B
Evidence Grade B
Graded
accuracy verified by the review judge
Safe to Cite
Current
31%
31% -- attention degradation rate for RAG retrievers (AI search engines) (2026)
Passages over 300 words trigger a 31% attention degradation in RAG retrievers.
Attribution:
View source
Lighthouse Research Team
Last verified:
·
How we verify data →
Source verified
Evidence graded
Value
31%
Unit
Percentage
Data Vintage
2026
Entity
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
50
Source Trust
60
Citation Chain
20
Independence
30
Methodology
45
Freshness
95
Source
GEO-SFE
Primary
Tier C
https://www.theanswerengine.ai/blog/how-ai-search-engines-rank-content ↗
Source Article
How AI Search Engines Rank Content
The Composite Score Equation: every AI search engine ranks content with a hybrid score that multiplies semantic similarity, authority weight, and structural extractability — three factors in a single formula, not a single ranking algorithm (GEO-SFE, 2026). The implication is direct: Answer Engine Op…
Original Research
GEO-SFE
· Original study ↗
Methodology
GEO-SFE 2026 measurement, cited by vendor blog
Methodology documented
Segmentation
Industrymarketing
Cite this stat
Plain Text
RAG retrievers (AI search engines): 31% attention degradation rate. Source: GEO-SFE (2026). Via Lighthouse Intelligence -- https://lighthousedata.io/data/rag-attention-degradation-300-words-31
HTML Embed
<blockquote cite="https://lighthousedata.io/data/rag-attention-degradation-300-words-31" style="border-left:3px solid #2563eb;padding:12px 16px;margin:16px 0;font-family:system-ui,sans-serif;background:#f0f4ff;"><strong>31%</strong> -- attention degradation rate for RAG retrievers (AI search engines)<br><small>Source: GEO-SFE (2026) · <a href="https://lighthousedata.io/data/rag-attention-degradation-300-words-31" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lighthouse Intelligence</a></small></blockquote>
Share
Use this data in your work
Copy the citation, embed the widget, or explore thousands more verified marketing statistics -- all free.