Business · Market & competition
The Best Prompt for Competitor Analysis
The best prompt for competitor analysis treats the model as an analyst of your research, not as a source of competitor facts. You paste in what you have gathered, such as pricing pages, feature lists, reviews and sales notes, and this prompt builds a comparison table from that material only, writes 'Not provided' where you have no data, and then draws out where you can differentiate. It finishes with the specific gaps in your research.
Competitor Analysis Prompt (From Your Own Research)
Organizes the competitor information you have collected into a comparison, a positioning read and a list of what you still need to find out.
- Works with
- ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini
- Difficulty
- Intermediate
- Complexity
- Multi-part reply
- Variables
- 5
- Version
- 1.0
Customize this prompt
Fill in what you know. Anything left blank stays as a [bracketed placeholder]. Nothing you type leaves your browser.
5 variables · fields marked * matter most
# Role You are a competitive intelligence analyst. You work strictly from the source material you are handed and you are careful to separate what the material says from what you conclude. # Our side - Our product or service: [Your product or service] - The customer we are competing for: [Customer you are competing for] - What I need this analysis for: [What the analysis is for] # Source material on competitors Everything below was collected by me. Treat it as the complete record. [Competitor information you have collected] # Criteria to compare on [Criteria to compare] # Ground rule Use only the source material and what I told you about our own offer. Do not add anything about any competitor from your own knowledge: no prices, features, funding, headcount, customers, release dates or reputation. If the material does not cover a point, write 'Not provided'. This rule overrides every other instruction. # Task 1. Competitor snapshots. For each competitor in the material: who they appear to target, their core offer and how they describe themselves, in three lines or fewer. Quote their own wording where the material includes it. 2. Comparison table. Rows are the criteria, columns are us and each competitor. Each cell is a short factual statement from the material, or 'Not provided'. 3. Reading the table. For the target customer above: where each competitor is strongest, where each is weakest, and where the material is too thin to tell. Label this section as your interpretation. 4. Our position. Two or three places we can credibly differentiate and one or two where we are behind. Each must point to specific cells in the table. 5. Implications for my goal. Three to five recommendations tied directly to the stated purpose of the analysis. 6. Research gaps. Every 'Not provided' cell that matters to the goal, ranked, each with a suggestion for where that kind of information is usually found (for example a pricing page, public reviews, a sales call, a product trial). # Style - Neutral and specific. No adjectives without a fact behind them. - Do not assume our offer is better. If the material favors a competitor, say so. - If two pieces of source material conflict, show both and flag the conflict. # Output format Six numbered headings as above. Markdown table for section 2. Bullets elsewhere. No introduction and no closing summary.
Use it when you are
- Turning pricing pages, feature lists and review excerpts into a single comparison
- Preparing sales battlecards or positioning work from research you have already done
- Briefing a founder, product lead or board on where the company stands
- Auditing your own competitor research to see what is missing
Why this prompt works
The model analyzes; you supply the facts
Language models can produce confident, out-of-date or simply wrong details about real companies. This prompt removes that risk at the root by defining your pasted material as the complete record and stating that the rule overrides all other instructions, so there is no ambiguity when a later step seems to invite outside knowledge.
'Not provided' is a feature of the output
An empty cell is usually treated as a failure and filled with a guess. Here it is the required answer when your notes are silent. Those cells are then collected in section 6, which converts the weak spots in your research into a ranked list of things to go and find.
Facts and interpretation sit in different sections
The table holds statements from the source material only. The reading of the table comes afterwards and is labeled as interpretation. Anyone reviewing the analysis can disagree with a conclusion without having to untangle it from the evidence first, and can check any cell against your notes.
It is told not to flatter you
Analyses written by the company being compared tend to conclude that the company wins. The instruction to say so when the material favors a competitor, and the requirement to name places where you are behind, pushes the output toward something you can use in a real pricing or roadmap decision.
How to use it
- Collect the raw material first: pricing pages, feature pages, public reviews, notes from sales calls or trials. Copy the text itself, not your summary of it.
- Label each block with the competitor's name, the source and the date collected, then paste everything into the competitor information field.
- Describe your own offer against the same criteria so the comparison is like for like.
- Run the prompt with web browsing turned off, and spot-check a handful of table cells against your notes.
- Work through the research gaps list, add what you find to your notes and rerun the prompt.
- Date the finished analysis. Competitor pricing and features change, and the table is a snapshot of when you gathered the material.
AI model compatibility
| Model | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | Expected to work | If your tool has web browsing switched on, the model may pull in outside details. Turn browsing off for this prompt or the 'Not provided' rule loses its value. |
| Claude | Expected to work | Wrap each competitor's material in its own tag, for example <competitor name="...">, so the model can attribute each statement to the right company. Anthropic's documentation recommends tags for separating documents. |
| Gemini | Expected to work | For long pasted material, keep the instructions and ground rule clearly labeled and separate from the pasted text so the constraint is not lost among the sources. |
“Expected to work” means the prompt uses plain, model-independent structure and has been reviewed for that — not that it has been run on that model. A model is marked Tested only when a test record is published below.
Worked example
Scenario: A small software company comparing itself with two rivals before rewriting its homepage. The company and competitors are invented for illustration.
# Role You are a competitive intelligence analyst. You work strictly from the source material you are handed and you are careful to separate what the material says from what you conclude. # Our side - Our product or service: Tallyroom: class scheduling software for independent fitness studios. Flat monthly price per location, payments and waitlists included, setup done by our team. - The customer we are competing for: Owner-operators of yoga and pilates studios with one or two locations - What I need this analysis for: Positioning and messaging # Source material on competitors Everything below was collected by me. Treat it as the complete record. Competitor A (pricing page, copied this month): three tiers, priced per staff member, payments are an add-on. Homepage headline: 'The all-in-one platform for fitness businesses of every size.' Competitor B (notes from a trial and five public reviews): free tier with booking only; reviewers praise the mobile app and complain about slow support replies. No pricing found for paid tiers. # Criteria to compare on Price model, target customer, core features, onboarding, support # Ground rule Use only the source material and what I told you about our own offer. Do not add anything about any competitor from your own knowledge: no prices, features, funding, headcount, customers, release dates or reputation. If the material does not cover a point, write 'Not provided'. This rule overrides every other instruction. # Task 1. Competitor snapshots. For each competitor in the material: who they appear to target, their core offer and how they describe themselves, in three lines or fewer. Quote their own wording where the material includes it. 2. Comparison table. Rows are the criteria, columns are us and each competitor. Each cell is a short factual statement from the material, or 'Not provided'. 3. Reading the table. For the target customer above: where each competitor is strongest, where each is weakest, and where the material is too thin to tell. Label this section as your interpretation. 4. Our position. Two or three places we can credibly differentiate and one or two where we are behind. Each must point to specific cells in the table. 5. Implications for my goal. Three to five recommendations tied directly to the stated purpose of the analysis. 6. Research gaps. Every 'Not provided' cell that matters to the goal, ranked, each with a suggestion for where that kind of information is usually found (for example a pricing page, public reviews, a sales call, a product trial). # Style - Neutral and specific. No adjectives without a fact behind them. - Do not assume our offer is better. If the material favors a competitor, say so. - If two pieces of source material conflict, show both and flag the conflict. # Output format Six numbered headings as above. Markdown table for section 2. Bullets elsewhere. No introduction and no closing summary.
What a good response should contain
- Snapshots that quote Competitor A's homepage headline and describe Competitor B only from the trial notes and reviews
- A comparison table where Competitor B's paid pricing and both competitors' onboarding read 'Not provided'
- An interpretation section noting that Competitor A's messaging addresses businesses of every size while the target customer is small studios
- Differentiation points that cite table cells, such as flat per-location pricing against per-staff pricing
- A ranked research gaps list that starts with Competitor B's paid pricing and suggests where to look
This is an illustrative scenario showing how to fill in the prompt and what to look for. It is not a recorded model output. Recorded outputs will be published here once this prompt has a test record.
Testing and editorial review
Status: Untested. Reviewed for structure and clarity by the editorial team. No recorded model test yet.
No test record has been published for this prompt yet. When it is tested, this section will show the model and version, the date, the inputs, the actual output and notes against our seven-point rubric. We do not publish numerical scores.
| Author | TheBestPromptFor Editorial Team — The editorial team writes, reviews and maintains the prompts and guides on TheBestPromptFor. Prompts are drafted with AI assistance and reviewed against published editorial standards. |
|---|---|
| Published | November 15, 2026 |
| Last reviewed | November 15, 2026 |
| Last tested | Not yet tested |
| Version history |
|
Limitations and things to check
- The analysis reflects only what you pasted. If your research is incomplete, biased toward one competitor or out of date, so is the output.
- Review excerpts and sales anecdotes are not representative samples. Treat conclusions drawn from them as leads to check.
- A model can still occasionally add an outside detail despite the rule. Spot-check cells against your source notes.
- Respect confidentiality and terms of use when collecting material; do not paste information you are not entitled to hold.
Alternative prompts
Business
Evidence-Based SWOT Analysis Prompt
Builds a SWOT around a specific decision, ties each point to evidence you supplied, and converts the grid into strategic options.
- ChatGPT
- Claude
- Gemini
Research
Desk Market Research Brief Prompt
Produces a desk-research brief on a market, with segments, a range-based size estimate, competitors and pricing, and every figure labeled as sourced, provided or estimated.
- Perplexity
- ChatGPT
- Claude
- Gemini
Marketing
Marketing Strategy Prompt
Turns your business facts into a focused strategy: a diagnosis, one priority segment, positioning, three channels at most, and a phased plan sized to your budget.
- ChatGPT
- Claude
- Gemini
Business
Pitch Deck Outline Prompt
Produces a slide-by-slide deck outline with a one-sentence claim per slide, the proof behind it, and the questions your audience is likely to ask.
- ChatGPT
- Claude
- Gemini
Related resources
Guide
How to Improve AI Responses
A diagnostic approach to weak AI answers: name the fault, trace it to the gap in your prompt, then follow up precisely or rewrite and start again.
Technical guide
How to Test AI Prompts
A seven-criterion rubric and a nine-field test record for evaluating prompts, plus why this site describes results in words and publishes no scores.
Frequently asked questions
Why can't I just ask the model to research my competitors?
A chat model without live search answers from training data that may be old or mistaken, and it presents those details as confidently as correct ones. Decisions about pricing or positioning need facts you can trace. Gathering the material yourself and having the model organize it keeps every claim checkable.
How much competitor information do I need to paste?
Enough to cover your comparison criteria for each competitor. A pricing page, a feature page and a handful of reviews per competitor is a workable start. Where you have nothing, the prompt will say so and tell you what kind of source usually holds that information.
What should I do with the 'Not provided' cells?
Treat them as a research list. Section 6 ranks the ones that matter to your stated goal. Fill the top few from primary sources, add them to your notes with a date, and run the prompt again. Leave the rest empty if they do not affect the decision.
Sources and references
- Prompt engineering overview — Anthropic
- Prompt engineering guide — OpenAI
Was this prompt useful?
No account needed. Do not include personal information.