Short answer
What does Muck Rack’s study say about AI sources?
Short answer
The October 2026 edition of “What Is AI Reading?”, by Muck Rack and Generative Pulse, concludes that:
- More than 84% of AI citations are earned and third-party sources.
- Only 0.3% is paid or advertorial content.
- Brand websites rose from 13.7% to 15.2% between May and September.
It is the fourth edition of the study, and the earned share has stayed between 82% and 89% since 2025. This is not a one-quarter trend.
+40M
AI answers analysed in 2026, with 207 million citations
Generative Pulse
1,020
unbranded consumer prompts in the September sample
Muck Rack, October 2026
212
domains cited by all four engines at once in September
ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity
Definition
What is earned media, and why does AI prefer it?
Earned media is the visibility you get without paying for it and without publishing it yourself: what others say about you. The earned media definition is clearest when you compare it with the other two types:
| Criterion | What it is | Examples | Share of citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| Owned media | Your own channels | Your website, your blog, your product pages | 15.2% |
| Paid media | What you pay for | Ads, sponsored articles, advertorials | 0.3% |
| Earned media and third parties | What others publish about you or your sector | Press, comparisons, reviews, directories, public bodies, encyclopaedias | More than 84% |
The owned, earned and paid media split has never mattered more. Why does AI prefer earned? Because it needs to back its answer with something other than the brand’s own opinion. What a company says about itself is fine for describing its products; to recommend it over others, AI looks to third parties.
One figure illustrates it well: in ChatGPT’s Forbes citations, editorial articles beat those of its paid programme, Forbes Councils, by 1.7 to 1. Even on the same outlet, what is paid for counts for less.
The data
Where do AI engines cite from? What changed from May to September
Within earned and third-party sources, not everything moves the same way:
| Criterion | May | September | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|
| Third-party corporate content | 24% | 25.1% | Up |
| Journalism | 27% | 22% | Down: the biggest change in the study |
| Aggregators and encyclopaedias | 17.4% | 18.3% | Up |
| Brand websites (owned) | 13.7% | 15.2% | Up |
| Government and NGOs | 8.6% | 9.6% | Up |
| Academic research | 4% | 4.4% | Up |
| Paid content | 0.3% | 0.3% | Flat |
The fall in journalism is the news. It had held between 25% and 27% since July 2025 and dropped to 22% in September. In ChatGPT, it went from 28.1% in January to 22%, and several major publishers almost vanished from its citations even though they allowed its crawler.
AI’s sources are changing, but communicators are still the ones best positioned to lead on GEO.
Engines
Each AI cites in its own way, and changes from one run to the next
The study repeated the same question twice on the same day. The result explains why a one-off check is worthless:
| Criterion | Domains repeated | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | 41% | More than half its sources change from one answer to the next |
| Gemini | 45% | Similar to ChatGPT |
| Perplexity | 94% | Very stable: it almost always cites the same sources |
And another figure not to overlook: 81% of the major publishers blocking Claude’s search crawler received almost no citations from Claude. Among those that allowed it, the figure was just 12%.
Blocking has a price
Global data
Impact
What does it mean for your business?
Your reputation on third-party sitesHigh impact
Your sponsored content budgetHigh impact
Your websiteMedium impact
Your press relationsMedium impact
Your measurementMedium impact
Plan
What to do now: an earned media strategy for AI in five steps
An earned media strategy aimed at AI follows this order:
Ask AI which sources it cites in your sector
Put your customer’s questions to ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity and note the websites they cite. That list is your map of media, directories and comparisons to reach.Review what they already say about you
Trade directories, reviews, LinkedIn, Wikipedia if relevant. If the information is outdated or wrong, AI will repeat it.Give the press something to report
Your own data, a small study of your sector, a real case with figures. That is what turns a press release into an article AI can cite.Get into comparisons and lists
Third-party corporate content rises to 25.1%: supplier comparisons, partner websites, trade associations. Ask to be where your category is already being compared.Do not buy mentions
Paid content is cited 0.3% of the time, and Google warns in its guide that manufactured mentions are less useful than they seem. A few real mentions beat many bought ones.
How this fits with your website, and how to measure it, is in the guide to AI visibility.
Key points
- More than 84% of what AI cites is earned media and third-party content; paid content, 0.3%.
- Brand websites rise to 15.2% of citations and journalism falls from 27% to 22%.
- ChatGPT and Gemini repeat fewer than half of their sources from one answer to the next.
- For AI to recommend you, you need others to talk about you, not ads or bought mentions.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about earned media and AI
What is earned media?
Earned media is the visibility a brand gets without paying for it and without publishing it itself: press coverage, mentions on blogs, reviews, comparisons, interviews or third-party recommendations. It differs from owned media, your own channels such as your website, and from paid media, which is advertising.
What does Muck Rack’s October 2026 study say?
That more than 84% of what ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity cite comes from earned and third-party sources, that paid content is just 0.3%, and that brands’ own websites rise to 15.2%. Also that journalism fell from 27% to 22% of citations between May and September 2026. It analyses more than 40 million AI answers from 2026.
Can I pay to have AI cite my business?
Not in organic answers. According to Muck Rack, paid or advertorial content is 0.3% of citations, unchanged since May. You can buy ads in ChatGPT or on Google, which are labelled as advertising, but sponsored articles are hardly ever cited. In ChatGPT’s Forbes citations, editorial content beats the paid programme by 1.7 to 1.
Is my website still useful if AI mostly cites third parties?
Yes. Brand websites made up 15.2% of citations in September 2026, more than in May, and they matter more for product and how-to questions. Your website needs to answer those questions well. But for AI to recommend you over your competitors, you need others to talk about you.
Why does AI cite different sources each time?
Because each answer is generated afresh. When the same question was asked twice on the same day, ChatGPT repeated 41% of the domains it cited, Gemini 45% and Perplexity 94%. So to find out whether you are cited, ask each question several times and compare trends, not one-off answers.
Does blocking an AI crawler affect citations?
A great deal. In the study, 81% of major publishers blocking Claude’s search crawler received almost no citations from Claude, compared with 12% of those that allowed it. If you want an AI to cite you, let its search crawler in, which is different from the one it uses to train models.
References
Sources
Accessed and verified on 29 October 2026.
- Muck Rack. What Is AI Reading?, October 2026 edition (updated 28 October 2026).
- GlobeNewswire, via The Manila Times. Generative Pulse press release (28 October 2026), with the methodology.
- Generative Pulse. Full report and methodology.
- Google Search Central. Guide to optimising for generative AI, on manufactured mentions (10 July 2026).
This article was created with the help of AI and reviewed by José Galán. I take great care over every post and every translation, but the odd mistake can still slip through. If you find one, write to me: you will be helping me improve.
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