ChatGPT leans on news sites more than any other AI platform, Semrush finds

ChatGPT leans on news sites more than any other major AI platform, in both the UK and the US, Semrush said on Tuesday . From January to July, news took a bigger share of ChatGPT’s cited sources every month. Gemini, Google’s AI Mode and AI Overviews all trailed it.

The pull is stronger in the UK. News and information sites took 29.5% of citations among ChatGPT’s 100 most-cited UK domains, on average. In the US, the figure was 19.6%.

Semrush, which Adobe owns, sells tools that track how brands appear in AI answers. For the 2026 AI Visibility Index , it ran 2.5 million UK prompts and 25 million US prompts each month. It used ChatGPT, Gemini and Google’s AI Mode. It added Google AI Overviews results for real search keywords. The data covers January to July 2026 and 22 industry categories.

“AI is now a decision layer for customers, changing how they discover brands, sort through options and ultimately purchase,” Andrew Warden, Semrush’s chief marketing officer, said in a statement.

The four platforms also disagree more about which brands to name in the UK. On average, any two of the four platforms shared 63 to 70 of their top 100 mentioned brands in the UK. In the US, the figure was 70 to 78. The UK platforms agreed less on both brands and sources in all seven months measured.

Gemini named more distinct brands per answer than ChatGPT in every month, in both markets. ChatGPT cited the most sources per answer of the four platforms, and Gemini the fewest.

Semrush also found that being mentioned is not the same as being cited as a source. Fewer than half of the top 100 mentioned brands also appeared among the top 100 cited domains, on average across categories and platforms. In the UK, the overlap ranged from 36.7 to 45.3 domains out of 100, depending on the month.

Tesco and Asda show the gap. Both stayed among the top 100 mentioned brands on all four platforms in every month. Yet in July, Tesco was ChatGPT’s 25th most-cited UK domain and Asda its 606th. On Gemini, they ranked 29th and 60th.

Google’s AI Overviews cited medical reference sites more than the other three platforms did, in both markets and every month. In the UK, those sites took 13.4% to 18.9% of its citation weight among leading sources. In the US, they took 8.4% to 13.7%.

Video streaming sites, led by YouTube, took the largest share of AI Overviews citations in both markets.

On Gemini, news led the UK source categories every month. It took 16.6% to 23.0% of top-100 citations.

Publishers’ place in AI answers is already a live issue. Google is paying 100 publishers for AI answers in a pilot, The Information reported last month.

Google’s AI Mode also leaned on a small group of sites. In the UK, its ten leading source domains took 23.2% to 35.8% of citations among its 10,000 most-cited domains. For ChatGPT, the figure was 12.8% to 15.4%.

Semrush counted 24 UK domains and 36 US domains that made the top 100 mentions on all four platforms every month. It calls this group the Universal Core. Fifteen domains are shared, including Adobe, Apple, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Reddit, TikTok and YouTube.

Six of the nine domains found only in the UK group are retailers: Amazon UK, Argos, Asda, eBay UK, Marks and Spencer and Tesco. The BBC, Nike and TripAdvisor UK complete it. The US-only group includes carmakers, sports leagues, entertainment brands and retailers.

The report also cites Adobe data showing that visitors referred by AI convert 60% better than other traffic and bring 53% more revenue per visit.

Semrush is one of several companies selling brand visibility in AI answers. Profound raised $180m at a $1.8bn valuation in September. Semrush itself launched a brand visibility framework in April.