Top Sources Cited by Google AI Overviews - August 2026
Which domains does Google AI Overviews pull from most often, and how did that shift between July and August? This report ranks the sources earning the most citations across all tracked brands and tracks the month-over-month change.
- Report Date: Sept 15, 2026
- Data Period: Aug 1 – Aug 31, 2026
77,362
Total citations tracked (Google AI Overviews, Aug 2026)
17,832
Unique domains cited
22.1%
Share of all citations held by the top 10 domains
13.3
Average sources cited per overview
What This Data Reveals
🔥 The Massive Shift:
Five of the top 10 domains here (YouTube, Reddit, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok) are social or video platforms, and together they hold 18.07% of all citations, well over a sixth of everything Google AI Overviews cites for these tracked brands.
Instagram and Quora stand out as distinctive to this platform. Instagram alone holds 2.32% share here, more than Facebook, LinkedIn, and Amazon individually.
google.com citing itself at 0.89% is a notable pattern, likely routing to other Google properties or services.
The top 10 combined hold 22.1% of all citations. That’s a meaningful concentration, over a fifth of all citation volume sits with just 10 domains out of 17,832 unique domains cited.
Top Sources Breakdown
| 1. youtube | 10.14% |
| 2. reddit | 3.68% |
| 3. instagram | 2.32% |
| 4. facebook | 1.43% |
| 5. linkedin | 0.94% |
| 6. google | 0.89% |
| 7. amazon | 0.80% |
| 8. quora | 0.78% |
| 9. shopify | 0.57% |
| 10. tiktok | 0.50% |
July 2026 vs. August 2026: what changed
Same 10 domains, share of total citations, one month apart. July pulled from 113,805 total citations across 22,982 domains. August pulled from 77,362 across 17,832, a 32.0% drop in overall citation volume and 22.4% fewer unique domains cited, the steepest decline of the three platforms tracked so far.
-32.0%
Total citation volume, July → August
113,805 → 77,362
-22.4%
Unique domains cited, July → August
22,982 → 17,832
+15.1%
YouTube's share of citations, relative change
8.81% → 10.14%
21.1% → 22.1%
Combined share held by these 10 domains
Reading the shift
🔥 Key Finding
Amazon and TikTok are the clear losers here, down 29.6 and 22.9 points past the average decline respectively. LinkedIn and Shopify are the clear winners, up 19.9 and 24.2 points.
YouTube gained real share, not just resilience. Its mentions fell 21.8%, well below the 32.0% average, pushing its share up from 8.81% to 10.14% even as its raw numbers declined.
Reddit held up here too, up 4.2 points against the baseline.
Which domains beat the average decline
Overall citations fell 32.0% month over month. Numbers show how far each domain’s own change was from that baseline, not from zero.
| 1. YouTube | +10.2 pts |
| 2. reddit | +4.2 pts |
| 3. instagram | -7.0 pts |
| 4. facebook | +11.3 pts |
| 5. linkedin | +19.9 pts |
| 6. google | -0.8 pts |
| 7. amazon | -29.6 pts |
| 8. quora | -1.1 pts |
| 9. shopify | +24.2 pts |
| 10. tiktok | -22.9 pts |
How we collect this data
At Track My Visibility, we collect citation data by monitoring AI-generated answers across platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and other AI search tools. We analyze which domains are cited, how often they appear, and where your brand stands against competing sources.
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We monitor the actual user interfaces of ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, and 15+ other AI platforms. We capture real citation data, ranking positions, and competitive visibility metrics.
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