The reference librarian
ChatGPT
Leans hardest on encyclopedic knowledge and established media.
Wikipedia7.8%
Reddit1.8%
Forbes1.1%
G21.1%
TechRadar0.9%
Share of all citations in the dataset
Research breakdown · 680M citations
AI platforms don't cite the same web always
ChatGPT looks for authority. Perplexity looks for lived experience. Google AI Overviews sits between them. The source mix tells you where your brand needs to earn trust.
The signal
Your AI visibility strategy has to match the engine you want to influence.
7.8%
Wikipedia × GPT
2.2%
Reddit × Google
6.6%
Reddit × Perplexity
680M
citations analyzed
3
AI surfaces compared
47.9%
Wikipedia share of GPT's top 10
80.41%
.com share in GPT citations
01 / Overall citation volume
Three engines. Three source instincts.
These shares measure each domain against every citation in the full dataset. The leading source is not just different by platform—the degree of dominance is different too.
Read this as reach: a 7.8% share means 7.8 of every 100 tracked citations pointed to that source.
The broad synthesizer
Google AI Overviews
Blends social, video, professional, and editorial sources most evenly.
Reddit2.2%
YouTube1.9%
Quora1.5%
LinkedIn1.3%
Gartner0.7%
Share of all citations in the dataset
The community scout
Perplexity
Pulls disproportionately from peer discussion and lived experience.
Reddit6.6%
YouTube2.0%
Gartner1.0%
Yelp0.8%
LinkedIn0.8%
Share of all citations in the dataset
Top five sources shown for each platform. Percentages are shares of total citations, rounded to one decimal place in the source study.
02 / Concentration
Reach and dominance are not the same thing.
Now narrow the lens to only each platform's ten most-cited sources. The result reveals how concentrated the winners are.
These percentages describe the top-10 pool only—not the full dataset. That distinction matters when prioritizing channels.
ChatGPT
led by Wikipedia
47.9%
Nearly one in two citations among its ten leading sources
Google AI Overviews
led by Reddit
21%
The least concentrated leader of the three platforms
Perplexity
led by Reddit
46.7%
Community content dominates its leading source set
03 / What the pattern means
Each platform rewards a different kind of authority.
The domains are the visible layer. Underneath them are three distinct philosophies for deciding what is worth repeating.
ChatGPT
Documented authority
Neutral, structured, reference-style information performs best. Build the canonical explanation, then earn corroboration from established media.
Google AI Overviews
Cross-format consensus
No single source type owns the answer. Video, Q&A, professional networks, and publishers work together to establish confidence.
Perplexity
Experienced consensus
Firsthand discussion carries unusual weight. Community participation, reviews, and useful peer advice create a strong discovery surface.
04 / Domain patterns
The open web still wins—but its shape matters.
For ChatGPT, commercial domains account for four out of every five citations. Nonprofit domains form the only other double-digit group, while newer tech TLDs are visible but still small.
.com 80.41%.org 11.29%.uk 2.16%.io 1.67%.ai 1.13%
80.4%
commercial
domains
.com80.41%
.org11.29%
.uk2.16%
.io1.67%
.ai1.13%
Other3.34%
TLD distribution shown for ChatGPT citations in the source dataset.
05 / The visibility playbook
Win the source mix, not just your website.
A durable AI visibility program combines first-party clarity with third-party proof and measures the outcome separately across engines.
01
Build an authority anchor
Publish precise, fact-rich pages that define your category, product, and entities clearly enough to support an answer.
ChatGPT Knowledge bases Editorial
02
Create community proof
Help real users discuss comparisons, use cases, and trade-offs where peers already exchange experience.
Perplexity Reddit Reviews
03
Distribute across formats
Turn a strong first-party idea into video, professional commentary, Q&A, and earned editorial coverage.
AI Overviews YouTube LinkedIn
04
Measure by engine
Track citations separately. A gain in ChatGPT can coexist with flat visibility in Google or Perplexity.
Monitoring Prompts Citation share
Turn insight into action