Most Cited Sites in ChatGPT for Software-Related Prompts - October 2026
Klaas FoppenMost Cited Sites in ChatGPT
for Software-Related Prompts
When someone asks ChatGPT which tool to use, how two products compare, or how to set up a piece of software, these are the sites it links to in its answer. Based on Promptwatch data from Sep 28 to Oct 4, 2026, collected from real software prompts run through ChatGPT.
GitHub and Microsoft's docs lead, ahead of G2
GitHub is the most cited software domain for organic prompts at 1.2% of all software citations, followed by Microsoft's documentation site, learn.microsoft.com, at 0.98% and G2 at 0.73%. Docs from AWS (0.41%) and Google Cloud (0.35%) come next, ahead of Gartner (0.34%) and Capterra (0.32%).
The biggest tech companies appear on several domains each. Microsoft earns 1.35% across three domains, Google 0.98% across four, AWS 0.69% across two, and OpenAI 0.42% across two. Intercom (0.28%) and Zapier (0.24%) are the most cited of the other vendors.
Where software companies should show up
- Publish documentation and help pages that ChatGPT can crawl. Docs and help sites earn 2.64% of software citations, more than vendor sites or review sites.
- Keep a public GitHub presence for developer tools. GitHub is the most cited software domain.
- Keep your G2 and Capterra profiles complete and current. G2 is the most cited review site at 0.73%.
Citation Share by Source Type
for Software-Related Prompts
Combined citation share for the 23 domains above, grouped by source type. Percentages remain a share of all software citations, not just these 23 domains.
Documentation and help centers earn the largest share
The 23 software sites in this chart together earn 7.89% of all software citations. Documentation and help centers have the largest share at 2.64%, ahead of vendor sites at 2.01%. Review sites and analysts follow at 1.57%, GitHub at 1.2%, and app stores at 0.47%.
Where to audit your brand's software footprint
- Treat your own site as your main citation source. Vendor pages and docs together earn 4.65% of software citations, about three times as much as review sites and analysts.
- Still cover the review sites. G2, Gartner, Capterra, and Software Advice together earn 1.57%, more than any single vendor, including Microsoft.
How we collect this data
We collect millions of prompt responses, citations, and click data from the actual user interfaces of major AI platforms: over 26 billion data points and growing. This gives us one of the largest datasets on how AI search engines cite sources and recommend brands.
Real UI monitoring
Data straight from the interfaces of ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, AI Overviews, and more.
26B+ data points
Over 26 billion analyzed citations, prompts, and responses, one of the largest AI search datasets available.
Continuously updated
Refreshed constantly so the trends you see reflect the latest behavior of AI search engines.
Aggregated & public
Published freely for the GEO community, based on aggregated, non-identifiable trends.
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