Published by Eli. First release, reviewed 15 October 2026. ChatGPT answers stored 25 September to 15 October 2026.
ELI RESEARCH · FIRST RELEASE
What ChatGPT cites when buyers ask about AI search software
We counted every source ChatGPT and Gemini listed in 431 answers to buyer questions about AI search and AI visibility software. The answers are Eli's own measurements of its own category, stored as they came back.
01 / SOURCE TYPES
Which kinds of pages ChatGPT listed as sources.
Each row counts answers that listed at least one page of that kind. One answer can count in several rows. On average an answer listed 19.9 links.
| Source type | Answers (of 366) | Share | What it was |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reddit threads | 299 | 82% | Community discussion, mostly tool lists and "what do you use" threads. |
| Comparison and alternatives pages | 230 | 63% | Any page whose address says alternatives, best, vs, compare or top. Most were written by other software vendors. |
| Research papers (arXiv) | 134 | 37% | Academic papers about generative search, mostly on how-it-works questions. |
| G2 | 86 | 23% | Mostly G2's "competitors and alternatives" pages for a named product. |
| Google and OpenAI documentation | 80 | 22% | The platforms' own pages about AI features and crawlers. |
| Wikipedia | 54 | 15% | Background entries about products and terms. |
| YouTube videos | 38 | 10% | Reviews and walkthroughs of the named tools. |
| Eli's own site (hireeli.io) | 8 | 2% | Listed here because it is the site that publishes this page. |
| Other review sites | 4 | 1% | Capterra, SourceForge, TrustRadius, GetApp, Software Advice, Product Hunt. |
02 / MOST-CITED DOMAINS
The domains that appeared in the most answers.
The answers listed 7,295 links on 1,702 different domains. The ten most-listed domains held 2,412 of those links (33%). One government PDF about tourism (visitnebraska.com) was listed in 31 answers that had nothing to do with tourism; we report it as observed.
| Domain | Answers citing it | Share of answers |
|---|---|---|
| reddit.com | 299 | 82% |
| arxiv.org | 134 | 37% |
| g2.com | 86 | 23% |
| en.wikipedia.org | 54 | 15% |
| hubspot.com | 51 | 14% |
| semrush.com | 47 | 13% |
| promptwatch.com | 43 | 12% |
| openai.com | 41 | 11% |
| youtube.com | 38 | 10% |
| developers.google.com | 36 | 10% |
| visitnebraska.com | 31 | 8% |
| brandaxis.ai | 29 | 8% |
| airops.com | 28 | 8% |
| ahrefs.com | 28 | 8% |
03 / REDDIT
Reddit was among the sources of 82% of answers, through 505 different threads.
ChatGPT listed 1,479 Reddit links in total, from 190 communities and user profiles. The same handful of threads came back across many questions: a few "best tools" and "alternatives to" threads were each listed in more than 20 answers. The communities listed in the most answers were r/aeo (98), r/SaaS (95), r/Superframeworks (78), r/DigitalMarketing (55), r/GEO_optimization (39).
04 / ALTERNATIVES QUESTIONS
When the question asks for alternatives to a named product.
58 of the questions asked for alternatives to a named product, for example "What are the best Peec AI alternatives for B2B SaaS?". ChatGPT gave 163 answers to them. Reddit was among the sources listed in 148 (91%), comparison and alternatives pages in 138 (85%) and G2 in 57 (35%). The G2 pages were almost always that product's "competitors and alternatives" page, which lists products that have a G2 profile.
05 / WHO WAS NAMED
The products the same answers named.
Named means the product appears in the answer's text, including when the question itself named it. It is not a ranking and not a recommendation. Eli is included because this is Eli's own category, and it was rarely named: in 7 of 366 answers. In 6 of those 7 the answer also listed a page on hireeli.io.
| Product | Answers naming it (of 366) | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Profound | 130 | 36% |
| Semrush | 125 | 34% |
| Peec AI | 114 | 31% |
| Otterly.AI | 103 | 28% |
| Scrunch | 75 | 20% |
| Ahrefs, including Brand Radar | 69 | 19% |
| Writesonic | 52 | 14% |
| AirOps | 47 | 13% |
| HubSpot | 43 | 12% |
| AthenaHQ | 40 | 11% |
| Promptwatch | 32 | 9% |
| Eli | 7 | 2% |
06 / GEMINI
Gemini: a smaller sample, and about half its answers hide some publishers.
Gemini (gemini-2.5-flash, Gemini API with Google Search grounding) answered 65 of the questions between 16 September to 14 October 2026: 49 different questions and 598 links. In 31 of the 65 answers, some links were Google redirect addresses that do not show which site they lead to, so Gemini's source mix cannot be compared with ChatGPT's on this release. Of what can be read: Reddit appeared in 8 answers, comparison and alternatives pages in 30, G2 in 1. Eli was named in 0.
07 / WHAT IT SUGGESTS, AND WHAT IT DOES NOT
If you sell software, what this suggests.
- Your own site is a small part of what these answers cite. The eleven most-named products' own sites, blogs included, held 512 of 7,295 links (7%), though one of their pages appeared in 169 answers (46%). Pages written by others (lists, reviews, community threads) make up most of it.
- The same few third-party pages come back across many questions. Finding those pages for your own buyer questions is more useful than writing many new pages of your own.
- A G2 "alternatives" page can only list a product that has a G2 profile. If those pages are listed as sources for your category, a complete profile with real reviews is a precondition.
- Of the 44 comparison and alternatives pages listed most often, 35 were published by companies that sell a product or service in this category themselves. Independent publishers and real community discussion are the honest route in; paid or undisclosed placement is not.
- None of this shows that a citation causes a product to be named. It shows which pages the answers listed, on these questions, in this window.
08 / METHODOLOGY
How this was measured.
- Questions. Buyer questions Eli tracks for its own category: alternatives to named products, how to choose, what it costs, and a few technical questions. 262 of the ChatGPT answers were to English questions and 76 to Dutch ones; the rest had no language recorded. Questions that name Eli or hireeli.io were removed before counting. Eli wrote these questions; they are test questions, not a sample of real buyer searches.
- Answers. ChatGPT: gpt-5.6-luna through the OpenAI Responses API with web search, 25 September to 15 October 2026. Gemini: gemini-2.5-flash through the Gemini API with Google Search grounding, 16 September to 14 October 2026. Each stored answer kept the sources the provider returned with it. Some questions were asked more than once on different days; each answer counts once.
- Counting. A source type or domain counts once per answer however many of its links the answer listed. Domains are the address without "www". Shares are rounded to whole percents.
- Classification. Source types are decided from each address alone (the rules are listed in the table notes). A list page that does not say alternatives, best, vs, compare or top in its address is not counted as one, so that row is a lower bound. We did not open the listed pages. Who publishes the 44 most-listed comparison and alternatives pages was judged from each publisher's own homepage.
- Who measured it. Eli, from its own workspace's stored answers, read once on 15 October 2026. No customer's data is in this release.
FAQ
Questions about this release.
Is this the same as being recommended?
No. A citation is a page an answer lists as a source. Being named is a product appearing in the answer's text. This page counts both separately and never treats either as a recommendation or a visit.
Why is Reddit so high?
Reddit appeared in 299 of 366 ChatGPT answers, spread over 505 different threads. Many of those threads are tool lists that people post themselves. We report what was listed as a source: the search results ChatGPT read and the links in its answer, up to 20 per answer, which is not a citation rate. We do not know how much weight ChatGPT gave each source.
Can I pay to be on these pages?
Some list publishers sell placement. We do not recommend it, and Eli never arranges paid or undisclosed placement. Pages that disclose a commercial relationship are the honest version; check each publisher's own policy.
Does this apply to my category?
Not directly. These are questions about one software category. The method transfers; the numbers do not. Measure your own buyer questions before you act on someone else's source mix.
Will you publish more releases?
Yes, as new windows of stored answers complete. Each release keeps its own numbers and window; earlier releases are not edited.
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