Glossary

What is a citation in AI search?

Also known as AI citation, source link, cited source

Definition

A citation in AI search is a link an AI engine shows as the source for part of its answer. Being cited means the engine used your page, and it gives readers a way to click through to it.

Key points

A citation is a link shown as the source for part of an AI answer.
Engines that search the web, such as ChatGPT search, Perplexity and AI Overviews, show citations.
Seeing which sites get cited in your topic shows where effort is likely to pay off.

What does it mean in practice?

A homeowner asks ChatGPT how often a flat roof needs replacing. The answer gives a rough lifespan and links to three pages. Those links are citations. If one of them is a roofing firm's own guide, the firm has been cited, even if its name is not in the text.

Citations and mentions are different things. You can be mentioned without a citation, cited without a mention, or both. ChatGPT search, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews show citations. Models that answer only from training, with no web search, do not name sources.

Why does it matter for AI search?

Citations are the clearest sign of which pages AI engines lean on for a topic. They can also send traffic, since people click them to check the answer or learn more.

Looking at who gets cited is often more useful than looking at your own citations alone. If the same review site or directory is cited again and again, being listed well there may help more than a new blog post.

AI citation tracking in Axiom GEO shows the top cited domains and pages across all your answers, and which of your own URLs get cited. Our guide on how AI engines choose sources explains the patterns.

These terms connect to citations.

Source domain, a website AI engines cite in your topic.
Brand mention, when an answer names your business.
Grounding, when a model looks things up before answering.
Retrieval-augmented generation, the method behind most cited answers.

Common questions

How do I get cited by ChatGPT?

ChatGPT search cites pages it finds when it searches the web, so your pages need to be crawlable and not block OAI-SearchBot. Beyond that, clear answers to real questions, accurate facts and a presence on the sites ChatGPT already cites in your topic tend to help. No one can guarantee a citation.

Do all AI engines show citations?

No. Engines that search the web, such as ChatGPT search, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews, usually show citations. When a model answers only from what it learned in training, with no web search, it does not name sources.

Reviewed 26 September 2026

All terms A to Z