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Wikipedia went from the most cited source of the panel to third place in 13 months. Data study on 301025 AI answers, model by model.
Wikipedia went from 5.28% of measured answers in August 2025 to 1.39% in August 2026, after a peak of 11.31% in October 2025. It is still the leading source on ChatGPT, which cites it in 3.43% of its answers, and almost absent from Claude at 0.03%. Over the same period the leading review platform reached 2.7%.
The single largest movement in 13 months of data is not a platform rising, it is the encyclopedia falling.
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.
Averaged over the first three months against the last three, Wikipedia moved from 9.56% to 1.62%, while the leading review platform moved from 0.36% to 2.7%. The two lines crossed in April 2026.
Wikipedia started the period as the most cited source in the panel and ended it well behind review and video platforms. The decline is visible on every model except the most conservative one, which still leans on it heavily. Two readings are possible: the models diversified their retrieval, or the questions in the panel moved towards commercial intent. Both are probably true, and both point the same way for a business, which is that an encyclopedic entry is no longer the shortcut it was.
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.
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). Wikipedia in AI Answers: a Data Study of Its Decline over 13 Months. Sorank GEO studies, measured on 301025 AI answers collected between August 2025 and August 2026. Available at https://www.sorank.com/data/wikipedia-ai-citation-decline-study
The same panel, read from another angle:
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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Wikipedia is cited by all five models measured. ChatGPT cites it most, in 3.43% of its answers, and Claude least, in 0.03%. The full model by model breakdown is on this page.
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.
No. On the most conservative model it remains the leading source. The decline is real at panel level and uneven by model, which is exactly why an average is a poor basis for a decision.
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