Home / Research / How Google AI Mode recommends businesses and cites sources
Research data
How Google AI Mode recommends businesses and cites sources
Measured on 1,971 Google AI Mode answers: how many businesses it names, how many sources it cites and how that compares with the other three engines.
The short answer
In our Oct 22, 2026 test, Google AI Mode named 3.32 businesses per answer on average (median 3) and cited 3.67 different websites per answer. 98.1% of its answers included at least one citation, and 8.7% named no business at all. Across the four engines that is the second lowest number of businesses named per answer and the second lowest number of cited domains.
Sample: 1,971 Google AI Mode answers to 10 buyer questions about 198 marketing agencies, collected on Oct 22, 2026 (one fresh answer per question). The agencies were outreach prospects, not a random sample, so read these as a snapshot of how Google AI Mode answers this kind of question, not as a market-wide average.
Google AI Mode next to the other three engines
| Engine | Businesses named per answer | Domains cited per answer | Answers with a citation | Answers naming no business | Answers naming the checked agency | Citations that are list pages | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | 5.86 | 7.97 | 99.9% | 0.1% | 7.2% | 28.8% | |
| Perplexity | 5.87 | 8.9 | 100.0% | 2.1% | 6.0% | 62.1% | |
| Gemini | 2.8 | 3.48 | 91.0% | 29.9% | 5.3% | 44.9% | |
| Google AI Mode | 3.32 | 3.67 | 98.1% | 8.7% | 3.6% | 39.1% |
Google AI Mode answers were 297 words long at the median. 39.1% of the citations it showed were list pages (“best…”, “top…” and similar), against 62.1% for Perplexity and 28.8% for ChatGPT.
What this means if you want to be named
- Test this engine on its own. Engines differ, so a result on one tells you little about another. The free AI-visibility check asks 4 buyer questions about your business on all four engines in about a minute.
- Look at what it cites. Google AI Mode showed 3.67 domains per answer; being accurately present on the sites it reads is the lever we can measure, though we have not tested whether it changes what an engine recommends.
- Track it monthly. One answer is a snapshot; a fixed question set repeated over time shows a trend.
Related
FAQ
How many businesses does Google AI Mode name per answer?
In our Oct 22, 2026 test of 1,971 answers, Google AI Mode named 3.32 businesses on average (median 3). 8.7% of its answers named none.
Does Google AI Mode cite sources?
98.1% of the Google AI Mode answers we collected included at least one citation, with 3.67 different domains per answer on average.
How was this measured?
Each of 198 agencies was asked 10 buyer questions on Google AI Mode and the three other engines, with one fresh answer per question and engine, collected on Oct 22, 2026. The aggregate tables are in the study CSV.
Is this a market-wide average?
No. The agencies were chosen as outreach prospects, not at random, and one answer was collected per question, so treat the numbers as a snapshot.
Sources
Source: our own Oct 22, 2026 collection; no third-party data. Competitor prices are list prices in USD read on Oct 27, 2026; vendors change prices, so check the source before you buy. Our prices are read from the Apify API when this page is built (Apify Free-plan tier). Trademarks belong to their owners; Wrenfield Data is not affiliated with any vendor named here.
See how Google AI Mode answers for your business
Free check: 4 AI engines, your buyer questions, who is named instead. Or get one white-label packet for a client: $39, delivered within 1 business day.
Free AI check (1 minute) Single-client packet, $39 For agencies