Have you ever wondered where ChatGPT gets all its information from?
It primarily relies on other websites to get information and answer its users’ queries.
Here’s an interesting fact: ChatGPT often mentions a certain number of websites more than the others.
In this post, we’ll look at the top 10 most cited domains in ChatGPT.
Table of Contents
- Breakdown of Top 10 Domains
- Most Cited Domains in ChatGPT in the U.S. (2026)
- Most Cited Domains in ChatGPT Globally
- ChatGPT Overall Citation Percentages
- ChatGPT: Share Distribution Among Top Sources
- ChatGPT Citations by Top Level Domain (TLD)
- Why are these Domains Highly Cited in ChatGPT?
- Conclusion
- FAQs | Most Cited Domains in ChatGPT
Breakdown of Top 10 Domains
The top 10 domains cited by ChatGPT are largely dominated by UGC (User-Generated Content) platforms, with Reddit and Wikipedia leading the list.
Reddit tops the chart, accounting for approximately 29.43% of total citations, followed by Wikipedia at 14.99%. This clearly shows how often AI systems rely on community-driven and informational content to respond to user queries.
Amazon ranks third with around 3.38%, while Forbes and Business Insider follow at 1.67% and 1.31%, reflecting a blend of eCommerce platforms and authoritative media sources.
Other notable domains include The Spruce, NY Post, Better Homes & Gardens (bhg.com), Wired, and People, each contributing close to 1% of total citations. Notably, many of these websites focus on answering common user questions, similar to the frequently asked questions on Google, highlighting how real-world search intent continues to influence both traditional search results and AI-generated responses..
Sources: Ahrefs, BuzzStream
Most Cited Domains in ChatGPT in the U.S. (2026)
Reddit, Wikipedia, and Amazon are the top 3 most cited domains in ChatGPT in the US.
Here’s the table showing the 10 most cited domains in ChatGPT in the U.S.
| Rank | Domain | Mentions | Percent of Total |
| 1 | www.reddit.com | 847,338 | 29.43% |
| 2 | en.wikipedia.org | 431,710 | 14.99% |
| 3 | www.amazon.com | 97,457 | 3.38% |
| 4 | www.forbes.com | 48,052 | 1.67% |
| 5 | www.businessinsider.com | 37,712 | 1.31% |
| 6 | www.thespruce.com | 36,195 | 1.26% |
| 7 | www.nypost.com | 29,927 | 1.04% |
| 8 | www.bhg.com | 28,897 | 1.00% |
| 9 | www.wired.com | 28,611 | 0.99% |
| 10 | www.people.com | 28,515 | 0.99% |
Sources: Ahrefs, BuzzStream
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Most Cited Domains in ChatGPT Globally
The top-cited domains in ChatGPT globally are Reddit, Wikipedia, Amazon, and TechRadar.
Here’s the table showing the 10 most cited domains in ChatGPT worldwide.
| Rank | Domain | Mentions |
| 1 | www.reddit.com | 4,389,496 |
| 2 | en.wikipedia.org | 2,715,125 |
| 3 | es.wikipedia.org | 364,361 |
| 4 | de.wikipedia.org | 252,761 |
| 5 | www.amazon.com | 214,993 |
| 6 | www.techradar.com | 210,698 |
| 7 | www.thesun.co.uk | 201,622 |
| 8 | timesofindia.indiatimes.com | 198,100 |
| 9 | fr.wikipedia.org | 191,494 |
| 10 | www.forbes.com | 184,479 |
Source: Ahrefs
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ChatGPT Overall Citation Percentages
According to Profound’s dataset of 680 million citations, Wikipedia ranks first in total citation percentage with a 7.8% share. Reddit ranks second with 1.8% of total citations.
Here’s a table showing the top 10 domains with their total citation percentage in ChatGPT.
| Source | Percentage of Total Citations |
| Wikipedia | 7.8% |
| 1.8% | |
| Forbes | 1.1% |
| G2 | 1.1% |
| TechRadar | 0.9% |
| NerdWallet | 0.8% |
| BusinessInsider | 0.8% |
| NYPost | 0.7% |
| Toxigon | 0.7% |
| Reuters | 0.6% |
Source: Profound
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Among ChatGPT’s top 10 most-cited sources, Wikipedia makes up almost half (47.9%) of all citations. This data is taken from 10 million citations.
Here’s a table showing the Top 10 Cited Sources by Share from August 2024 to June 2025.
| Source | Percent Share of Top 10 |
| Wikipedia | 47.9% |
| 11.3% | |
| Forbes | 6.8% |
| G2 | 6.7% |
| TechRadar | 5.5% |
| NerdWallet | 5.1% |
| BusinessInsider | 4.9% |
| NYPost | 4.4% |
| Toxigon | 4.1% |
| Reuters | 3.4% |
Source: Profound
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ChatGPT Citations by Top Level Domain (TLD)
The .com TLD leads ChatGPT citations, accounting for 80.41% of all sources.
Here’s a table showing ChatGPT Citations by TLD, based on millions of citations.
| Top Level Domain (TLD) | Percentage |
| .com | 80.41% |
| .org | 11.29% |
| .uk | 2.16% |
| .io | 1.67% |
| .ai | 1.13% |
| .net | 1.01% |
| .co | 0.97% |
| .au | 0.52% |
| .br | 0.45% |
| .ca | 0.39% |
Source: Profound
Why are these Domains Highly Cited in ChatGPT?
ChatGPT prefers UGC sites, which primarily offer fresh user-generated content on a wide range of topics every day.
Also, we noticed that ChatGPT prioritizes domains with strong EEAT signals.
In SEO, EEAT stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.
- ChatGPT often cites Reddit, likely because of the “Experience” signal, since Reddit is a platform where you can find millions of real-world user experiences.
- For the Expertise signal, ChatGPT often cites sources such as Wikipedia, Forbes, and TechRadar, which regularly publish high-quality content and expert reviews.
- For the Authoritativeness signal, it cites websites such as Reuters and Business Insider, which are known for authoritative reporting.
- For the Trustworthiness signal, it often cites domains with TLDs .com and .org sites, as they have high credibility and are widely used.
Conclusion
ChatGPT relies on a combination of user-generated content and information sourced from authoritative websites. If you analyze the most cited domains in AI Mode or similar platforms, you’ll notice that the same domains appear repeatedly. This happens primarily because of their strong site trust, high domain authority, consistent content quality, and proven credibility across the web.
Domains like Reddit and Wikipedia lead ChatGPT’s citations because they host millions of articles from people around the world with real-world experience.
If you want to improve your chances of getting more citations for your websites in ChatGPT, improve your EEAT signals.
So, what are your thoughts on the ChatGPT citations? Have any questions? Let us know in the comments.
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FAQs | Most Cited Domains in ChatGPT
Here are some frequently asked questions about ChatGPT citations.
Reddit is the most cited website by ChatGPT, with 29.43% of mentions in the U.S. alone.
If the cited source is accurate and provides high-quality information, ChatGPT often cites it in response to users’ questions.
Yes, in fact, Wikipedia is the second most cited domain with nearly 15% of citations in the U.S.
Not exactly. You should always double-check information for accuracy.
ChatGPT cites .com domains the most (80.41%), followed by .org domains (11.29%).
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So glad to see Reddit at the top to encourage (hopefully) more ethical and transparent behavior from companies!