For much of 2025 the advice on AI visibility was simple: be on Reddit and YouTube. A year of tracking shows the picture is more complicated, and changing fast.
These figures come from the GEO Compass benchmark. The trend lines use a fixed panel of long-running studies, so changes over time aren't caused by studies starting or stopping. The Trends page has the full monthly series.
A year of change
GEO Compass fixed panel of long-running studies.
- Reddit fell from 27.6% to 11.3%. Community content still appears, but engines lean on it far less than they did.
- YouTube fell from 28.7% to 20.6%, but remains the most-cited platform on Google's AI surfaces.
- LinkedIn rose from almost zero to 3.0%, and Wikipedia also gained ground on the panel.
Part of this is engines maturing. As ChatGPT and Gemini moved to live web search for almost every answer, they began drawing on a wider range of publishers, brand sites and institutions, which diluted the share going to any one platform.
Each engine has its own favourites
The platform you need depends on the engine your audience uses.
| Engine | YouTube | Wikipedia | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google AI Overviews | 13% | 38% | 2% | 11% |
| Google AI Mode | 12% | 37% | 4% | 14% |
| ChatGPT | 12% | 4% | 9% | 4% |
| Perplexity | 11% | 13% | 5% | 16% |
| OpenAI API | 3% | 0% | 24% | 2% |
| Gemini | 4% | 5% | 3% | 0% |
| Claude | 0% | 1% | 7% | 3% |
Share of answers with sources that cite each platform. GEO Compass benchmark, Aug 2025 – Sep 2026.
- YouTube is a Google lever. If AI Overviews and AI Mode matter to your audience, video is part of GEO. Elsewhere it barely registers.
- LinkedIn is a Perplexity and AI Mode lever. Executive posts, company pages and articles on LinkedIn reach these engines.
- Wikipedia is an OpenAI API lever. Developers building on OpenAI's models get answers that lean on Wikipedia far more than the ChatGPT app does.
- Claude and Gemini barely use community platforms. They rely more on brand sites and earned media.
And each market
| Market | YouTube | Wikipedia | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Australia | 16% | 20% | 5% | 3% |
| Singapore | 13% | 9% | 6% | 10% |
| Malaysia | 11% | 10% | 25% | 4% |
| Indonesia | 11% | 12% | 10% | 7% |
| India | 13% | 17% | 8% | 8% |
| United Kingdom | 13% | 15% | 4% | 9% |
| Germany | 8% | 15% | 6% | 2% |
| All markets | 10% | 16% | 6% | 9% |
Australia is the strongest market for Reddit and YouTube. Malaysia stands out for Wikipedia. Singapore for LinkedIn. Germany barely cites LinkedIn at all.
By industry
Platforms matter more in some sectors than others. Reddit reaches 20% of government and public-service answers and 16% of consumer and education answers, but only 3% in healthcare. YouTube reaches 21% of consumer and 18% of automotive answers. Wikipedia reaches 22% of NGO answers and 13% in energy and industrials. LinkedIn reaches 16% in technology and 15% in government. See your sector on the industry pages.
What this means for brands
- Don't build a GEO plan on Reddit alone. It still matters in consumer, government and education categories and in markets like Australia, but its share is falling.
- Treat YouTube as a Google AI channel. Structure videos with chapters, transcripts and question-led phrasing so Google's AI surfaces can cite them.
- Give LinkedIn a role in GEO, especially for B2B, technology and leadership topics where Perplexity and AI Mode draw on it.
- Keep Wikipedia accurate, especially in Malaysia and for organisations in energy, NGOs and the public sector.
- Re-check every quarter. Platform shares moved by double digits in a year. Next year's mix will differ again.
Frequently asked questions
- Do AI engines still cite Reddit?
- Yes, but less than before. On a fixed panel of long-running studies in the GEO Compass benchmark, the share of AI answers retrieving Reddit fell from 27.6% in September 2025 to 11.3% in August 2026. Across the whole benchmark, Reddit appears in about 12% of ChatGPT and Google AI answers with sources.
- Which AI engines cite YouTube?
- Mainly Google's. YouTube appears in 38% of Google AI Overviews answers with sources and 37% of AI Mode answers, but only 4% of ChatGPT's, 5% of Gemini's and under 1% of Claude's.
- Is LinkedIn cited by AI engines?
- Increasingly. LinkedIn appears in 16% of Perplexity answers and 14% of Google AI Mode answers with sources in the benchmark, and its share on the fixed panel rose from almost zero in September 2025.
Figures marked as GEO Compass data come from the anonymised GEO Compass benchmark of AI answers collected by We AI & Data Advisors. Related: AI search in Australia · AI search in Singapore · AI search in Malaysia · AI search in India · AI search in Europe