WordPress is the open-source content management system (CMS) behind a large part of the web, and WordPress.com is the hosted service built on it by Automattic. AI assistants recommend it as a way to build a site, and they cite WordPress.org documentation, plugin pages and support forums, as well as blogs hosted on WordPress.com, as sources for practical website questions.
GrokCitations of 
WordPress by AI model
Grok cites WordPress 8.1 times more often than Perplexity (0.97 vs 0.12 citations per 100 answers).
How to read it: one line per AI model; each point is the number of citations of WordPress per 100 answers of that model in the month. The table gives the totals over the whole period.
| Model | Answers analyzed | Citations of WordPress | per 100 answers |
|---|---|---|---|
 ChatGPT | 148'295 | 541 | 0.36 |
 Gemini | 148'287 | 818 | 0.55 |
 Perplexity | 118'647 | 142 | 0.12 |
 Claude | 56'291 | 107 | 0.19 |
 Grok | 26'638 | 259 | 0.97 |
| All models | 498'158 | 1'867 | 0.37 |
Per 100 answers: citations of WordPress for every 100 answers of the model, from August 2025 to October 2026.
WordPress over time
On the months measured in both languages (from July to October 2026), AI cites WordPress 4.1 times more in English (1.04) than in French (0.25).
How to read it: WordPress citations per 100 answers, week by week (month by month for the older history), in French and in English.
| Month |  French |  English | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Answers | per 100 answers | Answers | per 100 answers | |
| August 2025 | 1'140 | 0.53 | 110* | 0.00 |
| September 2025 | 2'750 | 0.29 | 375* | 0.00 |
| October 2025 | 5'160 | 0.27 | 765* | 0.26 |
| November 2025 | 2'730 | 0.59 | 255* | 0.00 |
| December 2025 | 8'840 | 0.72 | 410* | 1.71 |
| January 2026 | 22'460 | 0.57 | 240* | 4.58 |
| February 2026 | 15'420 | 0.23 | - | - |
| March 2026 | 26'601 | 0.32 | - | - |
| April 2026 | 16'183 | 0.27 | - | - |
| May 2026 | 19'819 | 0.23 | - | - |
| June 2026 | 23'336 | 0.35 | 225* | 0.00 |
| July 2026 | 55'321 | 0.22 | 10'544 | 0.22 |
| August 2026 | 64'104 | 0.18 | 13'369 | 0.21 |
| September 2026 | 78'814 | 0.27 | 16'250 | 0.18 |
| October 2026 | 92'505 | 0.30 | 17'282 | 2.98 |
Hollow points and asterisk: fewer than 1'000 answers that month in that language, so the rate varies strongly from one month to the next.
WordPress as a source: software, directories, forums and blogs
WordPress reaches AI answers through several properties, and it helps to tell them apart:
- WordPress.org hosts the free software, its official documentation and the support forums, with local versions in many languages such as fr.wordpress.org or de.wordpress.org.
- The plugin and theme directories list thousands of extensions with descriptions, ratings, compatibility and update dates, a structured catalogue that assistants can quote when they recommend one.
- WordPress.com is a commercial hosting service with its own plans and help pages.
- Blogs on WordPress.com subdomains (name.wordpress.com) belong to independent authors, associations or small businesses, and are counted under the WordPress name when an AI cites them.
Beyond these sites, WordPress is above all a product name. Many answers simply recommend it, for example "build your site with WordPress and WooCommerce", without any link to the platform.
Which questions make an AI mention WordPress?
WordPress comes up when someone wants to create, run or repair a website. Typical prompts: "which CMS for a small business website", "WordPress or Wix for a restaurant", "how to speed up a WordPress site", "best SEO plugin for WordPress", "how much does a WordPress website cost". Error-driven questions also lead there, such as "white screen after a plugin update".
It also appears indirectly in questions about service providers. When someone asks for "a web agency in Bordeaux" or "a freelancer to redesign my site", assistants often describe providers by the technology they use, and WordPress is the most widely used CMS. This is why WordPress citations concentrate on IT services and marketing businesses, where the website is the product being sold.
Unlike most developer platforms, WordPress is not an English-only source. Its localised documentation and forums, and the many agencies that build WordPress sites in every country, make it relevant in French, German, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese answers too.
Industries where AI cites WordPress the most
| Industry | per 100 answers | Against its average |
|---|---|---|
 IT Services | 3.21 | × 8.6 |
 Software | 1.83 | × 4.9 |
 Media | 1.00 | × 2.7 |
 Marketing | 0.72 | × 1.9 |
 Manufacturing | 0.47 | × 1.3 |
Industries since July 2026, citations per 100 answers in the industry and ratio to the platform's rate over the same months.
How do AI models differ when they cite WordPress?
Models that search the web before answering pick up WordPress.org when a question is technical, because forum threads and plugin pages match error messages and plugin names closely. Gemini, which relies on Google Search, is well placed to retrieve these pages. ChatGPT can recommend WordPress from general knowledge, since the CMS is documented everywhere, and adds sources when ChatGPT search runs.
Perplexity searches every time but often credits hosting companies, agencies and comparison blogs rather than WordPress.org itself, so WordPress tends to reach its answers through third-party pages. Grok can echo posts from X about releases or security issues. Claude typically describes WordPress without a link and points to documentation when its web search is active.
What to keep in mind when reading WordPress figures
A WordPress citation can mean three things: a WordPress.org page used as a technical reference, a WordPress.com page about hosting offers, or a blog that happens to be hosted on a WordPress.com subdomain. Only the first two say something about WordPress as a platform; the third is closer to the visibility of an individual author.
The reverse is also true. The many company sites that run WordPress on their own domain are invisible here: when an AI cites them, the citation goes to their domain, not to WordPress.
How to use WordPress to get cited by AI
- Treat your WordPress site as the base of your GEO (Generative Engine Optimization): one H1 per page, an answer in the first paragraph, short sections and an FAQ written in your customers' words.
- Use an SEO plugin to generate structured data (Organization, LocalBusiness, Product, FAQPage) and an XML sitemap, so search engines and AI crawlers understand each page.
- Check your robots.txt, firewall and security plugins: some settings block AI crawlers such as GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, ClaudeBot or PerplexityBot, which keeps your pages out of answers built on live search.
- If you run a web agency, state clearly which CMS you specialise in and publish case studies by sector and city, because answers about agencies often group providers by technology.
- If you publish a plugin or theme, keep its WordPress.org page complete: plain-language description, FAQ, changelog, tested WordPress version and quick replies in the support forum.
- Move important content from a free WordPress.com subdomain to your own domain, so that citations build the authority of your brand rather than that of a subdomain.
Compare WordPress with similar platforms
Rank neighbours and platforms of the same kind; the figure is citations per 100 answers over the whole period.
Frequently asked questions
Do AI chatbots recommend WordPress to create a website?
Often, yes. When asked which tool to use for a business site, a blog or an online shop, assistants generally present WordPress among the main options, next to hosted builders such as Wix, Squarespace or Webflow and, for e-commerce, Shopify. The final recommendation usually depends on the budget, technical skills and need for flexibility stated in the question.
Is a WordPress site more likely to be cited by AI than a site built with another CMS?
No, the CMS is not a citation criterion. AI assistants choose pages for their content, clarity and authority, not for the software that displays them. WordPress helps only indirectly: its SEO plugins make structured data, sitemaps and clean URLs easy to set up, which helps search engines and AI crawlers read the pages.
What is the difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com in AI answers?
WordPress.org is the home of the open-source software, with documentation, plugins and support forums, and it is the property cited for technical questions. WordPress.com is a hosting service run by Automattic, cited when an answer compares hosted website offers, and it also hosts many independent blogs on subdomains that AI assistants can quote.
How often do AI assistants cite WordPress?
On average, WordPress gets 0.37 citations per 100 answers from ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok and Perplexity, across 498'158 answers analyzed from August 2025 to October 2026. That puts WordPress 14th of the 37 platforms tracked by Sorank.
Which AI cites WordPress the most?
Grok, with 0.97 citations per 100 answers. Perplexity cites WordPress the least: 0.12 per 100 answers.
Method and sources
498'158 answers from ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok and Perplexity, from August 2025 to October 2026, to the questions Sorank asks every week to follow its clients' visibility (87% of them in French). A citation is a source domain given in an answer; the rate is the number of citations per 100 answers. Data snapshot of 2 November 2026.
Full methodology · Raw data (JSON)
How to cite this page: Sorank Data, “WordPress AI citations by model, October 2026”, sorank.com/data, data snapshot of 2 November 2026.
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