevance, not exact wording, as one of the more reproducible factors once a page is retrieved. Cover each buyer topic clearly on one page and state the specific facts buyers ask for.

How often should I refresh my question list? Re-export grounding queries and Search Console data on a regular cycle, such as monthly or after a product launch. Engines change models and retrieval behaviour, and new buyer questions appear in sales calls first. Keep the source column in your sheet so you can see which questions keep recurring and which were one-offs.

Can I use grounding queries if Bing rarely cites my site? You will see little data, because the report only lists queries where your content was cited. That absence is itself a finding. Check that bingbot can crawl you, that your pages are in the Bing index, and that your firewall does not block AI crawlers. Meanwhile, lean on Search Console and sales notes for wording.