Reddit Citations Are Dropping in ChatGPT
Klaas FoppenChatGPT All but Stopped Citing Reddit on August 14
Reddit.com's daily share of all citations returned by ChatGPT Search between July 7 and August 17, 2026. Only responses with at least one citation contribute to the calculation. The red lines mark August 8, when ChatGPT Search changed its query fanout behavior, and August 14, when Reddit's share fell below 1%.
Past 7 days
1.50%
-54.4%daily average · vs previous 7 days
Past 30 days
3.15%
-10.9%daily average · vs previous 12 days
What this means for you
Reddit lost almost its entire citation footprint in ChatGPT within a single day. From July 18 through August 7 it held a steady 3.83% average share of ChatGPT citations, one of the largest of any domain. On August 14 the share collapsed to under 1%, and the August 14-17 average of 0.52% is a 86.4% relative drop.
The slide started earlier: on August 8, the same day ChatGPT changed its query fanout behavior, Reddit's share fell from the high 3s to the mid 2s. The chart shows when each change happened, not why. A shift in ChatGPT's source selection is the obvious candidate, but a data-collection issue cannot be ruled out, so treat the size of the drop as provisional while we keep monitoring.
How to act on it
- Check response and citation collection volume around August 14 before treating the drop as a change in ChatGPT's source selection.
- Compare the Reddit URLs cited before and after August 14. This will show whether the loss affected Reddit broadly or specific subreddits and topics.
Reddit's Slow Decline in AI Overviews
Reddit.com's daily share of all citations returned by Google AI Overviews between July 7 and August 17, 2026. Only responses with at least one citation contribute to the calculation.
Past 7 days
2.10%
+0.8%daily average · vs previous 7 days
Past 30 days
2.13%
-6.5%daily average · vs previous 12 days
What this means for you
Reddit averaged 2.37% of AI Overview citations during the first seven days and 2.10% during the final seven. That is a 11.3% relative decline over the period.
Unlike ChatGPT, AI Overviews did not show a single sharp break. Reddit's citation share moved down gradually, from about 2.5% in early July to about 2.1% in August.
How to act on it
- Compare the domains that gained citation share as Reddit declined. The replacement sources can show whether Google is shifting toward other forums, publishers, or first-party sites.
- Track AI Overviews separately from ChatGPT. Google's gradual decline does not match the abrupt ChatGPT change on August 14.
Reddit's Slow Decline in AI Mode
Reddit.com's daily share of all citations returned by Google AI Mode between July 7 and August 17, 2026. Only responses with at least one citation contribute to the calculation.
Past 7 days
1.54%
-9.6%daily average · vs previous 7 days
Past 30 days
1.80%
-18.2%daily average · vs previous 12 days
What this means for you
Reddit averaged 2.22% of AI Mode citations during the first seven days and 1.54% during the final seven, a 30.5% relative decline.
The clearest step came at the end of July. Average share moved from 2.06% between July 22 and July 28 to 1.78% over the following seven days, then continued edging lower.
How to act on it
- Review AI Mode citation share by topic. The overall decline may be concentrated in categories where Reddit previously supplied first-hand answers.
- Use a rolling trend instead of a single-day comparison. AI Mode's movement is gradual, and daily changes are small compared with ChatGPT's August drop.
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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