What sources does ChatGPT cite when it recommends software?
By Sviatoslav Stohov · AI Visibility Strategist · Published
When ChatGPT recommends software, it cites two kinds of pages: company websites, and pages about the whole category, such as "best" lists, guides, comparisons and review sites. In more than 9,400 answers we collected in October 2026, a third of the links went to company homepages. Lists of the best tools were the most common category page, and ChatGPT read even more of them than it showed.
What ChatGPT links to
Between 13 and 30 October 2026, we asked ChatGPT "best tool" questions for 3,148 B2B companies, three per company in almost every case. No question named a brand. We then sorted every link in the answers by the type of page.
A third of the 90,267 links went to company homepages, and another 13% to product pages. The rest included pages about the category: "best" and "top" lists (14%), blog posts and guides (7%), comparisons (3%) and review sites (3%). About a fifth of the links went to pages we couldn't sort into a type.
What ChatGPT reads but doesn't show
Before it answers, ChatGPT searches the web and reads pages. It shows only some of them as links. In these answers, it read 192,349 pages and showed 90,267 links: fewer than half.
The two lists are not the same. Lists of the best tools were 20% of the pages ChatGPT read, but only 14% of the links it showed. Company homepages went the other way: 19% of what it read, 33% of what it showed.
Our reading: ChatGPT may use a list to choose which companies to name, then link to those companies' own sites. If so, a list can shape the answer even when its link doesn't appear.
Which review sites and platforms show up
We also counted, for each company, whether any of its answers drew on a well-known platform: in the pages ChatGPT read, the links it showed or the text of the answer.
G2 came up for a third of the companies. Gartner and Capterra each came up for about one in five.
Does Reddit matter for ChatGPT?
Less than you might expect, at least in these answers. Reddit came up for 9% of the companies. It was among the pages ChatGPT read in 3.3% of answers, and among the links it showed in 0.2%.
This is one assistant, one month and one type of question: "which tool is best for…". Other assistants and other questions may lean on Reddit more. Check your own questions before you plan around it.
What this means for you
- Find the lists, guides and review pages that answer your buyers' questions. Ask ChatGPT those questions and open every page it links to.
- Check whether those pages name you, and whether they describe you correctly. If a page leaves you out or gets a fact wrong, write to its owner with the correction.
- Keep your profile on the review sites your category uses up to date. G2, Gartner and Capterra came up most often in our data.
- Make your own homepage say plainly what you sell and to whom. Homepages were the most common link in our data.
What our free check does
Our free check asks 10 of your buyers' questions in six assistants: ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Grok, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot. You get an email with two scores, who the assistants name instead of you, and up to three findings with the assistants' own words. We don't change anything on your site, and the check is not a promise that assistants will name you.