AI Citation Tracking: See the pages AI cites,
and the ones it trusts instead.
AI citation tracking shows which sites and pages ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and Perplexity cite when they answer questions in your market. Every answer is stored with the sources behind it, so you can see which ones name you and which only name your rivals.
Free 7-day trial · no card · plans from $79/mo
Domains
| Domain | Answers | Mentioned | Competitors | Domain Type | Found → Cited |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| T Tarnwell You | 22 | 86% | C F | Owned | 31 → 71% |
|
|
38 | 32% | C F B +2 | Social | 49 → 78% |
|
|
21 | 43% | C F | Earned | 25 → 84% |
| C Cairnstride | 14 | 0% | — | Competition | 18 → 78% |
|
|
9 | 44% | C | Blog | — |
|
|
7 | 0% | C B | Earned | 9 → 78% |
Illustrative example. Tarnwell and its competitors are invented brands, and every figure is sample data.
Every source, saved with its answer
Each answer is stored with the sources behind it, so a citation always traces back to a prompt, an AI model and a day.
Domains or exact pages
Switch between sites and URLs, ranked by the number of answers that used them.
Eight kinds of site
Social, Earned, Competition, Owned, Blog, Companies, Retail and Other, so you can see what kind of source wins.
Found and cited
See the pages an AI model's own search turned up, and how often it then cited them.
How does AI citation tracking work?
Every answer Referenced collects is stored with the sources behind it. The Sources page then ranks those sources by the number of answers that used them, for the AI models and dates you pick.
A Domains and URLs toggle sets the grain: whole sites, or the exact pages. A source counts once per answer, however many of its pages the answer used. Mentioned shows how often those answers also named you, and Competitors shows which tracked rivals they named.
Found → Cited compares the pages an AI model's own search returned with the ones it then cited. It only exists for AI models that expose a search trace, such as ChatGPT. Google AI Overviews and Perplexity do not, so their sources show a dash there. The search queries a model ran are on each prompt's own page, not on Sources.
For what a citation is and why it differs from a mention, read our guide to AI citations.
URLs
| Page | Answers | URL Type | Found → Cited |
|---|---|---|---|
| runnersworld.com/best-trail-running-shoes | 14 | Listicle | 16 → 88% |
| Tarnwell · /guides/choosing-your-first-ultra-shoe | 12 | Article | 17 → 71% |
| reddit.com/r/trailrunning/first-50k-shoes | 11 | Discussion | 15 → 73% |
| Tarnwell · /products/mudline | 9 | Profile | 12 → 75% |
| irunfar.com/mud-shoe-comparison | 6 | Comparison | — |
Which sites does AI cite in your market?
The Most-Used Domains chart plots the five sites used in the most answers, day by day over the last 60 scan days. Markers show where your tracking changed, so a jump is not mistaken for a trend.
The Movers card ranks sources in four tabs. Top is the most-used this period, New is not used at all last period, Trending is answer share up and Losing is answer share down, both in percentage points. A source that goes quiet shows in Losing.
A handful of sites usually sit behind most answers in a category. For what shapes the answers themselves, see how LLM SEO works.
Most-Used Domains
60 daysTracking changed in this period
What kind of source wins?
The Types card splits what AI used into Domain Types and URL Types, with a count and a share for each, so you can see whether forums, the press or your rivals are deciding your category.
Domain Types are Social, Competition, Earned, Owned, Blog, Companies, Retail and Other. A confirmed rival's site counts as Competition, the same as a tracked competitor's. URL Types describe the page: listicle, comparison, article, how-to, profile, discussion, video, homepage or other. A page that has not been typed yet shows as Unclassified.
Each citation is typed when its answer is collected. Retyping a domain later changes the answers scanned after it and leaves past figures as they were.
Domain Types
URL Types
Which sites cite your rivals but not you?
Turn on Competitor gaps to see the sources cited in answers that name a rival and not you, ranked by those answers. Your own site and your competitors' sites are left out, so what remains are third parties.
The You Named filter answers a different question: is a source that AI cites also naming you? Choose "not named" for sources cited in answers that never mention you, or "named" for the ones that do. It combines with the Domain Type and URL Type filters and the search.
Mentioned and Competitors are measured over the answers that cited the source. They show who is named alongside it in those answers, not what the page itself says.
| Domain | Answers | Competitors | Domain Type |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
7 | C B | Earned |
|
|
5 | C F | Earned |
|
|
4 | F | Earned |
What can you see about a single source?
Open any cited domain to see how much AI leans on it and whether it names you. Four tiles lead: You're Named, Answer Share, Citations and Share of Citations, each compared with the previous period.
Citation Trend charts its citations by day, and By Model splits them across AI models. Prompts & Pages lists every prompt whose answers cited the site, with whether you were named and which rivals were. Open the cited pages for a prompt to see the exact URLs.
reddit.com
SocialYou're Named
5 /14 prompts
Answer Share
31.7%
▲ 4.2 pts
Citations
52
▲ 12%
Share of Citations
14.8%
▲ 1.3 pts
Citation Trend
By Model
ChatGPT
21
40%
Perplexity
19
37%
AI Overviews
12
23%
Prompts & Pages
| Prompt | You | Citations | Pages | Competitors |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| best cushioned shoe for a first 50k | Not named | 11 | 4 | C F |
| best grip on wet rock | Named | 9 | 3 | C |
| trail shoes for wide feet | Not named | 8 | 3 | F B |
Cited Pages
best cushioned shoe for a first 50k
Which sources does each AI model cite?
Referenced records the sources cited by ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and Perplexity on every plan, and Google AI Mode, Claude and Gemini are add-ons, and Grok and Meta AI are coming soon. On a source's page, By Model shows how its citations split between them.
The models rarely agree. One site can be a regular source for Perplexity and almost absent from ChatGPT, so an average hides where to work. To see how each one picks, read how ChatGPT picks sources and how to get cited by Perplexity.
Turn citations into actions
Earned recommendations are built from the sources AI cites, so the sites on this page become a list of where to earn coverage next.
Each recommendation can be copied as a ready-to-paste AI prompt or as a task for whoever owns it.
Open Recommendations
- Medium priority Join the r/trailrunning mud-shoe threads AI cites these threads in answers that name Cairnstride. Take part as a runner, not a brand. Earned
- Medium priority Get into runnersworld.com's cushioned trail roundup Cited on 21 answers, and it names Cairnstride and Fellbound but never Tarnwell. Earned
- Low priority Update your trail shoe fit guide The guide AI cites for fit questions is a year old and has no sizing table. Owned
AI citation tracking questions, answered.
Mentions and citations, which AI models show them, and what Referenced can and cannot do with them.
What is the difference between a mention and a citation? + −
A mention is your brand name in the answer text. A citation is a source the answer linked to. You can be mentioned without being cited, and cited without being mentioned. The Mentioned column shows how often answers that cited a source also named you.
Which sources does ChatGPT cite? + −
Referenced stores every source ChatGPT cites in an answer to your prompts and ranks them by the number of answers that used them. Filter the Sources page to ChatGPT to see only its sources, or open a site and read By Model.
Can I track citations in Google AI Overviews and Perplexity? + −
Yes. Both are tracked on every plan, and their sources appear on the Sources page beside ChatGPT's. They do not expose a search trace, so Found → Cited shows a dash for sources only they used.
Which AI models show citations? + −
Every AI model Referenced tracks returns citations with its answers, and Referenced records every one: ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and Perplexity on every plan, and Google AI Mode, Claude and Gemini as add-ons. Grok and Meta AI are coming soon.
What does found vs cited mean? + −
Found is a page the AI model's own web search returned. Cited is a page the answer then linked to. Found → Cited shows how many answers found a source and what share of those cited it, so you can see pages AI reads but passes over. It only exists for AI models that expose a search trace.
How are sources categorised? + −
Every domain is given one of eight types: Social, Competition, Earned, Owned, Blog, Companies, Retail or Other. Your own site is Owned, and the sites of your competitors and confirmed rivals are Competition. Pages also get a URL type, such as listicle or discussion. Types are stamped when the answer is collected, so retyping a domain changes later answers, not past figures.
Can I see pages, not just domains? + −
Yes. Switch the toggle from Domains to URLs to rank exact pages, with their URL type and Found → Cited. Open a domain, then the cited pages for a prompt, to see which of its pages were used.
How do I find sites that cite my competitors and not me? + −
Turn on Competitor gaps. It lists sources cited in answers that name a rival and not you, ranked by those answers, with your own site and your competitors' sites left out. Add the You Named filter set to "not named" to narrow it to sources that never name you.
Can I export citations? + −
Not yet. Sources can be searched, filtered and sorted in the app, but there is no CSV or other export.
How often are sources updated? + −
Each scan day adds its answers, so the Sources page moves as new scans finish. The Updated column shows the last day an answer used each source.
See which pages AI cites, before you write another one.
Free 7-day trial, no card: every answer is stored with its sources.
Feature
Visibility
Your score across every AI model.
Feature
Sentiment
What AI thinks of your brand.
Feature
Competitors
Share of voice, brand by brand.
Feature
Sources
Which pages AI actually cites.
Feature
AI Access
Can AI crawlers read your site?
Feature
Recommendations
The fix for every gap, ranked.