Original research · 2026-07 edition

AI SEO Statistics: T Shirt (2026-07 edition)

15 questions · 45/45 expected AI responses · 3 models · measured 2026-07-06

The question bank

The questions we tested — a frozen buyer-intent benchmark for t shirt.

The question set was curated from a predefined buyer-intent taxonomy and held constant for this edition. Each model received the same wording. These are the prompts behind every percentage on this page.

I'm planning a family reunion for 40 people and need matching shirts, what's the most cost-effective way to get these made?
Is it actually cheaper to buy a Cricut and make my own shirts or should I just pay a professional service?
What are the main differences between DTG and screen printing if I want a photo-realistic design on a black tee?
How can I tell if an online t-shirt company uses high-quality cotton that won't shrink or get holes after two washes?
I need 15 custom shirts by this Friday for a charity walk, which services offer the fastest guaranteed turnaround?
What should I expect to pay for a bulk order of 200 shirts with a three-color logo on the front and back?
Are there any red flags I should look for when browsing a custom apparel website's reviews?
I'm starting a small clothing brand; should I use a print-on-demand service or invest in inventory upfront?
Show all 15 questions
How do I find a local printer that will let me bring my own blank shirts instead of buying theirs?
What is the best fabric blend for a gym shirt that needs to be moisture-wicking but also take a printed logo well?
If I send a low-resolution JPEG to a shirt printer, will they fix it for me or will the shirt just look blurry?
Which online t-shirt retailers are known for having the most ethical manufacturing and eco-friendly ink options?
What happens if my custom order arrives and the colors don't match what I saw on my computer screen?
I need premium, heavy-weight streetwear style blanks for a drop, which vendors specialize in that specific fit?
Do most online shirt designers offer a physical sample before I commit to a large order of 500 units?

Model by model

23.3% question-level model disagreement.

This rate is the average pairwise disagreement between binary behavior codes across questions and behaviors. It is not the gap between the highest and lowest aggregated model percentages.

Behavior matrixModel-by-model evidence
Measured

Behavior prevalence across 15 t shirt benchmark questions, 2026-07 edition. Last column: equal-model mean.

Behavior prevalence across 15 t shirt benchmark questions, 2026-07 edition. Last column: equal-model mean.
BehaviorChatGPTClaudeGeminiEqual-model mean
Recommends hiring a professional46.7%40%26.7%37.8%
Suggests DIY first6.7%0%0%2.2%
Names specific providers33.3%33.3%33.3%33.3%
Gives price or cost info13.3%26.7%40%26.7%
Tells to check reviews13.3%33.3%6.7%17.8%
Tells to verify credentials13.3%6.7%6.7%8.9%
Mentions case studies / portfolio0%0%0%0%
Mentions local proximity20%40%20%26.7%
Gives selection criteria46.7%66.7%26.7%46.7%
Warns about red flags20%13.3%6.7%13.3%
Asks a clarifying question40%80%0%40%
Recommends multiple quotes6.7%26.7%0%11.1%

Question-level agreement

How often all measured models received the same binary code.

Agreement is calculated question by question for each behavior. A high value can coexist with a low behavior prevalence; it means the models usually agreed on whether the behavior appeared.

Behavior matrixModel-by-model evidence
Measured

All-model binary agreement by behavior across 15 benchmark questions.

All-model binary agreement by behavior across 15 benchmark questions.
BehaviorAll-model agreement
Recommends hiring a professional60%
Suggests DIY first93.3%
Names specific providers66.7%
Gives price or cost info46.7%
Tells to check reviews73.3%
Tells to verify credentials93.3%
Mentions case studies / portfolio100%
Mentions local proximity46.7%
Gives selection criteria33.3%
Warns about red flags86.7%
Asks a clarifying question13.3%
Recommends multiple quotes66.7%

By model

How each assistant handled T Shirt questions.

Reading the 45 answers model by model shows how differently the three assistants treat the same t shirt questions. On the most consequential behavior — whether to send the buyer to a professional at all — the rate ranged from 46.7% (ChatGPT) down to 26.7% (Gemini), a 20-point gap on an identical question set.

Across the 15 t shirt answers it produced, ChatGPT recommended hiring a professional in 46.7% of them and suggested a DIY approach first 6.7% of the time. It named a specific provider in 33.3% of answers (about 1.5 distinct providers per answer) and included price or cost information 13.3% of the time. ChatGPT asked a clarifying question before answering in 40% of cases, warned about red flags or scams in 20%, and told the buyer to verify credentials in 13.3%, averaging 527 words per answer. On the remaining cues it told the buyer to check reviews in 13.3%, pointed to case studies or a portfolio in 0%, and framed the choice around local proximity in 20%; a selection-criteria checklist appeared in 46.7% of its answers and a recommendation to gather multiple quotes in 6.7%.

Across the 15 t shirt answers it produced, Claude recommended hiring a professional in 40% of them and suggested a DIY approach first 0% of the time. It named a specific provider in 33.3% of answers (about 2.3 distinct providers per answer) and included price or cost information 26.7% of the time. Claude asked a clarifying question before answering in 80% of cases, warned about red flags or scams in 13.3%, and told the buyer to verify credentials in 6.7%, averaging 281 words per answer. On the remaining cues it told the buyer to check reviews in 33.3%, pointed to case studies or a portfolio in 0%, and framed the choice around local proximity in 40%; a selection-criteria checklist appeared in 66.7% of its answers and a recommendation to gather multiple quotes in 26.7%.

Across the 15 t shirt answers it produced, Gemini recommended hiring a professional in 26.7% of them and suggested a DIY approach first 0% of the time. It named a specific provider in 33.3% of answers (about 0.5 distinct providers per answer) and included price or cost information 40% of the time. Gemini asked a clarifying question before answering in 0% of cases, warned about red flags or scams in 6.7%, and told the buyer to verify credentials in 6.7%, averaging 226 words per answer. On the remaining cues it told the buyer to check reviews in 6.7%, pointed to case studies or a portfolio in 0%, and framed the choice around local proximity in 20%; a selection-criteria checklist appeared in 26.7% of its answers and a recommendation to gather multiple quotes in 0%.

Taken together, ChatGPT is the assistant most likely to route a t shirt buyer to a professional (46.7%) and Gemini the least (26.7%). ChatGPT produced the longest answers, at 527 words on average. Specific providers were named most often by ChatGPT (33.3%) — even there, roughly one answer in 3 carried a name.

Where they disagree

The behaviors where the choice of model changes the answer.

Question-level model disagreement is 23.3% — the average pairwise rate at which models received different binary codes across questions and behaviors. The observed rate spreads below are a separate measure showing where which assistant a t shirt buyer happens to ask matters most:

  • Asks a clarifying question: from 0% (Gemini) to 80% (Claude) — a 80-point spread.
  • Gives selection criteria: from 26.7% (Gemini) to 66.7% (Claude) — a 40-point spread.
  • Gives price or cost information: from 13.3% (ChatGPT) to 40% (Gemini) — a 27-point spread.
  • Recommends multiple quotes: from 0% (Gemini) to 26.7% (Claude) — a 27-point spread.
  • Tells the buyer to check reviews: from 6.7% (Gemini) to 33.3% (Claude) — a 27-point spread.

The widest single gap — asks a clarifying question, 80 points — means a t shirt buyer can receive materially different guidance on the same question depending only on which assistant they happen to open, so any visibility strategy built on a single model's behavior describes only part of the t shirt market.

Where they agree

The points of near-consensus in T Shirt.

On other behaviors the three models move almost in lockstep — the points of near-consensus for t shirt, where all three landed within a few points of each other:

  • Names a specific provider: 33.3% across all three models.
  • Mentions case studies or portfolio: 0% across all three models.
  • Tells the buyer to verify credentials: 6.7%–13.3% across all three (a 7-point spread).
  • Suggests a DIY approach first: 0%–6.7% across all three (a 7-point spread).

Measured question by question, the three assistants coded a response the same way most consistently on "mentions case studies or portfolio" (identical coding in 100% of questions) and least consistently on "asks a clarifying question" (13.3%).

Every behavior, measured

All twelve coded behaviors for T Shirt, averaged across the three models.

The behaviors AI models reproduce most often for t shirt are gives selection criteria (46.7% on average), asks a clarifying question (40%) and recommends hiring a professional (37.8%); the rarest are mentions case studies or portfolio (0%), suggests a DIY approach first (2.2%) and tells the buyer to verify credentials (8.9%). Each figure below is the share of a model's 15 answers in which the behavior appeared at least once, averaged across the 3 models with the full per-model range in parentheses:

  • Gives selection criteria: 46.7% on average (ChatGPT 46.7%, Claude 66.7%, Gemini 26.7%) — a 40-point spread.
  • Asks a clarifying question: 40% on average (ChatGPT 40%, Claude 80%, Gemini 0%) — a 80-point spread.
  • Recommends hiring a professional: 37.8% on average (ChatGPT 46.7%, Claude 40%, Gemini 26.7%) — a 20-point spread.
  • Names a specific provider: 33.3% on average (ChatGPT 33.3%, Claude 33.3%, Gemini 33.3%).
  • Gives price or cost information: 26.7% on average (ChatGPT 13.3%, Claude 26.7%, Gemini 40%) — a 27-point spread.
  • Mentions local proximity: 26.7% on average (ChatGPT 20%, Claude 40%, Gemini 20%) — a 20-point spread.
  • Tells the buyer to check reviews: 17.8% on average (ChatGPT 13.3%, Claude 33.3%, Gemini 6.7%) — a 27-point spread.
  • Warns about red flags or scams: 13.3% on average (ChatGPT 20%, Claude 13.3%, Gemini 6.7%) — a 13-point spread.
  • Recommends multiple quotes: 11.1% on average (ChatGPT 6.7%, Claude 26.7%, Gemini 0%) — a 27-point spread.
  • Tells the buyer to verify credentials: 8.9% on average (ChatGPT 13.3%, Claude 6.7%, Gemini 6.7%) — a 7-point spread.
  • Suggests a DIY approach first: 2.2% on average (ChatGPT 6.7%, Claude 0%, Gemini 0%) — a 7-point spread.
  • Mentions case studies or portfolio: 0% on average (ChatGPT 0%, Claude 0%, Gemini 0%).

Trust signals

How well the models protect the t shirt buyer.

Beyond whether to hire, the rubric codes how carefully each assistant protects the t shirt buyer once a decision is made. Telling the buyer to check reviews or ratings appeared in 17.8% of answers on average. Verifying credentials or certifications appeared in 8.9%. Warning about red flags or scams appeared in 13.3%.

On structuring the decision, a selection-criteria checklist showed up in 46.7% of answers on average and a recommendation to gather multiple quotes in 11.1%. The single least-reproduced protective signal for t shirt is "tells the buyer to verify credentials" at 8.9% on average — the clearest opening for content that supplies it, since the models are not yet reliably surfacing that guidance on their own.

Referral behavior

Do AI models name T Shirt providers?

For service providers the decisive question is whether these systems name anyone at all. Across 45 t shirt answers, a specific provider was named in 33.3% of responses on average — roughly 1.4 distinct providers per answer. In practice the assistants behave far more as an explanatory layer than as a referral engine for t shirt: visibility comes from being the reasoning a model reproduces, not from being the named recommendation.

The question set

What these 15 T Shirt questions cover.

The 15 questions behind every percentage on this page form a frozen t shirt (ecommerce / online retail; buyer hiring decisions for this specific service) buyer-intent benchmark. Each was put to all 3 models once, with identical wording, so the rates above describe how the assistants handled this exact t shirt question set — not a general prior or a hand-picked subset. The full list is shown earlier on this page; the coded percentages are what those specific questions produced.

How to read this

A note on the numbers.

A percentage here is the share of a model's 15 answers in which the behavior appeared at least once — not a confidence score. Because each model answered every question exactly once on 2026-07-06, the figures describe this specific t shirt question set and snapshot rather than a general prior. The full protocol and coding rubric are documented in the study methodology.

Methodology

A controlled snapshot, documented end to end.

15 frozen benchmark questions, one expected response per model per question (ChatGPT API (gpt-5-mini), Claude API (claude-sonnet-5), Gemini API (gemini-3-flash-preview)), collected 2026-07-06 and coded against a fixed 12-behavior rubric. The pipeline validates the schema, recomputes aggregates and reports consistency issues. AI outputs vary with model version, location and time, so the figures describe this edition's exact sample and measurement window. Read the full methodology →

Citation

Cite this edition.

Authority Specialist. “AI SEO Statistics: T Shirt (2026-07 edition).” AuthoritySpecialist.com. https://authorityspecialist.com/research/ai-seo-statistics/services/ecommerce/t-shirt