The 50 Most-Cited Websites in Google AI Mode (September 2026)
By Si Quan Ong
SEO & Marketing Educator at Ahrefs
When Google AI Mode answers a question, it pulls from a relatively small set of trusted sources. We tracked every domain Google AI Mode cited across a broad set of US queries, then ranked them by mention share — the percentage of all citations (among the top sources) that point to each domain. The leader is www.reddit.com, capturing 17.9% of citations. We update this every month.
Google AI Mode: Top 10 mention share
Mention share = a domain’s citations as a percentage of the summed citations of the top sources. Data via Ahrefs Brand Radar · United States, all topics · September 2026.
The 50 most-cited websites in Google AI Mode
# | Website | Mention share | vs last month | Pages cited | DR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 17.9% | – | 1,204,712 | 95 | |
2 | 17.8% | – | 1,553,020 | 99 | |
3 | 12.5% | – | 2,963,109 | 99 | |
4 | 10.2% | – | 655,267 | 100 | |
5 | 5.7% | – | 356,810 | 100 | |
6 | 4.0% | – | 100,864 | 97 | |
7 | 3.0% | – | 142,486 | 92 | |
8 | 3.0% | – | 174,857 | 96 | |
9 | 2.7% | – | 144,505 | 97 | |
10 | 1.5% | – | 88,508 | 92 | |
11 | 1.1% | – | 66,338 | 93 | |
12 | 1.0% | ▲ 3 | 18,713 | 94 | |
13 | 0.9% | ▼ 1 | 47,242 | 90 | |
14 | 0.9% | ▼ 1 | 47,411 | 81 | |
15 | 0.9% | ▼ 1 | 55,950 | 85 | |
16 | 0.8% | ▲ 1 | 10,880 | 92 | |
17 | 0.8% | ▲ 3 | 39,492 | 99 | |
18 | 0.7% | ▲ 10 | 11,928 | 94 | |
19 | 0.7% | ▼ 3 | 33,324 | 86 | |
20 | 0.7% | ▲ 1 | 14,364 | 92 | |
21 | 0.7% | ▲ 1 | 5,422 | 90 | |
22 | 0.6% | ▲ 3 | 26,810 | 94 | |
23 | 0.6% | ▼ 4 | 30,915 | 91 | |
24 | 0.6% | ▲ 2 | 12,372 | 91 | |
25 | 0.6% | ▼ 7 | 28,171 | 89 | |
26 | 0.6% | ▼ 2 | 27,886 | 89 | |
27 | 0.6% | – | 37,756 | 93 | |
28 | 0.6% | ▼ 5 | 42,221 | 94 | |
29 | 0.5% | ▲ 2 | 25,081 | 94 | |
30 | 0.5% | ▲ 7 | 11,271 | 90 | |
31 | 0.5% | ▲ 1 | 23,806 | 94 | |
32 | 0.5% | ▲ 1 | 24,370 | 95 | |
33 | 0.5% | ▼ 4 | 28,212 | 97 | |
34 | 0.4% | – | 5,728 | 92 | |
35 | 0.4% | ▲ 5 | 23,228 | 76 | |
36 | 0.4% | – | 16,685 | 88 | |
37 | 0.4% | ▲ 1 | 33,816 | 85 | |
38 | 0.4% | ▲ 3 | 6,278 | 90 | |
39 | 0.4% | ▼ 4 | 18,312 | 85 | |
40 | 0.4% | ▼ 10 | 21,501 | 93 | |
41 | 0.3% | ▲ 4 | 5,633 | 92 | |
42 | 0.3% | ▲ 5 | 10,740 | 82 | |
43 | 0.3% | NEW | 19,613 | 40 | |
44 | 0.3% | NEW | 12,422 | 94 | |
45 | 0.3% | ▲ 4 | 17,840 | 99 | |
46 | 0.3% | ▲ 4 | 3,667 | 86 | |
47 | 0.3% | ▼ 4 | 8,954 | 78 | |
48 | 0.3% | NEW | 9,324 | 94 | |
49 | 0.3% | NEW | 4,586 | 88 | |
50 | 0.3% | ▼ 11 | 15,252 | 92 |
Mention share = a domain’s citations as a percentage of the summed citations of these top sources. Pages cited = the number of distinct pages on the domain that were cited. DR = Ahrefs Domain Rating. Data: broad US queries, September 2026.
How this data is collected
The numbers come from Ahrefs’ Brand Radar, which tracks the responses AI platforms give to a large, search-backed set of real user queries. For this article, we looked at every domain Google AI Mode cited across a broad sample of US queries spanning all topics, then counted how often each domain appeared as a source.
This article is generated and automatically kept up to date every month by Agent A, our AI agent. Each month it pulls the latest Brand Radar data, recalculates mention share and rank movement, and refreshes the chart and table above — so the figures always reflect the most recent snapshot.
Use Ahrefs’ Brand Radar to track your brand’s presence in Google AI Mode
To track your brand’s presence in Google AI Mode, you’ll have to use a tool like Ahrefs’ Brand Radar.
Enter your brand, go to AI responses, select Google AI Mode, and you’ll see the queries your brand appears for.
To see how you’re comparing against your competitors in Google AI Mode, enter their brands in the “Your competitors” section.
Si Quan is a content marketer at Ahrefs. He has been involved in digital and content marketing for the past 5 years. Before he joined Ahrefs, he was content marketer at ReferralCandy, a 7-figure ARR SaaS company. Si Quan has spoken at some of the industry’s largest conferences in the Asia region, which includes TIECon and Digital Marketing Skill Share. He has also written for some of the industry’s most popular blogs like Sumo and SmartBlogger. His earliest work was marketing a product on Kickstarter, which eventually raised $150,000, more than double the original funding goal. The product was also featured on prominent tech websites, including Engadget, CNET and Digital Trends.
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