Free tool · Google AI Overviews · ChatGPT · Perplexity
AI Citation Map: Who Gets Cited for Your Search?
Enter a search to see the exact pages Google’s AI Overview, ChatGPT and Perplexity cite for it, what kind of content wins, where your site stands, and what to do next.
Free, no sign-up. US results. Takes 20 to 35 seconds because all three engines are asked live.
What is the AI Citation Map?
The AI Citation Map is a free tool that shows which pages Google’s AI Overview, ChatGPT and Perplexity cite for one search, and what to do about it.
You type a search the way a buyer would, for example “best project management software for agencies”. The tool asks all three engines at once, lists every page they cite, labels each source by type, and tells you whether your website is cited, read and skipped, or missing. It then turns those results into a short action list.
How does the AI Citation Map work?
It sends your search to Google, ChatGPT and Perplexity at the same moment, collects the pages each one cites, then sorts and compares them.
- Google: the top 10 organic results and the sources behind the AI Overview, pulled in the same request through the DataForSEO SERP API.
- ChatGPT: the consumer ChatGPT interface with web search switched on. It returns two lists: the pages it cited and the pages it read but didn’t cite.
- Perplexity: the Sonar model through Perplexity’s API, with the same two lists.
- Classification: every page is labelled as a video, forum or social post, review or list article, link to a recommended brand, homepage, brand product page, retailer, government or education page, Wikipedia, or other article.
- Mention check: if you add a brand name, the tool opens up to 8 cited review and list pages and checks whether your name appears on each one.
A new search takes 20 to 35 seconds. Searches run by anyone in the last 24 hours load in about a second, because the results are cached.
What do the results mean?
Each engine gets one status for your website: cited, read but not cited, linked as a recommended brand, ranks but not cited, or not found.
| Status | What it means | Where to start |
|---|---|---|
| Cited | The engine used one of your pages as a source in its answer. | Keep that page accurate and current. |
| Linked as a recommended brand | ChatGPT named your brand and linked to your site, usually as a “Visit [brand]” link. | You’re on its shortlist. Check how the list pages it reads describe you. |
| Read but not cited | Your page was in the engine’s search results, but it chose other sources. | Compare your page with the pages that were cited, and run the AEO Checker on it. |
| Ranks but not cited | Your page is in Google’s top 10, but the AI Overview doesn’t use it. | Look at what the AI Overview cites instead. Often it’s a different format, such as video. |
| Not found | The engine neither read nor cited your site for this search. | Start with the cited review and list pages that don’t mention you. |
Being named is tracked separately. An engine can cite your page without naming you, or name you while citing someone else.
What kinds of sources do AI engines cite?
Each engine leans on a different type of source: YouTube for Google’s AI Overviews, links to recommended brands for ChatGPT, and long articles for Perplexity.
Those patterns come from a November 2026 test of 51 US searches run through the same pipeline as this tool:
- 36% of Google AI Overview sources were YouTube videos (166 of 457), and only 6.3% of AI Overview sources were also top-10 organic results for the same search.
- 27% of ChatGPT’s sources were brand homepages. 71% of those were links attached to the brands it recommended, such as “Visit ClickUp”, not pages it quoted.
- Perplexity cited regular web pages 90% of the time and favoured longer ones: a median of 2,582 words for cited pages against 1,477 for pages it read and skipped.
- The three engines rarely agreed. Only 17 of 1,050 page-and-search pairs were cited by all three.
What actions does the AI Citation Map suggest?
The action list comes straight from what was cited: list pages to pitch, videos to make, threads to join, retailers to sell on, and pages to check.
| When the map shows | Suggested action |
|---|---|
| Cited review or list articles that don’t mention you | Pitch the authors with something they can verify: a demo account, data or a quote. |
| “Best” lists published on a competitor’s own site | Publish a fair comparison of your own that says where competitors win and discloses that it’s yours. |
| YouTube videos in the AI Overview | Make a short video that answers the search directly. |
| Reddit or Quora threads | Answer the question there from real experience. Promotional replies get removed. |
| LinkedIn, Medium or Instagram posts | Publish a clear post under your own name that answers the search. |
| Amazon, Best Buy or other retailer pages | Get listed there with complete specs and reviews. |
| Your page read but not cited | Compare it with the cited pages and check AI access with the AEO Checker. |
Why doesn’t the tool score my page for AEO best practices?
Because in testing, pages that followed more AEO best practices were not cited more often than pages the engines read and skipped.
In the 51-search test, the chance that a cited page outscored a skipped page on 15 common best practices was 0.44 on Google’s AI Overviews, 0.41 on ChatGPT and 0.55 on Perplexity, where 0.50 is a coin flip. Source type separated cited pages far more clearly than anything on the page itself, and mentions on other sites, which the test didn’t measure, are the other likely factor. That’s why this tool maps sources instead of grading your copy. Access is the exception: an engine can’t cite a page it can’t fetch, and the AEO Checker tests exactly that.
How is this different from AI visibility trackers?
AI visibility trackers start from your brand and run their own prompts; the AI Citation Map starts from one search and shows every page that wins it.
Free graders such as HubSpot’s AI Search Grader, Semrush’s AI Search Visibility Checker and Mangools’ AI Search Grader score how often your brand is mentioned. Paid trackers such as Profound, Peec AI and Otterly.AI monitor a set of prompts over weeks. Use a tracker if you need trends over time. Use the AI Citation Map when you want to know who wins one specific search today and which pages to work on.
What are the limits of the AI Citation Map?
Each lookup is one answer from each engine on one day, for US searches, so treat it as a snapshot rather than a verdict.
- Answers change. The same search can return different sources tomorrow. Recheck before acting on a single page.
- US only for now. Google and ChatGPT results come from the United States.
- Perplexity through its API. The Perplexity app may cite slightly different pages.
- “Mentions you” means your name appears on the page. It doesn’t tell you how the page describes you.
- Some pages can’t be checked. Sites that block automated requests show as “couldn’t check”.
Is the AI Citation Map free?
Yes. It’s free with no sign-up: each visitor gets 3 new searches a day, and searches already run in the last 24 hours load instantly.
Each new search costs about one US cent in data, which I pay, so there’s a daily cap across the whole site. Search results are cached for 24 hours and aren’t linked to who ran them. Your IP address is kept only as a scrambled code for one day, to apply the 3-search limit.
Frequently asked questions
Which AI engines does the AI Citation Map check?
It checks Google’s AI Overview (plus Google’s top 10 organic results), ChatGPT with web search, and Perplexity’s Sonar model.
Why does ChatGPT link to so many brand homepages?
When ChatGPT recommends products, it often attaches a “Visit [brand]” link to each one. The map labels these as links to recommended brands, separate from pages it actually quoted.
Can I check more than 3 searches a day?
Not with the free tool. For tracking a full set of searches every month, with the outreach done for you, see AI Search Visibility.
Does the tool work for searches outside the US?
Not yet. Results come from US searches, so local and non-US answers may differ.
Want this run across all your important searches?
AI Search Visibility tracks the searches that matter to your business every month, maps who gets cited, and does the outreach to get you onto the pages AI relies on.
See AI Search Visibility