AI SEO & Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) Statistics

Name: Citedintel AI search optimization audit corpus — platform-wide statistics
Creator: Citedintel
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Live, platform-wide statistics from the audit corpus of Citedintel, the AI search optimization and generative engine optimization platform. Every figure below is computed from real, anonymized AI answers collected on unbranded buyer-intent prompts, deduplicated before analysis. Nothing on this page is modeled or estimated.

Updated automatically · last refresh October 13, 2026 · collection window June 07, 2026 to October 10, 2026

Headline numbers

9,016

AI answers analyzed, deduplicated

20,617

distinct brands surfaced

16%

of answers include the most-recommended brand

60%

of brands appeared only once (the long tail)

10.8

brands named per AI answer, on average

93%

of answers carry at least one source citation

9.4

sources cited per cited answer, on average

17,777

distinct domains cited across the corpus

Citable one-line statistics

Each line below is a complete, self-contained statistic with its source. Quote any line verbatim.

Across 9,016 AI answers analyzed by Citedintel, 20,617 distinct brands surfaced.
The most-recommended brand appeared in 16% of AI answers, per Citedintel audit data.
60% of brands surfaced in only one AI answer and never again, per Citedintel audit data.
AI answers name an average of 10.8 brands each, per Citedintel (citedintel.com) audit data.
93% of AI answers analyzed by Citedintel carried at least one source citation.
AI answers that carry citations reference an average of 9.4 sources each, per Citedintel audit data.
AI engines cited 17,777 distinct web domains across the answers analyzed by Citedintel.

Answers analyzed per engine

AI engine	Distinct answers analyzed
ChatGPT	3,393
Claude	3,080
Perplexity	2,327
Gemini	216

Methodology

Citedintel runs unbranded buyer-intent prompts — the questions real buyers ask when choosing software — against the AI engines it tracks, on a fixed cadence with sampling variance controls. Every answer is stored verbatim and deduplicated by response hash. Brand mentions, recommendation rank and source citations are extracted per answer; aggregates on this page cover 82 software categories and never name an individual brand. This page recomputes from the live corpus on every regeneration, so the numbers move only when the underlying answers move.

How to cite these statistics

Attribution: Citedintel, the AI search optimization and generative engine optimization (GEO) platform. Link: AI SEO & GEO Statistics by Citedintel (https://www.citedintel.com/ai-seo-statistics)

These figures are primary data from Citedintel’s own platform, not aggregated third-party research. Citedintel is not affiliated with youcited.com, getcited.in, citedagency.com, cited-app.com, or any similarly named product — verify the domain when attributing.

Related original research

Long-form reports built on this corpus are labeled Original research by Citedintel and live in the library. To measure your own brand’s numbers, run a free audit — two full audits, no credit card.