GEOly Research · Quarterly · 2026-11-03
Which sources do AI answers cite? 8.8 million citations, Q3 2026
Every AI answer that cites a source tells you which sites the engine trusts for that question. We counted the domains behind 8.8 million ChatGPT citations in Q3 2026, then compared ChatGPT, Google AI Mode and Google AI Overviews on the exact same questions.
Key findings
- 13.8%of all ChatGPT citations point to Reddit — more than the next sixteen sources combined.
- 48%of Google AI Mode citations (33% in AI Overviews) go to Google’s own pages, on the same questions where ChatGPT cites Google 0.5% of the time.
- 23.7% vs 0.01%YouTube’s share of citations in Google AI Overviews versus ChatGPT on the same 1,534 topics.
- 285,369distinct domains were cited by ChatGPT in the quarter, yet the top 100 took 43.6% of citations.
ChatGPT’s most-cited sources
Share of all usable ChatGPT citations, July 5 – September 4, 2026 (10 weekly runs, 26,457 US shopping and product topics, 285,369 distinct domains). The top 10 domains take 22.4%; the top 100 take 43.6%.
| # | Domain | Share of citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | reddit.com | 13.79% |
| 2 | consumerreports.org | 1.22% |
| 3 | goodhousekeeping.com | 1.18% |
| 4 | walmart.com | 1.02% |
| 5 | bobvila.com | 0.97% |
| 6 | homedepot.com | 0.94% |
| 7 | tomsguide.com | 0.86% |
| 8 | target.com | 0.83% |
| 9 | nih.gov | 0.82% |
| 10 | techradar.com | 0.81% |
| 11 | lowes.com | 0.80% |
| 12 | forbes.com | 0.79% |
| 13 | rtings.com | 0.78% |
| 14 | allure.com | 0.73% |
| 15 | wired.com | 0.69% |
| 16 | outdoorgearlab.com | 0.52% |
| 17 | nbcnews.com | 0.47% |
| 18 | healthline.com | 0.44% |
| 19 | bhg.com | 0.43% |
| 20 | thespruce.com | 0.38% |
Same questions, different sources
The 1,534 topics GEOly tracks on all three engines, July 31 – September 4, 2026. Because every engine answered the same questions, differences reflect the engines, not the topic mix.
| Domain | ChatGPT | Google AI Mode | Google AI Overviews |
|---|---|---|---|
| google.com | 0.49% (rank 29) | 48.15% (rank 1) | 32.77% (rank 1) |
| reddit.com | 16.67% (rank 1) | 14.91% (rank 2) | 8.58% (rank 3) |
| youtube.com | 0.01% (rank 597) | 12.22% (rank 3) | 23.71% (rank 2) |
| amazon.com | 0.03% (rank 290) | 3.33% (rank 4) | 1.25% (rank 5) |
| rtings.com | 8.66% (rank 2) | 1.82% (rank 6) | 0.99% (rank 8) |
Top 10 sources by engine (same topics)
ChatGPT
- reddit.com
- rtings.com
- techradar.com
- soundguys.com
- tomsguide.com
- wired.com
- tomshardware.com
- consumerreports.org
- 3dprinting.com
- security.org
Google AI Mode
- google.com
- reddit.com
- youtube.com
- amazon.com
- nytimes.com
- rtings.com
- cnet.com
- pcmag.com
- 3dprinting.com
- wired.com
Google AI Overviews
- google.com
- youtube.com
- reddit.com
- cnet.com
- amazon.com
- facebook.com
- nytimes.com
- rtings.com
- instagram.com
- eufy.com
What this means for brands
1. Plan sources per engine, not one list
ChatGPT leans on Reddit and independent review sites; Google’s AI surfaces lean on Google’s own pages and YouTube. The same campaign will not move both.
2. Treat YouTube as a Google AI channel
One in four AI Overviews citations on these topics is a YouTube video. Product demos and reviews with clear titles and chapters are retrievable evidence there — and almost invisible to ChatGPT.
3. Keep Google-owned surfaces accurate
With a third to half of Google AI citations pointing at Google’s own pages, your Merchant Center feed, Business Profile and product data on Google are part of your AI visibility.
4. Earn real community discussion
Reddit is a top-three source on all three engines. Genuine owner threads and disclosed brand participation help; fake posts are both against platform rules and easy for engines to discount.
See which sources AI cites for your category
GEOly shows the domains and pages AI engines cite for your prompts, how often your own site is cited, and where competitors win the citation.
Methodology
- A citation is a URL an AI answer links to as a source, counted once per answer; citations are grouped by root domain. "Usable" excludes malformed and tracking-only links.
- ChatGPT figures use every ChatGPT run in the window. The three-engine comparison is restricted to topics tracked on all three engines in the same window, so the sample is smaller but like-for-like.
- google.com includes Google’s own pages linked from answers (for example Maps, Shopping and Search results pages).
- GEOly tracks ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Gemini, Google AI Overviews and Microsoft Copilot; Gemini and Copilot are not part of this dataset.
How to cite
GEOly, "Which sources do AI answers cite? 8.8 million citations, Q3 2026", published 2026-11-03, https://www.geoly.ai/research/ai-citation-sources