---
title: "2025-10 AI Citation Study Public"
url: https://stacklist.com/card/ca3c05e6-f327-49bc-9d99-5c9bcbc21bca
stack: https://stacklist.com/stack/ab020d21-13c7-4ef0-863d-94fcb0ceec45
summary: "This 2025 AI Citation Study analyzes 1M+ website citations across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews to reveal how brands get discovered in AI search engines. Key findings show citation patterns differ by platform, with Reddit and Wikipedia dominating, while technical SEO, crawlability, and content structure are essential for AI visibility."
tags: "ai-search, seo, citation-analysis, generative-ai, content-optimization, web-discovery, ai-crawlers"
key_entities: "ChatGPT (technology), Perplexity (technology), Google AI Overviews (technology), Otterly.AI (organization), Reddit (technology), Wikipedia (technology), AI Citation (concept), Technical SEO (concept), AI Crawlers (concept), Worldwide (location), United States (location), United Kingdom (location), Germany (location)"
classification: "analysis"
content_hash: "sha256:e37e4b1069121dc04608252a6c590b8880fd53b0d3a2d4a1083b587307f7920c"
acp_version: "0.2"
token_counts_approximate: 1411
visibility: public
agent_accessible: true
status: "final"
---

# 2025-10 AI Citation Study Public

Worldwide AI Citation
Analysis – Generative AI
Search Engines 
AI Citation Study 
ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews
1M+ website citations 

We Analyzed 1M+ Websites.
Here’s What We Found. 
Otterly.AI 

AI search engines are now major discovery channels. If your brand isn’t cited in responses from ChatGPT,
Perplexity, or Google AI Overviews, you’re invisible to a growing share of your audience.
Citation Patterns Differ by AI Platform 
● ChatGPT favors Reddit, Wikipedia, and news sites. Strong brand mentions, weak on clickable links. 
● Perplexity leans heavily on Reddit and community forums. Balanced mentions and citations. 
● Google AI Overviews are brand-forward and offer the highest number of link citations, but only appear
~33% of the time.
Brands that dominate citations are those with content that feels trustworthy, structured, and readable to AI
crawlers.
The most cited domains include: Reddit.com , Wikipedia.org , Forbes.com , YouTube.com.
Technical SEO is Table Stakes, Not a Differentiator. To appear in AI-generated results, your site must: 
● Allow access to AI bots (check robots.txt) 
● Use static, crawlable HTML (avoid heavy JavaScript) 
● Be structured for AI readability (FAQs, schemas, chunked content) 
Executive Summary 
Otterly.AI 

Dataset size: 1,000,000+ website citations 
Sources: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews 
Timeframe: Sept 2025 
Scope: worldwide 
Analyzed with: OtterlyAI 
Methodology 
Otterly.AI 

We Analyzed 1M+ Websites.
The Results. 
Otterly.AI 

> Brands
> News & Media
> Community 
Which websites
are getting cited
on AI Search? 
AI Citation Report OtterlyAI 
Otterly.AI 

ChatGPT
loves Reddit,
Wikipedia and
News. 
AI Citation Report OtterlyAI 
Otterly.AI 

Perplexity likes
Reddit even more. 
AI Citation Report OtterlyAI 
Otterly.AI 

Google AI
Overviews are
pretty
Brand focused. 
AI Citation Report OtterlyAI 
Otterly.AI 

AI Citation Report OtterlyAI 
The most cited websites on AI Search - worldwide 
Otterly.AI 

AI Citation Report OtterlyAI 
The most cited websites on ChatGPT - worldwide 
Otterly.AI 

Update : Reddit.com
dropped
significantly
on Sept 11.
Still it’s the most
cited website. 
Quelle: OtterlyAI 
Otterly.AI 

Different websites dominate
on different AI Search Engines 
The most cited
websites on AI
Search (worldwide) 
AI Citation Report OtterlyAI 
Otterly.AI 

The most cited websites on AI Search (worldwide) 
Otterly.AI 

> Worldwide
> United States
> United Kingdom
> Germany
> Canada
> Italy
> Australia
> United Arab Emirates 
👉 Try it yourself! 
Explore your local
results: Interactive
AI Citations 
Otterly.AI 

What drives Citations? 
How can I get my website cited? 
Otterly.AI 

What drives Citations? 
# 1: On-Page 
Wikipedia 
PR/media 
Crawlability 
Blocked content,
robots.txt, dynamic
content 
Content
Optimization 
(Content Checking,
Chunking, Structure,
Schema) 
Content Gap
Analysis 
(Work on
relevant citations) 
Partner with
relevant content 
Analyse competitors’
content and build
similar one 
# 2: Content Gap # 3:Content Optimizat. 
Otterly.AI 

Traditional SEO
is important.
But not everything. 
Otterly.AI 

Crawlability 
AI crawlers and bots often get
blocked.
Different directories or apps on your
site may have their own rules, so
check multiple content URLs.
Review your robots.txt file for any
blocking rules.
Also, make sure your content isn’t
generated with JavaScript (common
in many ecommerce platforms), as
bots may not see it.
Tools like Prerender.io can help make
your content more accessible to AI
crawlers. 
Does my robots.txt
explicitly allow or
disallow access to AI
bots? 
My robots.txt blocking my
site? 
Is my CDN or hosting
provider allowing AI bots
- or blocking them? 
CDN blocking my content? 
AI Crawler Simulation Tool 
Is my content
dynamically generated -
making it invisible to AI
crawlers? 
Is my site using too much
Javascript? 
Otterly.AI 

AI Crawlers are still not able to interact with Javascript 
Otterly.AI 

ChatGPT loves News & Editorial Content 
Otterly.AI 

Content is King 
Make your content citable by AI Search 
Otterly.AI 

How to get your website
cited by AI? 
Otterly.AI 

The 3 Basics
to get cited 
Does my robots.txt
explicitly allow or
disallow access to AI
bots? 
Robots.txt file 
Is my CDN or hosting
provider allowing AI bots
- or blocking them? 
CDN / Cloud Hosting 
Is my content
dynamically generated -
making it invisible to AI
crawlers? 
Dynamic vs Static
Content 
Otterly.AI 

The 3 Basics
to get cited 
Does my robots.txt
explicitly allow or
disallow access to AI
bots? 
GEO Audit 
Is my CDN or hosting
provider allowing AI bots
- or blocking them? 
AI Crawler Simulation
Tool 
Is my content
dynamically generated -
making it invisible to AI
crawlers? 
Dynamic vs Static
Content 
Otterly.AI 

Consider AI Crawlers as a new persona 
Platform Crawler Name What does it do? 
OpenAI GPTBot It is used to crawl content that may be used in training of LLM models 
OpenAI OAI-Searchbot triggered to find web search results 
OpenAI ChatGPT-User ChatGPT-User is for user actions in ChatGPT and Custom GPTs 
Perplexity PerplexityBot triggered to find web search results 
Perplexity Perplexity-User Supports user actions within Perplexity. When users ask Perplexity a
question, it might visit a web page to help provide an accurate answer
and include a link to the page in its response 
Anthropic ClaudeBot It is used to crawl content that may be used in training of LLM models 
Anthropic Claude-Searchbot triggered to find web search results 
Anthropic Claude-User This is for user actions in Claude 
Otterly.AI 

Get ready for AI Search. Join OtterlyAI today. 
otterly.ai