AI Citation Report, August 2026: What the AIs Cited This Month

The short answer

In August 2026 the panel measured 65009 answers, against 68240 in July 2026. The most cited platform of the month is Trustpilot at 1.81%, ahead of Wikipedia at 1.39%.

This is the monthly snapshot of the panel: what the AIs cited this month, and what moved since the previous month.

Key figures

• 301025 AI answers analysed between August 2025 and August 2026
• 1820738 citations extracted from those answers
• 131349 distinct domains cited at least once
• 5 models measured separately: ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude and Grok
• 79% of the questions asked in French, the rest in English

What the AIs cited in August 2026

• Trustpilot: 1.81%
• Wikipedia: 1.39%
• TripAdvisor: 0.93%
• Amazon: 0.87%
• Microsoft: 0.87%
• Shopify: 0.68%
• YouTube: 0.58%
• LinkedIn: 0.56%
• Facebook: 0.55%
• Reddit: 0.5%

What moved since last month

• WordPress: 0.2% this month against 0.22% last month, minus 0.02 points
• GitHub: 0.16% this month against 0.2% last month, minus 0.04 points
• Indeed: 0.08% this month against 0.22% last month, minus 0.14 points
• YouTube: 0.58% this month against 2.76% last month, minus 2.18 points
• Reddit: 0.5% this month against 1.72% last month, minus 1.22 points
• Trustpilot: 1.81% this month against 2.92% last month, minus 1.11 points

How to read these numbers

A citation rate of 2% means the source was cited twice for every 100 measured answers. Rates are computed per model against the number of answers of that model, so a model with a smaller sample never distorts a column. A source cited several times inside one answer is counted once per company block, which keeps a single verbose answer from dominating a month.

What changed over 13 months

The panel measured 65009 answers in August 2026 against 68240 the month before. When the size and the mix of the sample move, citations spread differently across sources, which is why most platform rates move from one month to the next even when the underlying number of citations is stable.

What this means in practice

One month is a noisy unit. The panel grew substantially, the question mix changed with it, and most platform rates moved down as citations spread across a wider set of sources. That dispersion is itself the finding: as the sample broadens, concentration falls, and the sources that hold their position through that dilution are the resilient ones. Treat single month movements as direction, and use the three month averages published in the other studies for decisions.

How to use this study

1. Compare this month against the three month average rather than against a single previous month.
2. Watch the sources that hold position while the sample grows, since they are the stable ones.
3. Re-read the study for your sector before acting on a general movement.

How this study was measured

1. We run a panel of buyer questions every month, the questions people type before choosing a supplier.
2. Every question is sent to five AI: ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude and Grok.
3. Every answer is parsed, every cited source is extracted and normalised to a domain and a platform.
4. The citation rate is the number of citations of a source per 100 measured answers, computed per model so an uneven number of answers per model never distorts a column.
5. The month is closed, the dataset is rebuilt, and the public files are republished on data.sorank.com.

Limits of this study

1. This panel is not a neutral sample of the web. The questions come from the sectors our users operate in.
2. The panel leans French: 237930 answers come from questions asked in French and 63095 from questions asked in English.
3. Model coverage is uneven: 87008 answers from ChatGPT, 87004 from Perplexity, 87000 from Gemini, 20011 from Claude and 20002 from Grok. The two smallest samples are read as direction rather than as precise values.
4. A citation is not a click. This study measures what the AIs cite, not what a reader does next.

The dataset behind this study

Every number on this page comes from the public Sorank dataset. The underlying figures, the monthly detail and the filters are available here:

Open the source data on data.sorank.com

Data updated on 2026-08-26.

How to cite this study

This study is free to quote, in an article, a deck or a report. Please cite the source and the measurement period, because the numbers move every month.

Sorank (2026). AI Citation Report, August 2026: What the AIs Cited This Month. Sorank GEO studies, measured on 301025 AI answers collected between August 2025 and August 2026. Available at https://www.sorank.com/data/ai-citation-report-august-2026

Related studies

The same panel, read from another angle:

• AI Citation Study: Which Platforms the AIs Cite Most
• Trustpilot AI Citation Study
• Wikipedia in AI Answers: Decline Study
• All GEO studies

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