B
Evidence Grade B
Graded
accuracy verified by the review judge
Safe to Cite
Current
44.2%
44.2% -- share of citations from top 30 percent of page for ChatGPT citations (2026)
44.2% of ChatGPT citations came from the first 30% of a page based on an analysis of 1.2 million AI answers and 18,012 verified citations.
Attribution:
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Lighthouse Research Team
Last verified:
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Source verified
Evidence graded
Value
44.2%
Unit
Percentage
Data Vintage
2026
Entity
Sample Size
18,012
Evidence Quality
B
Strong, reliable evidence
Sourced from a well-regarded research firm or industry leader with transparent methodology and a reasonably large sample.
Single source - not yet corroborated
Score breakdown
Extraction
75
Source Trust
60
Citation Chain
20
Independence
30
Methodology
45
Freshness
95
Source
Kevin Indig (Growth Memo)
Primary
Tier B
https://www.tryprofound.com/articles/top-experts-in-generative-engine-optimization ↗
Source Article
The 2026 A-list of generative engine optimization (GEO) experts
Why GEO experts matter in 2026
In 2026, answer engines are no longer just answer engines. They are shortlist engines, comparison engines, and increasingly action engines. Google says AI Overviews now reach more than 2.5 billion monthly active users, while AI Mode has surpassed one billion. Its newes…
Original Research
Kevin Indig (Growth Memo)
· Original study ↗
Methodology
Analysis of 1.2 million AI answers and 18,012 verified citations (Kevin Indig)
Methodology documented
Segmentation
Industrymarketing
Cite this stat
Plain Text
ChatGPT citations: 44.2% share of citations from top 30 percent of page. Source: Kevin Indig (Growth Memo) (2026). Via Lighthouse Intelligence -- https://lighthousedata.io/data/chatgpt-citations-top-of-page-2026
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<blockquote cite="https://lighthousedata.io/data/chatgpt-citations-top-of-page-2026" style="border-left:3px solid #2563eb;padding:12px 16px;margin:16px 0;font-family:system-ui,sans-serif;background:#f0f4ff;"><strong>44.2%</strong> -- share of citations from top 30 percent of page for ChatGPT citations<br><small>Source: Kevin Indig (Growth Memo) (2026) · <a href="https://lighthousedata.io/data/chatgpt-citations-top-of-page-2026" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lighthouse Intelligence</a></small></blockquote>
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