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llms.txt GeneratorWhich sources dominate AI citations?
YouTube leads the current Trakkr index with 2.75% of citation appearances, followed by google.com at 1.56% and Reddit at 1.50%. Together, the top three account for 5.82%.
The key numbers.
- YouTube share
- youtube.com ranks first with 2,222,347 citation appearances.
- 2.75%
- google.com share
- google.com ranks second with 1,261,575 citation appearances.
- 1.56%
- Top three domain share
- YouTube, google.com, and Reddit together account for 5.82%.
- 5.82%
- Citation appearances
- 80,769,585 appearances in the verified October 14, 2026 snapshot.
- 80.8M
The head is visible, but no single domain dominates the tracked panel. The current index spans more than 700,000 domains.
The evidence.
Source
AI Citation Index
| Measure | Result |
|---|---|
| YouTube share youtube.com ranks first with 2,222,347 citation appearances. | 2.75% |
| google.com share google.com ranks second with 1,261,575 citation appearances. | 1.56% |
| Top three domain share YouTube, google.com, and Reddit together account for 5.82%. | 5.82% |
| Citation appearances 80,769,585 appearances in the verified October 14, 2026 snapshot. | 80.8M |
Population and method
Built from 80,769,585 citation appearances across 725,777 unique domains in the latest valid snapshot for 1,928 tracked brands, observed from October 3, 2025 to October 14, 2026.
Where the evidence stops
The index is a changing panel of tracked brands and prompts, not a random sample of all AI responses.
Domain share is observational. It does not establish causal influence or reveal the full retrieval set.
The hand-maintained source taxonomy is partial: 88.40% of citation appearances remain in “other”.
Model attribution, response-level citation denominators, geography, raw prompts, and raw responses are not retained in the public aggregate.
What to do with this
- Audit the domains that already dominate your category and decide which ones are realistic citation targets.
- Build source-worthy pages for the query shapes where AI is already citing third parties.
- Treat reference, review, and social sources as part of your AI visibility surface, not as noise.
This answer matters because it turns a study finding into an operating rule teams can use when they decide what to publish, refresh, or measure next.
Questions about this answer.
Cite this answer.
Source study: Citation Sources“YouTube leads the current Trakkr index with 2.75% of citation appearances, followed by google.com at 1.56% and Reddit at 1.50%. Together, the top three account for 5.82%.”
Mack Grenfell · Which sources dominate AI citations?
AI Citation Index · Trakkr Research · Updated 14 October 2026