# What AI assistants cite when buyers ask who to choose.

> Asked 36 buying questions in six categories, ChatGPT and Perplexity cite a ranking or comparison page in 85% of their answers and Reddit in 1%. The median answer cites 9 distinct domains. Measured by Heddle and updated weekly; each figure carries the day it was last true.

Canonical: https://heddle.pro/statistics/ai-answers

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| Figure | Value | True as of | Source |
| AI answers to buying questions that cite at least one commercial site, a company's or a publisher's | 97% | October 22, 2026 | Our measurement |
| AI answers that cite a ranking or comparison page (best, top, vs, alternatives, review) | 85% | October 22, 2026 | Our measurement |
| AI answers that cite Reddit | 1% | October 22, 2026 | Our measurement |
| AI answers that cite YouTube | 0% | October 22, 2026 | Our measurement |
| AI answers that cite Wikipedia | 0% | October 22, 2026 | Our measurement |
| Distinct domains cited by the median AI answer | 9 | October 22, 2026 | Our measurement |
| ChatGPT answers that cite a ranking or comparison page | 78% | October 22, 2026 | Our measurement |
| ChatGPT answers that cite Reddit | 0% | October 22, 2026 | Our measurement |
| Perplexity answers that cite a ranking or comparison page | 92% | October 22, 2026 | Our measurement |
| Perplexity answers that cite Reddit | 3% | October 22, 2026 | Our measurement |
| B2B software: AI answers that cite a ranking or comparison page | 92% | October 22, 2026 | Our measurement |
| Professional services: AI answers that cite a ranking or comparison page | 92% | October 22, 2026 | Our measurement |
| Home services: AI answers that cite a ranking or comparison page | 42% | October 22, 2026 | Our measurement |
| Small business finance: AI answers that cite a ranking or comparison page | 92% | October 22, 2026 | Our measurement |
| Developer and data tools: AI answers that cite a ranking or comparison page | 100% | October 22, 2026 | Our measurement |
| Ecommerce: AI answers that cite a ranking or comparison page | 92% | October 22, 2026 | Our measurement |

## How these figures were collected

Every week Heddle puts the same 36 buying questions, six in each of six categories, to ChatGPT and Perplexity through DataForSEO. ChatGPT's answer is the one a logged-out US visitor sees on chatgpt.com, with web search on. Perplexity's is its sonar model, which searches the web itself.

For each answer we record the URLs it cites and count the answer once per figure, however many such links it has. Images the answer displays are not counted as citations. A ranking or comparison page is a cited URL whose path contains best, top, vs, alternatives or review. A commercial site is any cited domain that is not a platform, a reference work, a search engine, or a government or education site, so publishers count.

An answer that failed is left out of every figure rather than counted as citing nothing, and a figure measured over fewer than ten answers is not published. Moves smaller than one percentage point are not published, so a figure's date is the day its value last changed.

Measured every Monday; a figure changes on the page when its weekly reading moves by a point or more, and a move of more than ten points waits for a person to check it.

## How to cite this page

Heddle, " AI Answer Citation Statistics, Measured Weekly ", https://heddle.pro/statistics/ai-answers, figures as of October 22, 2026. Quote the figure with the date beside it in the table, since these move week to week.

## What changed

- October 22, 2026: First reading: 16 figures from 72 answers, 36 buying questions in six categories put to ChatGPT and Perplexity on 22 October 2026, each checked by a person before publishing.

## Find out whether AI answers name you. Check your site, talk to us, or see the plans.

Heddle asks the questions your buyers ask, every week, and tells you which answers name you, which cite someone else, and what to change. Tell us about your site and we'll show you the first reading.