AI Citation Study: Which Platforms the AIs Cite Most (301025 Answers Measured)

About Author

Thibault Besson-Magdelain

Founder of Sorank, 5+ years of experience in SEO, GEO enthusiast.

The short answer

Across 301025 AI answers collected between August 2025 and August 2026, Trustpilot is the most cited platform of the panel, with a citation rate of 2.7%. The ranking changes completely from one model to another: Wikipedia is cited in 3.43% of ChatGPT answers and 0.03% of Claude answers. Only 6 platforms are cited by all five models.

There is no single way to be cited by the AIs. There are five citation diets, and a platform that carries one model can be almost invisible on another.

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

Which platforms the AIs cite most

Trustpilot: 2.7%
YouTube: 2.35%
Wikipedia: 1.62%
Reddit: 1.48%
Amazon: 1.12%
TripAdvisor: 1.08%
Microsoft: 1.03%
Shopify: 0.91%
Facebook: 0.85%
LinkedIn: 0.71%
Salesforce: 0.5%
HubSpot: 0.47%

The same platforms, model by model

Trustpilot: 2.7% on ChatGPT, 4.33% on Gemini, 1.21% on Perplexity, 1.57% on Claude, 1.8% on Grok
YouTube: 0.04% on ChatGPT, 3.69% on Gemini, 3.46% on Perplexity, 0% on Claude, 2.76% on Grok
Wikipedia: 3.43% on ChatGPT, 1.38% on Gemini, 0.19% on Perplexity, 0.03% on Claude, 1.08% on Grok
Reddit: 0.33% on ChatGPT, 2.5% on Gemini, 1.51% on Perplexity, 0% on Claude, 4.11% on Grok
Amazon: 0.9% on ChatGPT, 1.96% on Gemini, 0.4% on Perplexity, 0.49% on Claude, 3.03% on Grok
TripAdvisor: 1.09% on ChatGPT, 0.73% on Gemini, 1.48% on Perplexity, 0.19% on Claude, 0.83% on Grok
Microsoft: 1.14% on ChatGPT, 1.89% on Gemini, 0.19% on Perplexity, 0.14% on Claude, 0.09% on Grok
Shopify: 0.96% on ChatGPT, 1.54% on Gemini, 0.35% on Perplexity, 0.08% on Claude, 0.09% on Grok

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.

The distribution is worth as much as the ranking. The top three sources hold 45% of the citations counted in this table, 7 platforms sit above 1%, and Trustpilot and YouTube are close enough to be treated as one tier. A market where three sources hold most of the citations rewards depth on those three rather than presence everywhere.

What changed over 13 months

The largest rise of the period is Trustpilot at plus 2.34 points between the first and the last quarter measured. The largest fall is Wikipedia at minus 7.94 points. Three platforms moved by more than one full point, which is why a ranking older than a quarter is a poor basis for a decision.

What this means in practice

The practical consequence is that a platform budget decided on an average is a budget decided on a number that describes none of your buyers. If your market asks Gemini, video and review platforms carry most of the citations. If it asks ChatGPT, encyclopedic and institutional sources still dominate. The right question is not which platform the AIs prefer, it is which model your buyers actually open before they choose a supplier.

How to use this study

Ask your last 20 customers which assistant they used before contacting you, then read the column of that model rather than the average.
Claim and complete your profile on the two platforms that lead that column before producing any new content.
Re-measure after 60 days: platform positions in this dataset move by more than one point in a single quarter.

How this study was measured

We run a panel of buyer questions every month, the questions people type before choosing a supplier.
Every question is sent to five AI: ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude and Grok.
Every answer is parsed, every cited source is extracted and normalised to a domain and a platform.
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.
The month is closed, the dataset is rebuilt, and the public files are republished on data.sorank.com.

Limits of this study

This panel is not a neutral sample of the web. The questions come from the sectors our users operate in.
The panel leans French: 237930 answers come from questions asked in French and 63095 from questions asked in English.
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.
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 Study: Which Platforms the AIs Cite Most (301025 Answers Measured). Sorank GEO studies, measured on 301025 AI answers collected between August 2025 and August 2026. Available at https://www.sorank.com/data/ai-citation-study-platforms

Related studies

The same panel, read from another angle:

Measure your own citations

This study describes a market. Sorank measures your site: which questions mention you, which mention someone else, and what to publish to change that, tracked weekly across the same five AI.

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Frequently questions asked

Which platform do the AIs cite most in the whole panel?

Trustpilot at 2.7%, ahead of YouTube at 2.35% and Wikipedia at 1.62%. The full ranking is on this page, and the source data is public on data.sorank.com.

How was this study measured?

On 301025 answers from five AI, collected between August 2025 and August 2026, with every cited source extracted and normalised. The citation rate is the number of citations per 100 measured answers. The public dataset is on data.sorank.com.

Which platform should I start with if I sell to a broad audience?

Start with the platform that appears in every model column rather than the one with the highest average. A source cited by all five models keeps working when your buyers change assistant, which an average cannot promise.