AI search in India
How AI engines answer, cite and recommend brands for questions asked in India.
Winning AI visibility in India
Social and user-generated content carries more weight in India than in the benchmark as a whole: YouTube, Reddit, Quora, Instagram and enthusiast forums such as Team-BHP all feature in the most-cited sites. Community reputation is part of AI visibility here.
Marketplaces and aggregators are cited about three times as often as the global average. For many Indian categories, the comparison or listing page on an aggregator is where AI engines get their product facts, so keep those listings complete and current.
Focus brands are named in a larger share of unbranded Indian answers than the global average, but their own sites are cited less often. Specialist publishers and aggregators are shaping how those brands are described.
Local sources. Indian answers draw on specialist and marketplace sites (CarDekho, CarWale, Cars24, Team-BHP and Autocar India in automotive), national news (Times of India, Hindustan Times), and YouTube, Reddit and Quora.
AI adoption in India
- India has 100 million weekly ChatGPT users, making it ChatGPT’s second-largest market (February 2026). Source: TechCrunch, India has 100M weekly active ChatGPT users, Sam Altman says
- Google says Indians are its largest user base for voice and visual search, and AI Mode is available in eight Indian languages. Source: Google, Supercharging Search for India: new languages in AI Mode
- In Google’s biggest markets, including India, AI Overviews drove an increase of more than 10% in usage for the queries that show them. Source: Google, 100 things we announced at I/O 2025
- Gemini’s share of AI chatbot traffic in India (16% in September 2026) is among the highest of any market; ChatGPT has 77%. Source: Statcounter, AI chatbot market share, India
Figures compare India with all 24 markets in the benchmark. They reflect the industries studied for India, so differences partly reflect sector mix. Languages in the India sample: mostly English, with some Hindi. Filter the explorer to India to go deeper.
What AI engines cite in India
Share of all cited sources, by type of source
| Measure | India | All markets |
|---|---|---|
| Brand & corporate | 35%31% | |
| Earned media | 23%20% | |
| Social & UGC | 14%8.0% | |
| Reference | 4.6%3.6% | |
| Government & public sector | 1.3%5.4% | |
| Academic & research | 1.8%8.8% | |
| Institutions & associations | 5.5%7.6% | |
| Marketplaces & aggregators | 9.1%2.6% |
Community and reference platforms
Share of answers with sources that cite each platform
| Measure | India | All markets |
|---|---|---|
| 13%9.5% | ||
| YouTube | 17%16% | |
| Wikipedia | 8.0%5.9% | |
| 7.9%8.7% |
Are brands recommended?
In questions that do not name the brand a study was built around
| Measure | India | All markets |
|---|---|---|
| Focus brand named (unbranded questions) | 43%27% | |
| Focus brand’s own site cited (unbranded questions) | 8.9%12% |
Most-cited sites in India
Share of answers with sources that cite each site. Focus brands’ own sites are grouped and masked.
- Focus brands’ own websites 27% · Brand & corporate
- youtube.com 17% · Social & UGC
- reddit.com 13% · Social & UGC
- autocarindia.com 11% · Earned media
- indiatimes.com 11% · Earned media
- cardekho.com 10% · Marketplaces & aggregators
- carwale.com 8% · Marketplaces & aggregators
- wikipedia.org 8% · Reference
- linkedin.com 8% · Social & UGC
- facebook.com 8% · Social & UGC
- instagram.com 8% · Social & UGC
- team-bhp.com 7% · Social & UGC
- cars24.com 6% · Marketplaces & aggregators
- hindustantimes.com 5% · Earned media
- quora.com 5% · Social & UGC
Most-cited sites by industry in India
Industries whose data draws on studies from at least two organisations. Share of answers with sources that cite each site.
Automotive
- autocarindia.com 40%
- cardekho.com 38%
- carwale.com 32%
- team-bhp.com 26%
- cars24.com 24%
- youtube.com 22%
- Focus brands’ own websites 22%
- spinny.com 18%
Financial Services
- Focus brands’ own websites 34%
- linkedin.com 34%
- reddit.com 20%
- glassdoor.com 13%
- youtube.com 11%
- indiatimes.com 11%
- moneycontrol.com 10%
- medium.com 7%
Consumer
- Focus brands’ own websites 26%
- youtube.com 19%
- indiatimes.com 13%
- reddit.com 12%
- amazon.com 10%
- instagram.com 8%
- google.com 7%
- linkedin.com 7%
Travel & Tourism
- tripadvisor.com 18%
- facebook.com 15%
- instagram.com 14%
- manntravel.com.au 13%
- reddit.com 12%
- airindia.com 11%
- quora.com 11%
- youtube.com 10%
How each AI engine answers in India
Engines with enough answers that cite sources. Shares of cited sources and of answers with sources.
| Engine | Sources / answer | Brand sites | Earned media | YouTube | Wikipedia | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google AI Overviews | 6.6 | 33% | 17% | 20% | 37% | 8% | 13% |
| ChatGPT | 9.3 | 31% | 30% | 12% | 11% | 9% | 6% |
| Google AI Mode | 6.6 | 36% | 16% | 13% | 31% | 8% | 11% |
| Gemini | 3.2 | 39% | 23% | 7% | 3% | 7% | 0% |
| Perplexity | 8.5 | 32% | 28% | 21% | 18% | 9% | 15% |
| Claude | 7.4 | 38% | 21% | 0% | 1% | 7% | 3% |
| OpenAI API | 5.7 | 42% | 22% | 6% | 0% | 10% | 1% |
AI engines tracked
Answers collected in India
| Google AI Overviews | 9,670 |
| ChatGPT | 9,669 |
| Google AI Mode | 9,666 |
| Gemini | 9,659 |
| Perplexity | 9,623 |
| Claude | 5,020 |
| OpenAI API | 5,020 |
Industries covered
Industries with enough answers in India to report
- Consumer · 19k answers
- Automotive · 15k answers
- Travel & Tourism · 6,199 answers
- Technology · 6,100 answers
- Financial Services · 4,688 answers
- Healthcare · 3,070 answers
- NGOs · 2,821 answers
- Energy & Industrials · 966 answers
Frequently asked questions
- Which AI engines were tracked for India?
- Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude and the OpenAI API.
- Does the benchmark include Hindi questions?
- Yes, though most Indian questions in the benchmark so far were asked in English. Use the language filter in the explorer to compare the two.
- Which industries are covered in India?
- Consumer, automotive, travel & tourism, technology, financial services, healthcare, NGOs and energy & industrials.
Insights for India
- AI search statistics 2026: usage, clicks, citations and GEO, with sources
- What is GEO? Generative engine optimisation explained, with data
- The GEO checklist: 25 ways to improve your brand's AI visibility
- AI search in Asia-Pacific: how GEO differs in Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and India
- ChatGPT vs Gemini vs Perplexity vs Google AI Overviews: how each AI engine cites sources
- How to measure AI visibility: share of model and the new GEO KPIs
- Named but not cited: why AI engines describe your brand using other people's pages
- AI search for consumer brands: reviewers and YouTube write the shortlist
- AI search for banks and financial services: why money answers are more cautious
- AI search for travel and tourism: who ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI cite for destinations, hotels and flights
- Reddit, YouTube, LinkedIn and Wikipedia in AI answers: what changed in 2026
Other markets: Australia · Singapore · Malaysia · Indonesia · United Kingdom · Germany · Europe
How is your brand showing up in AI answers?
We benchmark how ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, Claude and Copilot describe, cite and recommend brands, then build the content and earned-media plan to change it.
Want to understand your brand opportunities and risks on AI search? Contact We AI & Data Advisors for a sample audit: AIAdvisors@wecommunications.com