Social and community platforms are a small, uneven slice of what AI engines cite. In the Machine Relations Index answer ledger, 197,384 cited-URL events came from 23,183 answer runs on 1,008 buying questions. 8,221 of them (4.2 percent, 95 percent interval 3.9 to 4.5) pointed at Reddit, YouTube, LinkedIn or another social or community platform. Reddit was 3,331 events, YouTube 2,979, LinkedIn 1,394 and all other platforms together 517.
Two things move that share. The first is the question. On top-list questions 2.5 percent of citations were social. On problem-first questions, where the buyer describes a situation and names no product, it was 6.1 percent, and on X-vs-Y questions 6.2 percent. The second is the engine, and it moves the share more: Claude cited a social platform on 0.1 percent of its citations, ChatGPT on 2.4, Perplexity on 4.8, Gemini on 8.2 and Google AI Mode on 14.4. Each engine also goes to a different platform. In this ledger the ChatGPT API route cited no Reddit address in any of its 42,254 citation events, and on X-vs-Y questions the only social platform it cited was YouTube.
This page counts where engines pointed. It does not say that a post on any of these platforms earns a citation, and 94 of every 100 citations in this ledger go somewhere else.
What was counted #
- Population. Successful runs in the Index's buying-question panel, 2026-07-06 to 2026-11-07, on its 1,008 buying questions (168 in each of six question shapes, 24 industries). Runs flagged as naming a brand in the prompt are excluded. The ledger export is dated 2026-11-08. The events and runs are the same 197,384 and 23,183 as the URL slug study, the slug-and-question study, the year-in-the-URL study and the site-sections study.
- Engines. ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Google AI Mode and Perplexity, called through their APIs. This is not the consumer ChatGPT or Claude app. Google AI Overviews are left out. The engines do not answer the same questions: Perplexity cites on all 1,008, ChatGPT on 999, Claude on 895, Gemini on 436 and Google AI Mode on 138.
- Unit. One cited URL in one answer run, counted once however often the run repeated it. The set holds 78,194 distinct addresses.
- Social and community platforms. A fixed list of root domains: reddit.com, youtube.com, linkedin.com, facebook.com, instagram.com, x.com, quora.com, tiktok.com, pinterest.com, stackexchange.com and stackoverflow.com. Medium, Substack, dev.to and other publishing hosts are not counted. Wikipedia and review sites such as G2 are not counted.
- No page was fetched to build the counts. The platform is a fact about the address the engine returned.
One slice, three main platforms #
Share of all 197,384 cited addresses (95 percent intervals resample the 1,008 questions, with every cited address of a question kept together; 2,000 draws, fixed seed):
| Platform | Events | Share of all citations |
|---|---|---|
| 3,331 | 1.7% | |
| YouTube | 2,979 | 1.5% |
| 1,394 | 0.7% | |
| All other social and community | 517 | 0.3% |
| All social and community | 8,221 | 4.2% (3.9 to 4.5) |
The slice is a long tail, not a few viral threads. The 8,221 events are 3,925 distinct addresses, and the 20 most-cited social addresses are 342 events, 4.2 percent of the social total. Counting each distinct address once, social platforms are 5.0 percent of the 78,194 distinct addresses cited.
The question changes the share #
Share of cited addresses on a social or community platform, by the shape of the question that produced the citation (events matching, out of events; intervals resample the 168 questions of a shape):
| Question shape | Cited URLs | Social events | Share | YouTube | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| X vs Y | 30,246 | 1,862 | 6.2% (5.2 to 7.1) | 2.2% | 2.8% | 0.9% |
| Problem first | 26,258 | 1,590 | 6.1% (5.1 to 7.1) | 2.0% | 2.0% | 1.5% |
| Is it worth it | 30,652 | 1,313 | 4.3% (3.5 to 5.1) | 2.0% | 1.3% | 0.7% |
| Best X | 38,847 | 1,404 | 3.6% (3.1 to 4.1) | 1.7% | 1.3% | 0.4% |
| How to choose | 31,480 | 1,035 | 3.3% (2.8 to 3.8) | 1.3% | 1.1% | 0.7% |
| Top lists | 39,901 | 1,017 | 2.5% (2.1 to 3.0) | 1.2% | 0.8% | 0.3% |
The platform columns leave out the other-platform share (0.2 to 0.5 percent of a shape), so they do not add to the Share column.
Problem-first and X-vs-Y questions draw social platforms at more than twice the rate of top-list questions, and their intervals do not overlap the top-list interval. The three shapes in the middle (is it worth it, best X, how to choose) sit between. The ordering holds when each distinct address is counted once per shape: 6.8 percent on problem-first, 6.4 on X vs Y, 4.9 on is it worth it, 4.7 on best X, 4.1 on how to choose, 3.4 on top lists.
Part of the gap is which engines answer which question. Perplexity supplies 67.9 percent of problem-first citations and 43.7 percent of top-list citations, and Perplexity cites social platforms more than ChatGPT or Claude do. Holding the engine mix fixed at the overall mix (each engine's share in each shape, weighted by that engine's share of all citations) gives 6.6 percent on X vs Y (5.7 to 7.6), 5.5 on problem first (4.7 to 6.3), 4.3 on is it worth it, 3.6 on best X, 3.3 on how to choose and 2.5 on top lists (2.1 to 2.9). The ordering stays and the gap narrows a little: problem-first is 2.2 times top lists after the adjustment, against 2.4 times before.
In 22 of the 24 industries, problem-first questions drew a higher social share than top-list questions, and in 22 a higher share than best-X questions. They were the highest of the six shapes in 10 industries, because X-vs-Y or another shape led in the rest. The two industries where top lists were higher than problem-first were martech-advertising (0.7 against 0.5 percent) and fintech (1.9 against 1.5).
The engine decides more than the question #
Share of each engine's cited addresses on a social or community platform (intervals resample the questions the engine cited on):
| Engine | Cited URLs | Social events | Share | YouTube | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google AI Mode | 6,124 | 882 | 14.4% (12.3 to 16.9) | 3.9% | 7.1% | 1.6% |
| Gemini | 17,416 | 1,435 | 8.2% (7.2 to 9.5) | 4.7% | 3.3% | 0 |
| Perplexity | 105,295 | 5,030 | 4.8% (4.4 to 5.2) | 2.2% | 1.3% | 1.1% |
| ChatGPT | 35,357 | 832 | 2.4% (2.0 to 2.7) | 0 | 1.8% | 0.4% |
| Claude | 33,192 | 42 | 0.1% (0.1 to 0.2) | 0 | 0 | 0.1% |
Each engine leans on a different platform:
- Google AI Mode goes to YouTube first (432 events, 7.1 percent of its citations).
- Gemini goes to Reddit first (810 events, 4.7 percent) and cited no LinkedIn address.
- Perplexity goes to Reddit first (2,285 events). Because it supplies 53 percent of all citations, it supplies 61 percent of the social ones.
- ChatGPT cited YouTube 626 times, LinkedIn 152 and X 27, and cited no Reddit address. Across every panel and date in the ledger, 2026-05-10 to 2026-11-08, ChatGPT has 42,254 citation events and none is a Reddit address. Claude has 43,237 and none is a Reddit address.
- Claude cited a social platform 42 times in 33,192 events, 36 of them LinkedIn.
The ledger cannot say whether the ChatGPT API route does not retrieve Reddit or retrieves it and does not cite it. It also does not measure the consumer ChatGPT app, which may behave differently. An earlier Index page found the same engine split on Reddit, but it counts a different thing: the share of runs that cite Reddit, with Google AI Overviews included, over an earlier window. This page counts the share of citation events across five engines and 24 industries through 2026-11-07, so the two are not the same measure and their percentages should not be compared.
The question effect holds inside most engines #
Share on a social or community platform, by engine and question shape:
| Engine | Top lists | Best X | How to choose | Is it worth it | X vs Y | Problem first |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google AI Mode | 8.0% | 12.1% | 12.7% | 18.5% | 14.7% | 21.9% (15.1 to 29.6) |
| Gemini | 6.0% | 10.2% | 5.8% | 9.1% | 11.4% | 8.7% |
| Perplexity | 2.8% | 3.8% | 3.9% | 4.7% | 6.9% | 6.6% |
| ChatGPT | 1.1% | 1.5% | 1.7% | 2.1% | 7.9% (6.2 to 9.9) | 2.9% |
| Claude | 0.0% | 0.1% | 0.1% | 0.1% | 0.3% | 0.0% |
Problem-first is higher than top lists in Perplexity (6.6 percent against 2.8; the intervals, 5.6 to 7.7 and 2.2 to 3.5, do not overlap), in Google AI Mode (21.9 against 8.0, from 21 and 23 questions) and in ChatGPT (2.9 against 1.1). In Gemini the intervals overlap and best-X is the higher cell, so the pattern is not there. Google AI Mode and Gemini answered only 138 and 436 of the 1,008 questions, so their cells are built on 21 to 104 questions each and their intervals are wide.
ChatGPT's X-vs-Y cell is the outlier. 7.9 percent of its X-vs-Y citations are social, between 2.7 and 7 times its share on any other shape, and every one of those 289 events is a YouTube video: 60 distinct videos across 53 questions. The largest counts are in consumer-facing industries (consumer finance 39, emergent prosumer 37, consumer products 33). The ledger does not read the videos, so it cannot say what they are.
The AI-visibility panel is a problem-first case #
The Index's AI visibility and GEO industry is the closest panel to this site's own buyers. Its seven problem-first questions (for example, "chatgpt recommends our competitors by name but never mentions us, what would change that") drew 1,748 citation events, and 13.6 percent were on a social or community platform, the highest cell of the six shapes in that industry (X vs Y 8.2 percent; top lists 4.2). By engine on those seven questions: Google AI Mode 36.4 percent (on 1 question), Gemini 21.7 (6 questions), Perplexity 14.3 (7 questions), ChatGPT 0.4 percent (1 YouTube address in 261 events) and Claude 0. Seven questions are a small panel, so treat the figure as a pointer and not a rate.
What this changes #
- Reddit and YouTube are not one channel. A Reddit thread was cited by Gemini, Google AI Mode and Perplexity and by neither ChatGPT's nor Claude's API route. A YouTube video was cited by four engines at 1.3 to 7.1 percent of their citations. A plan that treats "community" as one source misreads who sees it.
- Match the platform to the buyer's question and engine. For problem-first and X-vs-Y questions, social platforms are about one citation in 16. For top-list, best-X and how-to-choose questions they are one in 28 to 40. A question about a situation sends engines to people describing situations.
- Keep it in proportion. On the question shape where social is highest, 93.8 percent of citations are not social. On top lists it is 97.5 percent. The larger work is in the sources the Index measures by class.
- Do not read this as "post on Reddit". The ledger shows where engines pointed, not what was posted there, by whom or whether a brand post would be cited. A cited LinkedIn post or YouTube video may be written by a brand or its executive. The ledger does not separate those.
- ChatGPT and Claude read the web in a different place. Neither API route cited Reddit and Claude cited almost no social platform at all. For those two engines the cited sources are elsewhere: how engines differ in which sources they cite is the place to start.
What this page does not show #
- Cause. A social platform cited on a question may be cited because it holds the best answer. No page was read.
- Consumer products. The engines are called through their APIs. The consumer ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini apps and Google AI Overviews may cite differently, and Google AI Overviews are left out of every number here.
- Buyer demand. The 1,008 questions are the Index's own panel, written for coverage of buying decisions. They are not a sample of what buyers type.
- What the posts say. Whether a cited thread, video or post praises, criticizes or ignores a brand is not read. A cited platform address is not a recommendation.
- Who owns the account. A brand's own YouTube channel or LinkedIn page counts as social here.
- The list of platforms. The share depends on the fixed list above. Medium, Substack and dev.to hold another 1,442 events (0.7 percent) and are not in the 4.2.
- Citation quality. A cited URL is a source an engine linked or listed. Engines name only 17.6 percent of the sources they cite (AI engines cite sources they do not name).
- Trend. The page does not test whether these shares are changing.
Method note #
Source: the Index answer ledger's citation-events table, daily export of 2026-11-08, read with DuckDB, joined to the run table (successful runs only) and the question table (the buying-question panel, for the question shape and industry). Filters: the buying-question panel, runs not flagged as brand-prompted, a non-empty cited URL, engines ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Google AI Mode and Perplexity, run dates 2026-07-06 to 2026-11-07. Unit: distinct (answer run, cited URL) pairs, 197,384, from 23,183 runs and 1,008 questions. Platform: the cited URL's root domain against the list in "What was counted". Question shape is read from the question identifier. Shares are pooled event counts, not averages of per-question shares. Intervals resample the questions in a group with replacement, keeping each question's cited addresses together, 2,000 draws for the population and shape tables and 1,000 for the engine-by-shape cells and engine-adjusted shares, fixed seed. The engine-mix adjustment weights each engine's share in a shape by that engine's share of all 197,384 events. The industry comparison uses the 24 industries that have events in all six shapes. The Reddit counts for ChatGPT and Claude use every citation event of those engines in the ledger (all panels, 2026-05-10 to 2026-11-08) and match reddit.com, redd.it and "reddit" in the cited and raw address. The Medium, Substack and dev.to count uses the same population and filters as the main table.
Frequently asked questions #
Do AI engines cite Reddit and YouTube? #
Some do, and by different amounts. In the Machine Relations Index ledger, Reddit was 1.7 percent of 197,384 cited URLs and YouTube 1.5 percent. Gemini, Google AI Mode and Perplexity cited Reddit. The ChatGPT and Claude API routes cited none. YouTube was cited by ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Mode and Perplexity.
Does ChatGPT cite Reddit? #
Not through the API route the Index collects through. None of ChatGPT's 42,254 citation events in the ledger (2026-05-10 to 2026-11-08) is a Reddit address. The ledger does not measure the consumer ChatGPT app.
Which AI engine cites social media the most? #
Google AI Mode: 14.4 percent of its citations were on a social or community platform, then Gemini at 8.2, Perplexity at 4.8, ChatGPT at 2.4 and Claude at 0.1. Perplexity supplies the most social citations in total (5,030 of 8,221) because it supplies the most citations.
Which questions pull the most Reddit, YouTube and LinkedIn citations? #
Problem-first questions (6.1 percent social) and X-vs-Y questions (6.2 percent). Top-list questions pull the least (2.5 percent). The order holds after adjusting for which engines answer which question, and in 22 of 24 industries problem-first beat top lists.
Should a brand post on Reddit or YouTube to be cited by AI? #
This data does not answer that. It shows where engines pointed on 1,008 buying questions, not what was posted there or whether a brand's post would be cited. It does show that 94 to 97 percent of citations are not on these platforms.