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AI visibility statistics 2026: 74 original data points.

Every figure here comes from our own measurements of ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI Overviews answers, August to October 2026. Each one names its sample and its dates, and links to the study that carries it.

The figures by theme

74 statistics in 10 themes. Third-party figures are listed apart at the end and are not part of the count.

Citations and sources

Which pages AI answers link to when a buyer asks about a category, and how rarely the brand's own site is one of them.

0.8%
1. 0.8% of 11,831 citations pointed to the brand's own website, across the 9 brands with a website on file. Sample: 1,541 buyer answers from ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews, Oct 4 to 8, 2026. Source: AI citations study, October 2026
5.7%
2. Only 5.7% of those buyer answers cited the brand's own site at all. Source: AI citations study, October 2026
14.7 vs 4.7
3. Perplexity averaged 14.7 citations per answer, Claude 14.1, Google AI Overviews 7.4 and ChatGPT 4.7, on the same 1,541 buyer answers. Source: AI citations study, October 2026
6.3%
4. 6.3% of Google AI Overviews answers cited no source at all, against 2.1% on Claude and 1.8% on ChatGPT. Source: AI citations study, October 2026
16.2% vs 0.87%
5. Eight tracked competitors' websites took 2,162 of 13,386 citations, 16.2%; the brand's own site took 116, 0.87% (interval 0.72% to 1.04%). Sample: 1,205 answers with citations, six brands, four engines, Sept 30 to Oct 3, 2026. Source: Competitor websites took 16% of AI citations, the brand's own 0.87%
56.5% vs 6.1%
6. 681 of those 1,205 answers, 56.5%, linked at least one tracked competitor's website; 74, 6.1%, linked the brand's own. Source: Competitor websites took 16% of AI citations, the brand's own 0.87%
2.49% vs 0.16%
7. The brand's own site was 2.49% of Google AI Overviews' citations, 1.66% of the ChatGPT engine's, 0.43% of Perplexity's and 0.16% of Claude's. Source: Competitor websites took 16% of AI citations, the brand's own 0.87%
508 of 574
8. In one construction software category, 18 companies' own websites took 574 of 1,714 citations, 33.5%, and 508 of those 574 landed on an inner page, not a homepage. Source: Competitor websites took 16% of AI citations, the brand's own 0.87%
5.3%
9. The seven sites cited in at least 12 of 15 categories (LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, Wikipedia, Reddit, Instagram and Quora) took 679 of 12,889 citations, 5.3%. Sample: 1,227 answers, 15 brand setups, four engines, Oct 4 to 6, 2026. Source: Seven universal sites took 5% of citations in 15 categories
94%
10. 3,940 of the 4,190 cited domains, 94%, were cited in one category only, and together they took 9,726 citations, 75.5% of the total. Source: Seven universal sites took 5% of citations in 15 categories
72.4%
11. 888 of the 1,227 answers, 72.4%, cited none of the seven universal sites. Source: Seven universal sites took 5% of citations in 15 categories
44%
12. In the one category tested, listicles and roundups were 44% of the sources ChatGPT cited for a best-in-category question, review sites 24%, vendor pages 18% and editorial 14%. Source: Fix the line a roundup already wrote about you

Mentions and agreement across engines

Whether ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Claude name the same brands for the same buyer question on the same day.

32.4%
13. When at least one of four engines named the brand for a buyer question on a day, all four named it on 60 of 185 question days, 32.4% (95% interval 26.1% to 39.5%). Sample: 576 question days, 292 unbranded questions, 14 brand setups, Sept 30 to Oct 4, 2026. Source: When one engine named the brand, all four did 32% of the time
67.9%
14. On 391 of the same 576 question days, 67.9%, no engine named the brand at all. Source: When one engine named the brand, all four did 32% of the time
30.0%
15. Of 1,818 mentions of tracked names (the brand and its competitors, once per question day), 545, 30.0%, came from exactly one of the four engines, and 570, 31.4%, from all four. Source: When one engine named the brand, all four did 32% of the time
18.2%
16. Only 105 of the 576 question days, 18.2%, had all four engines name exactly the same set of tracked names. Source: When one engine named the brand, all four did 32% of the time
56.2%
17. Watching one engine alone would have caught 134 of the brand's 185 appearances on ChatGPT (72.4%), 133 on AI Overviews (71.9%), 128 on Claude (69.2%) and 104 on Perplexity (56.2%). Source: When one engine named the brand, all four did 32% of the time
0.50 to 0.57
18. The same engine asked again a day later overlapped 0.62 to 0.69 in the tracked names it gave; two different engines on the same day overlapped 0.50 to 0.57. Source: When one engine named the brand, all four did 32% of the time
4.6%
19. 4.6% of the brands named for a buyer question, on a day all four engines answered it, were named by all four: 266 of 5,761 brand, question and day pairs. Sample: 1,541 buyer answers, 14 brands, Oct 4 to 8, 2026. Source: AI citations study, October 2026

Volatility and asking again

How much an answer changes from one day to the next, and how much more it changes when the same question is worded another way.

22.8%
20. Of 2,127 cases where a tracked name was in one day's answer, it was gone the next day in 486, 22.8% (95% interval 21.1% to 24.7%). Sample: 40 buyer questions asked daily on four engines, 10,612 day pairs, Oct 5 to 13, 2026. Source: Half the daily changes in AI answers reversed the next day
47.2%
21. Of 832 day-to-day changes in whether an answer named a tracked name, 393, 47.2%, reversed the following day. Source: Half the daily changes in AI answers reversed the next day
36.7%
22. Followed for two more days, a change held for all three days in 252 of 686 cases, 36.7%. Source: Half the daily changes in AI answers reversed the next day
3.6 points
23. A single day's mention rate, on 20 answers, landed a median 3.6 percentage points from its week's average across 55 name and engine pairs; 27 of 385 daily readings (7.0%) were 10 points or more away, and the largest gap was 20. Source: Half the daily changes in AI answers reversed the next day
23.9%
24. Across 53 workspaces, 102 of the 427 questions that named the workspace's own brand one day (23.9%) did not name it the next, yet the total only moved from 427 to 412. Source: Half the daily changes in AI answers reversed the next day
77.5% vs 55.1%
25. Asked again later, a phrasing that named the brand named it again in 448 of 578 cases, 77.5% (95% interval 73.9% to 80.7%); a sibling phrasing of the same question on the same day named it in 3,270 of 5,934, 55.1%. Sample: 13,994 answers, 96 brands, 1,908 buyer questions, four engines, Oct 4 to 15, 2026. Source: Rewording a buyer question moved AI answers more than asking again
15 of 15
26. All 15 brands with enough data showed that gap; the median brand kept its name on 35% of sibling phrasings and 70% of repeats. Source: Rewording a buyer question moved AI answers more than asking again
87.9%
27. On 840 days where a brand was named on at least one phrasing of a topic on an engine, it was named on every phrasing only 102 times; the other 738, 87.9%, were split. Source: Rewording a buyer question moved AI answers more than asking again
2.9%
28. Head-to-head questions about two named competitors named the brand in 53 of 1,822 answers, 2.9%, against 14.9% for alternatives questions, 15.1% for questions with a price or team-size constraint and 13.9% for plain best-of questions. Source: Rewording a buyer question moved AI answers more than asking again
9% to 27%
29. Across the engines Proofsource samples, 9% to 27% of the named set turned over from one day to the next, depending on the engine. Source: Your error bars overlap and the 12 point drop is real

Google AI Overviews

How often Google shows an AI Overview for a buyer question, what a tracker misses, and what the Overview links to.

96.0%
39. With asynchronous loading off, Proofsource's tracker recorded no AI Overview on 193 of 201 Google searches, 96.0% (95% interval 92.3% to 98.0%), Aug 22 to Sept 7, 2026. On the same 36 questions after the fix, 3 of 487 came back empty, 0.6%. Source: Our tracker missed Google's AI Overview on 96% of searches
3.4%
40. Across 485 questions in 14 categories, Sept 21 to Oct 5, 2026, 38 of 1,125 Google searches, 3.4%, returned no AI Overview. Source: Our tracker missed Google's AI Overview on 96% of searches
8.5%
41. Before the fix, no tracked competitor was named in any Google answer; after it, at least one was named in 41 of 484 Overviews, 8.5%. Source: Our tracker missed Google's AI Overview on 96% of searches
52 of 4,139
42. Since Sept 28, 2026, 52 of 4,139 answers across four engines asked a clarifying question back instead of answering, 38 of them from ChatGPT. Source: Our tracker missed Google's AI Overview on 96% of searches
Median 8
43. Of 138 AI Overview answers scored, 81 did not name the brand, and all 81 cited other pages anyway: a median of 8 sources per answer, up to 16. Sample: Aug 22 to Oct 1, 2026. Source: ChatGPT named the brand 78% of the time it searched

YouTube, Reddit and community sites

How much of what AI answers cite comes from video, community and social sites, and which pages on them get the link.

66.3%
44. 66.3% of Google AI Overviews answers cited at least one community, social or video site, against 38.1% on Claude, 30.3% on Perplexity and 7.3% on ChatGPT. Sample: 1,541 buyer answers, Oct 4 to 8, 2026. Source: AI citations study, October 2026
10.2%
45. youtube.com was cited in 10.2% of buyer answers, the most of any domain, ahead of reddit.com (7.9%), en.wikipedia.org (7.8%) and linkedin.com (7.5%). Source: AI citations study, October 2026
19.5% vs 0.7%
46. The seven universal sites took 19.5% of Google AI Overviews' citations (95% interval 17.9% to 21.2%), against 3.2% of Claude's, 1.9% of Perplexity's and 0.7% of ChatGPT's; ChatGPT cited Reddit 8 times in 1,449 citations. Source: Seven universal sites took 5% of citations in 15 categories
10.4%
47. youtube.com had 533 of 5,139 Google AI Overview citations, 10.4%, the most cited domain; on the ChatGPT engine it had 10 of 1,484, 0.7%. Sample: three B2B software brands, Aug 22 to Sept 30, 2026. Source: 59% of the YouTube links in AI Overviews jumped to a timestamp
59%
48. 161 of the 272 distinct YouTube URLs cited, 59%, jumped to a timestamp inside the video; the median timestamp was 75 seconds in. Source: 59% of the YouTube links in AI Overviews jumped to a timestamp
2.1%
49. 11 of the 533 YouTube citations, 2.1%, were on the channel of the brand being measured; the 228 cited videos came from 193 channels. Source: 59% of the YouTube links in AI Overviews jumped to a timestamp
272 days
50. The median cited video was 272 days old, and 64% of the YouTube citations came from videos published in the last year. Source: 59% of the YouTube links in AI Overviews jumped to a timestamp
22%
51. Only 42 of the 228 cited videos had a roundup or comparison title, and they carried 22% of the YouTube citations. Source: 59% of the YouTube links in AI Overviews jumped to a timestamp
2.9%
52. reddit.com had 141 of 4,803 Google AI Overview citations, 2.9%, and 42 of 1,230 ChatGPT engine citations, 3.4%. Sample: 1,764 answers, Aug 22 to Sept 29, 2026. Source: Reddit is 3% of AI citations, and every one is a single thread
183 of 183
53. All 183 Reddit citations pointed at a single comment thread: 101 threads in 64 subreddits, 67 cited only once, and just 2 cited by both engines. Source: Reddit is 3% of AI citations, and every one is a single thread

Software directories and reviews

How often review and directory sites such as G2 and Capterra are cited, and which of their pages gets the link.

1.8%
54. Ten software directories, G2 and Capterra among them, took 165 of 9,198 citations, 1.8% (95% interval 1.5% to 2.1%). Sample: 1,099 answers with citations, six B2B software brands, four engines, Aug 23 to Oct 2, 2026. Source: Software directories are 1.8% of AI citations
11.4%
55. 125 of those 1,099 answers, 11.4%, carried at least one directory link. Source: Software directories are 1.8% of AI citations
8 of 9,198
56. The measured brand's own directory profile was the cited page 8 times out of 9,198 citations. Source: Software directories are 1.8% of AI citations
29.7%
57. Of the 165 directory citations, 49 (29.7%) were category rankings, 47 (28.5%) alternatives pages keyed to one product and 39 (23.6%) single product profiles. Source: Software directories are 1.8% of AI citations
22.2% vs 5.7%
58. 68 of 306 ChatGPT engine answers, 22.2%, carried a directory link, against 42 of 739 Google AI Overviews answers, 5.7%. Source: Software directories are 1.8% of AI citations
240
59. Two HR trade publications took 240 citations between them, more than all ten directories combined. Source: Software directories are 1.8% of AI citations

llms.txt and crawler files

Whether the sites AI answers cite publish an llms.txt file, and whether any answer cites it.

129 of 300
60. Of the 300 domains that ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI Overviews cited most, 129 published a real llms.txt file, 137 had none or served an HTML page, and 34 blocked the check or errored (fetched Oct 8, 2026). Source: Engines cited 129 sites that publish llms.txt 6,343 times
1 of 6,343
61. Those 129 sites were cited 6,343 times, and one citation pointed at the file (an llms-full.txt); no answer cited an llms.txt. Sample: 41,597 citations in 4,228 answers, 18 accounts, Aug 23 to Oct 5, 2026. Source: Engines cited 129 sites that publish llms.txt 6,343 times
8 of 10
62. Of the ten most cited domains, eight had no llms.txt and two blocked the check; of the top 25, three had one. Source: Engines cited 129 sites that publish llms.txt 6,343 times
14 of 129
63. 14 of the 129 files, all from online stores, followed one template headed "Agent Instructions", written for shopping agents. Source: Engines cited 129 sites that publish llms.txt 6,343 times
7 of 100
64. Seven of the top 100 domains returned an HTML page with a 200 status where the llms.txt file should be. Source: Engines cited 129 sites that publish llms.txt 6,343 times

Position, share of voice and the category leader

Where a brand sits in the answer when it is named, and how much the choice of questions and competitors moves a benchmark.

Median 5
65. Of 6,546 answers that named any company, the median named five. Sample: 7,362 answers to 1,131 non-branded questions across 40 accounts, four engines, Oct 4 to 9, 2026. Source: Same mention rate, named first 38 times vs 15
38 vs 15
66. Two companies in one business software category were each named in 70 of 160 answers, a 44% mention rate apiece, yet one was named first 38 times (54%, 95% interval 43% to 65%) and the other 15 times (21%, 13% to 32%). Source: Same mention rate, named first 38 times vs 15
6 of 18
67. In 6 of 18 categories, the company named most often was not the one named first most often. Source: Same mention rate, named first 38 times vs 15
59% to 40%
68. The AI visibility tool the engines named most was named in 130 of 220 answers, 59%, but in 55 of 136, 40% (95% interval 33% to 49%), on the 16 questions that named no tool. Sample: 25 buyer questions, four engines, three scan days, Oct 4 to 10, 2026. Source: The AI leader fell from 59% to 40% when no brand was named
22.8% to 34%
69. On those 16 neutral questions, taking two broad SEO suites off a 10-tool competitor list moved the leader's share of voice from 22.8% (55 of 241 mentions) to 34% (55 of 162). No answer changed. Source: The AI leader fell from 59% to 40% when no brand was named
18 vs 1
70. Google AI Overviews named the leader in 18 of its 34 answers to the neutral questions and cited its site in 1; ChatGPT named it in 18 and cited its site in 10. Source: The AI leader fell from 59% to 40% when no brand was named

How engines label the category

Whether the engines call AI visibility tools GEO or AEO when the buyer used neither word.

36% vs 17%
71. In 180 answers to 25 buyer questions about AI visibility tools, none of them using either acronym, GEO appeared in 64 (36%, 95% interval 29% to 43%) and AEO in 31 (17%, 12% to 23%). Sample: four engines, Oct 4 to 8, 2026. Source: ChatGPT called one tool both GEO and AEO on the same day
28 of 45
72. Google AI Overviews said GEO in 28 of its 45 answers and AEO in 10; Perplexity used them in 3 and 1. Source: ChatGPT called one tool both GEO and AEO on the same day
104
73. The vendor named most often appeared in 104 answers: 37 called its category GEO, 11 AEO and 11 used both. Source: ChatGPT called one tool both GEO and AEO on the same day
0 of 180
74. LLM SEO, LLM optimization or LLMO appeared in none of the 180 answers, and AI SEO or AI search optimization in 2. Source: ChatGPT called one tool both GEO and AEO on the same day

Third-party figures we cite

Other people's research that our posts discuss. These are not our measurements and are not counted above.

How these were measured, and their limits

  • Where they come from. Every original figure comes from the pipeline Proofsource runs for its customers' scans: buyer questions put to ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI Overviews, each answer stored with its full text and every source it cited, then counted for one study.
  • Samples differ. Each sentence names its own sample and dates, all between Aug 22 and Oct 15, 2026. Figures from different studies are not comparable with each other unless the sentence says so.
  • The ChatGPT engine. Where a sentence says the ChatGPT engine, it means Proofsource's sampler on OpenAI's API with web search available. Where it says logged-out ChatGPT, it means the consumer page as a logged-out US visitor.
  • Intervals. A range in brackets is the interval the source page prints beside that figure, a 95% interval where the sentence says so.
  • Limits. These are samples, not a census, and several rest on a handful of brands or one category. Each source page ends with a section on where its figures could be wrong; read it before you generalize. No brand or customer is named.

How Proofsource measures AI visibility in general is on the methodology page.

How to cite these

Free to cite with a link to this page. Quote a figure with the sample its sentence gives, and link the study it comes from where you can. To point at one figure, link its number, for example https://proofsource.co/ai-visibility-statistics#stat-1. Suggested citation:

Proofsource (2026). AI visibility statistics 2026: 74 original data points. https://proofsource.co/ai-visibility-statistics

Measure the same things for your brand.

See which buyer questions name you on each engine, which pages they cite, and who gets named instead.

200 answers. 25 Prompts/Question. Top AI engines. 2 days. Free.ChatGPTPerplexityClaudeGoogle AI OverviewsGoogle AI ModeGeminiMicrosoft CopilotGrokDeepSeekMeta AI

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