27.8% of the sources in Google's AI Overviews are user-generated platforms such as YouTube, Facebook and Reddit, against 0.2% of ChatGPT's sources. Across five AI engines, about one citation in eight is user-generated, and most of it is video and social media, not forums.
Analysis of 164,629 cited URLs · answers from ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google's AI features, September 2026
Key Findings
- 1.27.8% of citations in Google AI Overviews point to user-generated platforms, against 0.2% of ChatGPT citations.
- 2.Google AI Mode draws 23% of its citations from user-generated platforms, more than five times Gemini's 4.2% and Perplexity's 2.9%.
- 3.About 13% of citations in AI answers point to user-generated platforms: social and video sites, forums and Q&A sites, and blog platforms.
- 4.Social and video sites such as YouTube and Facebook receive 9.7% of AI citations, while forums and Q&A sites such as Reddit and Quora receive 2.8%.
- 5.YouTube receives 12,857 citations in AI answers, 12,056 of them from Google AI Overviews and Google AI Mode.
Summary
Ask Google how to fix a squeaky door and the AI Overview at the top of the results will often point you to a YouTube video, a Facebook post or a Reddit thread. Ask ChatGPT the same question and its sources are almost all publishers, companies and official bodies. The two engines trust very different kinds of voices.
That split decides where a business should invest. User-generated platforms are open to anyone: you can post a video or join a discussion tomorrow. If an engine cites them heavily, a good video or an active community presence is a direct route into its answers. If it ignores them, only your own pages and press coverage count.
The gap is enormous. 27.8% of Google AI Overview citations and 23% of Google AI Mode citations point to user-generated platforms, against 0.2% of ChatGPT's. Across all five engines, about one citation in eight is user-generated, and most of that is YouTube and social media rather than forums.
What we measured
In September 2026 we asked 2,984 general questions to ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Mode, along with the Google AI Overviews shown for the same questions. We recorded every unique web address cited in the answers, 164,629 in all, and classified each one as user-generated or not.
A citation is user-generated when it points to a platform where the content is written by users rather than by the site's owner, in three groups: social and video sites (YouTube, Facebook, TikTok and others), forums and Q&A sites (Reddit, Quora, Stack Exchange) and blog platforms (Medium, Substack, Blogspot). Every figure is a share of citations, overall and for each engine.
Google's AI features take a quarter of their sources from users
Google AI Mode is close behind at 23%. In both, most of the user content is video and social: 22.8% of AI Overview citations and 18.3% of AI Mode citations go to social and video sites, while forums and Q&A sites take 4.7% and 4.6%. Every other engine sits far lower. Gemini draws 4.2% of its citations from user platforms, Perplexity 2.9% and ChatGPT 0.2%, about one citation in 400.
Source: Suff Digital analysis of 164,629 cited URLs · answers from ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google's AI features, September 2026
The split is a Google search habit, not a Google habit: Gemini, Google's chatbot, cites user platforms less than one-fifth as often as the AI features built into Google Search. The AI Overviews and AI Mode answers look like Google results pages, where video and forum threads already rank well. ChatGPT, at the other extreme, answers from publishers and official sources almost exclusively.
| Engine | Social and video | Forums and Q&A | Blog platforms |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google AI Overviews | 22.8% | 4.7% | 0.2% |
| Google AI Mode | 18.3% | 4.6% | 0.2% |
| Gemini | 1% | 2.8% | 0.4% |
| Perplexity | 1.5% | 1.3% | 0.1% |
| ChatGPT | 0.1% | 0.2% | 0.01% |
One AI citation in eight comes from a user platform
Across all five engines, about 13% of citations point to user-generated platforms. Social and video sites, led by YouTube, make up 9.7% of all citations. Forums and Q&A sites, including Reddit, Quora and Stack Exchange, make up 2.8%. Blog platforms such as Medium and Substack are nearly absent at 0.2%.
Source: Suff Digital analysis of 164,629 cited URLs · answers from ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google's AI features, September 2026
Leave out social and video and the user-generated share falls to 3%. The popular picture of AI answers built on forum threads fits Google's AI features better than the rest, and even there video carries the weight: forums and Q&A take under 5% of citations on every engine.
What this means for marketers and community managers
If Google's AI features matter to your customers, treat video and social content as search content. A clear YouTube video that answers a common question in your category, and an active, helpful presence where your customers discuss it, can become one of the sources Google's AI cites. Title and describe videos with the exact questions people ask.
For ChatGPT, user-generated content barely registers. Its answers rest on publishers, companies and official sources, so coverage in respected publications and authoritative pages on your own site carry the weight. Most businesses need both routes, which is why an ai seo company plans content for each kind of engine and tracks which sources each one cites in your category.
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<p style="font:14px/1.5 system-ui,sans-serif">Source: <a href="https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/user-generated-content-ai-sources">Google AI Overviews Cite User-Generated Content 27.8% of the Time vs 0.2% for ChatGPT - Suff Digital</a></p>
Cite this study
Suff Digital. (2026). Google AI Overviews Cite User-Generated Content 27.8% of the Time vs 0.2% for ChatGPT. https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/user-generated-content-ai-sources
Google AI Overviews Cite User-Generated Content 27.8% of the Time vs 0.2% for ChatGPT - Suff Digital - https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/user-generated-content-ai-sources
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