AI Source Index · one engine · 2026-W41
The most-cited websites in Google AI Mode answers — updated weekly
In week 2026-W41, measured 5 October 2026, the websites Google AI Mode cited most were reddit.com (15 questions, 38%), youtube.com (10 questions, 25%) and zapier.com (3 questions, 8%). Each count is the number of the 40 questions it answered whose answer cited that site at least once.
Week 2026-W41, measured 5 October 2026. One sample per engine per question; a difference of one or two questions is noise, not a trend.
What stands out
AI Mode is read like AI Overviews, from Google’s own results data for the question, including the follow-up request Google sometimes requires. Google’s own search and shopping links are not counted as sources.
This week its 40 answers cited 107 different websites, 3.4 per answer on average — fewer per answer than any other engine on the panel (across the 6 engines: 3.4 to 10.7).
13 of its 40 answers cited no website at all, more than any other engine on the panel.
Among the source types we classify, community sites were its largest group, at 11% of its citations (a domain counts once per answer); 73% matched no type — retailers, vendors’ own sites and the rest.
The 25 most-cited websites
| Domain | Type | Questions | Share (95% interval) | vs week before |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| reddit.com | community | 15 / 40 | 38% (24–53%) | +8 (from 7) |
| youtube.com | social | 10 / 40 | 25% (14–40%) | ±0 |
| zapier.com | other | 3 / 40 | 8% (3–20%) | +2 (from 1) |
| investopedia.com | other | 2 / 40 | 5% (1–17%) | −1 (from 3) |
| nerdwallet.com | media | 2 / 40 | 5% (1–17%) | −1 (from 3) |
| aiven.io | other | 1 / 40 | 3% (0–13%) | new |
| amazon.ae | other | 1 / 40 | 3% (0–13%) | new |
| amazon.ca | other | 1 / 40 | 3% (0–13%) | new |
| attio.com | other | 1 / 40 | 3% (0–13%) | new |
| bdpricing.com | other | 1 / 40 | 3% (0–13%) | new |
| beehiiv.com | other | 1 / 40 | 3% (0–13%) | new |
| behindrankings.com | other | 1 / 40 | 3% (0–13%) | new |
| blog.aftontickets.com | other | 1 / 40 | 3% (0–13%) | new |
| blog.railway.com | other | 1 / 40 | 3% (0–13%) | ±0 |
| brandgrow.solutions | other | 1 / 40 | 3% (0–13%) | new |
| bunnyshell.com | other | 1 / 40 | 3% (0–13%) | ±0 |
| businessinsider.com | media | 1 / 40 | 3% (0–13%) | new |
| cantech.in | other | 1 / 40 | 3% (0–13%) | new |
| celerdata.com | other | 1 / 40 | 3% (0–13%) | new |
| circleci.com | other | 1 / 40 | 3% (0–13%) | new |
| clhsnewspaper.com | other | 1 / 40 | 3% (0–13%) | new |
| clickhouse.com | other | 1 / 40 | 3% (0–13%) | new |
| climbing.com | other | 1 / 40 | 3% (0–13%) | new |
| cnbc.com | media | 1 / 40 | 3% (0–13%) | new |
| connectpay.com | other | 1 / 40 | 3% (0–13%) | new |
Share = questions whose answer cited the site at least once, out of the 40 this engine answered. The interval is a 95% Wilson score interval; “thin sample” marks an interval wider than a third of the scale, where the rate cannot be read off the sample.
The change column compares with 2026-W40, a week in which this engine answered the same number of questions under the same panel. A move of one or two questions is noise, not a trend.
Method
A fixed, published panel of 40 buyer questions in English is put once to each of 6 answer engines every Monday. Every URL an answer cites is stored, and a domain counts once per question per engine. One sample per engine per question.
How we measureEvery observation behind 2026-W41, as JSON (this engine’s rows carry "engine": "aimode")
The same week, other engines
Most-cited sites in PerplexityMost-cited sites in ChatGPTMost-cited sites in GeminiMost-cited sites in ClaudeMost-cited sites in Google AI Overviews