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Yes, but far less often: about 1 in 5 US ChatGPT answers cited Reddit in March 2026 and about 1 in 43 by late September, in Ahrefs' Brand Radar data1. Google's AI Overviews, AI Mode and Perplexity didn't follow (Otterly.AI measured all three citing Reddit more in September than in July2), so the answer depends on which assistant your buyers ask.
- ChatGPT
- Down about 94%: from 3.8% of its citations in July to 0.23% in September2. In the week to Nov 2, outside its top 10 cited domains7, though Ahrefs' November list still ranks it 2nd among its top 5021.
- Google AI Overviews
- Up: 4.4% of citations in July, 5.1% in September2. On Nov 2, the 4th most-cited domain7.
- Google AI Mode
- Dipped in August, then rose: 3.6% in July, 4.5% in September2. On Nov 2, the 3rd most-cited domain7.
- Gemini
- Mixed: down from 1.7% to 1.2% in Otterly's US data2, yet the most-cited domain in LLM Pulse's data for the week to Nov 2, from a prompt set that isn't US-only7.
- Claude, Copilot
- Next to nothing: Claude cited reddit.com on none of the 77 days Otterly measured, and Copilot never went above 0.05%3.
A note on who's counting: SlopMog finds Reddit and YouTube threads for brands and drafts comments in them, so we'd like the answer to be "yes, everywhere". It isn't, and every number below is someone else's, with a link. This page is the data. The how is in the guide to getting recommended by ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity.
Reddit in AI answers, engine by engine
Three trackers measured the change with different prompts and different math. They agree on the shape: ChatGPT fell 86% to 94%, depending on the window, and no other engine fell anywhere near as far. The toggle switches between them.
- ChatGPT
- AI Overviews
- AI Mode
- Perplexity
- Gemini
- Claude
- Copilot
Show the numbers as a tableHide the table
| Otterly | Jul 3 to Aug 7 | September |
|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | 3.8% | 0.23% |
| AI Overviews | 4.4% | 5.1% |
| AI Mode | 3.6% | 4.5% |
| Perplexity | 1.2% | 2.2% |
| Gemini | 1.7% | 1.2% |
| Claude | 0% | 0% |
| Copilot | 0% | 0% |
The figures look inconsistent until you see what each one divides by. Ahrefs counts answers that cite Reddit at least once. Otterly and Promptwatch count Reddit's share of every link an engine cites, and one answer usually cites several links, so the first number always runs higher. "1 in 5 answers" and "under 4% of citations" can describe the same month.
- Answer 1r/BackPainsnoozly.comLab testReview siteRetailer
- Answer 2Brand siteLab testReview siteRetailerRegulatorBrand site
- Answer 3Brand siteReview siteLab testRetailerBrand site
- Answer 4Review siteBrand siteRetailerLab testRegulator
- Answer 5Brand siteLab testRetailerReview siteBrand site
What happened in August 2026
OpenAI hasn't said why. What's on the record is a run of dates, a handful of datasets and one short statement.
- Mar 31The before pictureDataPeec AI's study of 30 million sources finds Reddit the most-cited domain across ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Gemini, Perplexity and AI Overviews20.
- Aug 6GPT-5.6 updateOpenAI releaseOpenAI ships an updated GPT-5.6 Sol to Plus and Pro users and makes GPT-5.6 Luna the default for Free and Go users that week9. The release note says nothing about search or sources.
- Aug 8
- Aug 14
- Aug 18OpenAI and Reddit respondData
- Sep 22A month laterDataOtterly puts ChatGPT's September share at 0.227%, 94% below July. No other engine shows a break3.Reddit's share of ChatGPT citations 0.23%
- Oct 7GPT-6 arrivesOpenAI releaseGPT-6 rolls out in ChatGPT for paid plans, then for Free and Go users the next day9.
- Oct 12The six-month viewDataAhrefs: about 1 in 5 US ChatGPT answers cited Reddit in March, about 1 in 43 by late September1.
- Nov 2Still outDataA month into GPT-6, Reddit still isn't among ChatGPT's 10 most-cited domains for the week in LLM Pulse's data7.
The leading theory is the site: change. Since Aug 8, about 1 in 6 of ChatGPT's background searches has been scoped to a single website6, and a search scoped to a brand's own site can't return a Reddit thread. Otterly labels it "the leading hypothesis, not a conclusion"4, and Search Engine Journal points out that the timing doesn't fully fit: the site: jump came six days before the big break12.
reddit didn't get demoted for quality, it lost the job it was doing, which was discovery. retrieval moved from finding candidates to confirming them.
The slide didn't start in August everywhere. GrowByData's US retail panel had Reddit at 15.05% of ChatGPT citations in the week of May 17 and 3.12% by the week of Aug 2, before either step8.
It has also happened before. Around Sep 10, 2025, Google dropped the num=100 search parameter and Reddit's ChatGPT citations fell within weeks. Kevin Indig's best guess at the time: ChatGPT buys its search results from third parties, and they lost easy access to the deeper Google results where many Reddit threads rank13. That dip didn't last. By March 2026, about 1 in 5 ChatGPT answers cited Reddit1. Whether this one lasts, only OpenAI knows.
What ChatGPT cites instead
The citations went to brand pages, regulators, research bodies and hands-on testers. In Ahrefs' data, PubMed climbed from 64th to 4th among ChatGPT's most-cited domains, the FDA entered at 8th, and Apple, Google Support, Toyota and RTINGS were among the gainers1. Otterly's brand reports point the same way: official brand and competitor pages rose in 10 of 15, news and media fell in 11 of 12, and reddit.com fell in all 16 reports4.
Wikipedia is where the two disagree. Ahrefs shows it falling from 1 in 7 ChatGPT answers to 1 in 35 between March and September, while Otterly saw reference sources gain in mid-August and pins the Wikipedia decline on the September 2025 num=100 change4.
- Snoozly Zoned: medium-firm with zoned lumbar support, per its spec page
- CloudNest Hybrid: scored well on pressure relief in lab tests
- DreamCo Firm: the firmest of the three in lab tests
- Snoozly Zoned: comes up often in r/BackPain threads
- CloudNest Hybrid: the softer pick for side sleepers
- Slumbr Basic: the budget pick in r/Mattress
Ahrefs' advice for brands is the useful line in all this: "The pages holding up best are the ones only you can publish, like original research, hands-on testing, and your own product facts."1
ChatGPT still reads Reddit
A citation is the link ChatGPT shows you. Reddit can shape an answer without one.
Fan-out queries are the background searches ChatGPT runs to find sources, and most free answers come without any1. Citation trackers only see the answers that cite something. When ChatGPT does search, Reddit is still on its list: the only one of OpenAI's 17 licensing partners in the top 150 site:-searched domains1. Trackerly, which logs the pages ChatGPT consults as well as the ones it cites, had Reddit's share of citations around 0.5% on the same days it was a quarter to a third of the pages read14.
Training is the other route. OpenAI says its models learn from publicly available content, including "public forums", and from data it accesses through partners15. Reddit has been an OpenAI data partner since May 16, 2024, when OpenAI got access to Reddit's Data API for "real-time, structured, and unique content"16. Google signed its own Data API deal three months earlier, on Feb 22, 2024, to "display, train on, and otherwise use" Reddit content17.
Where Reddit threads still get cited
Start with Google. Otterly measured Reddit at 5.1% of Google AI Overviews citations and 4.5% of AI Mode's in September, both above July and more than every other engine it tracks combined3. Promptwatch saw no break in AI Overviews either, just a drift from 2.37% to 2.10% between early July and mid-August5.
- Perplexity: reddit.com ranked 1.#1 · in 8.3% of answers
- Gemini: reddit.com ranked 1.#1 · in 7.5% of answers
- Google AI Mode: reddit.com ranked 3.#3 · in 5.1% of answers
- Google AI Overviews: reddit.com ranked 4.#4 · in 13.8% of answers
- ChatGPT: reddit.com not in the top 10.No. 10 was cited in 2.5% of answers
Perplexity and Gemini are where the datasets disagree. For the week to Nov 2, LLM Pulse had reddit.com first in both7. Otterly's US index had Reddit rising in Perplexity (1.2% to 2.2% of citations, July to September) and falling in Gemini (1.7% to 1.2%)2. Prompts and countries move these ranks, so test your own category before you trust either.
YouTube took a smaller hit in ChatGPT, from about 1 in 370 answers to 1 in 500 in Ahrefs' data1, and in the week to Nov 2 it topped LLM Pulse's Google AI Overviews list7. If your buyers watch reviews before they buy, getting mentioned under the videos they watch covers that side.
Claude and Copilot are the exceptions. Claude cited reddit.com on none of the 77 days Otterly measured, and Copilot never went above 0.05% of its citations3.
What to do with this
Treat Reddit as a channel for some assistants, and stop judging any assistant by one screenshot.
Get onto the pages ChatGPT now cites
Product pages, documentation, help centers and hands-on testers picked up the citations Reddit lost. Put the facts only you have (specs, prices, test results, policies) on pages that a site: search of your domain will find. For the rest of the list, see how to get your brand recommended by ChatGPT.
Keep threads for the engines that cite them
If your buyers use Google or Perplexity, threads still feed those answers. The threads that pay off are the ones already ranking or already cited, and finding the Reddit threads Google and ChatGPT already use is a free, repeatable job.
Check per engine, and more than once
Citations churn even without a policy change. Ahrefs followed about 37,500 citations for 20 days: 59% of ChatGPT's were gone the next day and 4% lasted all 20, while Google AI Overviews lost 50% overnight18. Count how often you're cited across runs, per engine. Tracking brand mentions in ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity starts with a free method, and SlopMog vs LLMrefs sets out what a tracker does and what it leaves to you.
Finding the threads assistants cite, every week, is the job of SlopMog's High-Value discovery. It writes 40 buyer-style questions for your site without your brand name, asks each one to 4 AI models with live web search (Gemini, Claude, GPT and Grok), and ranks every Reddit and YouTube thread they cite. These are the models' APIs, not the ChatGPT or Gemini apps your customers type into, so read the list as the threads search-enabled models reach for. A High-Value comment is 60 credits ($6), and plans start at $99 a month. What those runs cite in aggregate is in which threads AI assistants cite.
Update log
- Nov 3, 2026: First published, with data through Nov 2, 2026. Next refresh in early December 2026.
Sources · checked Nov 3, 2026
- 1.Ahrefs, How ChatGPT Does Query Fan-Out (15 Million Queries Studied), Oct 12, 2026: ahrefs.com/blog/query-fan-out-chatgpt/
- 2.Otterly.AI, Reddit GEO in 2026 (Reddit's share by AI search engine, Jul to Sep 2026), updated Oct 1, 2026: otterly.ai/blog/reddit-ban-geo-experiment/
- 3.Otterly.AI, AI Search September 2026 Update, Sep 22, 2026: otterly.ai/blog/ai-search-updates-september/
- 4.Otterly.AI, ChatGPT cut Reddit citations by at least 73% in August 2026, Aug 27, 2026: otterly.ai/blog/chatgpt-reddit-citations/
- 5.Promptwatch, Reddit citations are dropping in ChatGPT, Aug 18, 2026: promptwatch.com/data/reddit-citations-are-dropping-in-chatgpt
- 6.Promptwatch, ChatGPT's site: operator fan-outs, Aug 10, 2026: promptwatch.com/data/chatgpt-site-operator-fanouts
- 7.LLM Pulse, Top cited domains per AI engine (7-day window, updated Nov 2, 2026): llmpulse.ai/data-studies/top-cited-domains
- 8.GrowByData, ChatGPT Reddit Citations: Is OpenAI Changing Its Algorithm?, Oct 2, 2026: growbydata.com/chatgpt-reddit-citations/
- 9.OpenAI, ChatGPT release notes (Aug 6 and Oct 7, 2026 entries): help.openai.com/en/articles/6825453-chatgpt-release-notes
- 10.Gizmodo, OpenAI Is Backing Away From Reddit as Reddit Tries to Become OpenAI?, Aug 18, 2026: gizmodo.com/openai-is-backing-away-from-reddit-as-reddit-tries-to-become-openai-2000800060
- 11.Yahoo Tech, No, ChatGPT has not stopped citing Reddit, Aug 20, 2026: tech.yahoo.com/ai/chatgpt/article/no-chatgpt-has-not-stopped-citing-reddit-204039600.html
- 12.Search Engine Journal, Why Reddit's ChatGPT Citation Drop Isn't Fully Explained, Aug 19, 2026: searchenginejournal.com/why-reddits-chatgpt-citation-drop-isnt-fully-explained/586479/
- 13.Kevin Indig for G2, Decoding Google's role in Reddit's ChatGPT citation dip, Oct 2, 2025: learn.g2.com/reddit-chatgpt-citations
- 14.Trackerly, ChatGPT 5.6 Still Reads Reddit: It Just Stopped Citing It, Aug 20, 2026: trackerly.ai/blog/chatgpt-5-6-reddit-citations
- 15.OpenAI Help Center, How ChatGPT and our foundation models are developed: help.openai.com/en/articles/7842364-how-chatgpt-and-our-foundation-models-are-developed
- 16.OpenAI and Reddit Partnership, May 16, 2024: openai.com/index/openai-and-reddit-partnership/
- 17.Google, Expanded Reddit partnership, Feb 22, 2024: blog.google/company-news/inside-google/company-announcements/expanded-reddit-partnership/
- 18.Ahrefs, How Stable Are AI Citations? 10 Things We Learned Tracking 37,500 Citations, Oct 29, 2026: ahrefs.com/blog/how-stable-are-ai-citations/
- 19.Evertune, AI search statistics (updated August 2026): evertune.ai/resources/ai-search-statistics-for-generative-engine-optimization
- 20.Search Engine Land on Peec AI's 30M-source study, Mar 31, 2026: searchengineland.com/ai-search-engines-cite-reddit-youtube-and-linkedin-most-study-473138
- 21.Ahrefs, the 50 most-cited websites in ChatGPT (Brand Radar, US, November 2026): ahrefs.com/blog/most-cited-domains-in-chatgpt/
Questions people ask
Does ChatGPT use Reddit as a source?
Yes, but far less than before August 2026. In Ahrefs' Brand Radar data, about 1 in 43 US ChatGPT answers cited Reddit in late September 2026, down from 1 in 5 in March. ChatGPT still searches Reddit, and OpenAI says its training data can include public forums.
Did ChatGPT stop citing Reddit?
No, but nearly. Reddit's share of ChatGPT citations fell in two steps, on Aug 8 and Aug 14, 2026, and Otterly.AI measured 0.227% for September, 94% below July. According to OpenAI, as reported by Yahoo Tech, it doesn't set a fixed level of visibility for individual websites and Reddit is still cited.
Does ChatGPT still read Reddit?
Yes. Reddit was still the 9th most site:-searched domain in Ahrefs' study of ChatGPT's background searches in August and September 2026. Trackerly reports Reddit stayed at 25% to 34% of the pages ChatGPT consulted from Aug 13 to 20, while its share of citations fell to about 0.5%.
Is Reddit in ChatGPT's training data?
OpenAI doesn't name its training sources. It says its models learn from publicly available content, including public forums, and from data it accesses through partners. Reddit has been an OpenAI data partner since May 16, 2024, with access to Reddit's Data API.
Does Perplexity still cite Reddit?
Yes. Otterly.AI measured Reddit at 2.2% of Perplexity's citations in September 2026, up from 1.2% in July, and LLM Pulse had reddit.com as Perplexity's most-cited domain for the week to Nov 2, 2026.
Does Google's AI Overview still use Reddit?
Yes. Reddit was 5.1% of Google AI Overviews citations in September 2026 in Otterly.AI's US data, up from 4.4% in July, and the 4th most-cited domain in LLM Pulse's AI Overviews list for the week to Nov 2, 2026.
Is Reddit marketing still worth it for AI answers?
Yes for Google's AI Overviews, AI Mode and Perplexity, which all cited Reddit more in September 2026 than in July in Otterly.AI's data. For ChatGPT, threads rarely show up as sources now, so pair them with your own product and help pages and with hands-on reviews. Check which assistants your buyers use before you decide.
Get your brand into the threads Google's AI answers still cite
SlopMog finds the Reddit and YouTube threads in your niche every day, drafts a comment for each in the thread's tone, and posts the ones you approve from aged Reddit accounts.
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