Which Pages Do Google's AI Overviews Cite?

What the data shows

In November 2026, 487 of 493 searches showed an AI Overview (99%). In October 2026, it was 487 of 493 (99%).

Of the 487 AI Overviews in November 2026, 157 (32%) loaded after the rest of the results page. In October 2026, it was 208 of 487 (43%).

The 399 AI Overviews with a list of cited pages in November 2026 cited a median of 6 pages each, from 1 to 14. The 389 in October 2026 cited a median of 3, from 1 to 9.

Of 2,354 cited pages in November 2026, 538 (23%) also ranked in the top 10 for the same search. In October 2026, it was 422 of 1,138 (37%).

Of 2,171 cited domains in November 2026, counted once per search, 673 (31%) also had a result in the top 10 for the same search. In October 2026, it was 467 of 1,098 (43%).

youtube.com was cited in 273 of 493 AI Overviews (56%) in November 2026, more than any other domain. reddit.com came next with 130 (27%).

Stored authority scores cover 386 of 605 cited domains (64%) and 2,086 of 2,354 cited pages (89%) in November 2026. On those, the median domain score was 78 (against 71 in October 2026), and 181 of 2,086 cited pages (9%) were on a domain scoring 34 or less, which is Peak Answer's own score.

The October 2026 figures were collected while the search data provider Peak Answer used then was not reading AI Overviews reliably, so the difference between the two months is not all a change in Google.

Method

Peak Answer re-ran 493 of the 493 Google searches behind its October 2026 figures, with the same wording, on 5 November 2026. The searches are about SEO and AI search tools.

Each search went to a search data provider's Google organic results service on its standard queue, for the United States in English on desktop, first page only (the top 10 results), with late-loading AI Overviews turned on. Each search ran once.

A cited page is an entry in the AI Overview's own list of references, counted once per search by host and path. 88 of the 487 AI Overviews in November 2026 had no such list and count as shown with no cited pages. A cited page is in the top 10 when its host and path match an organic result on the first page of the same search. A cited domain is in the top 10 when any organic result there is on the same host.

The October 2026 figures were read from the stored responses of the earlier run with the same counting rules. Authority scores are the ones already stored from Peak Answer's earlier studies, and the study bought no new ones.

Limits

• One country and language: the United States, in English.
• Desktop only, and the first page of results only.
• One run per search, on 5 November 2026. AI Overviews change between runs, so a second run would give different numbers.
• The searches are about SEO and AI search tools, so the figures say nothing about other topics. The searches carry no question type, so there is no split by type.
• The October 2026 figures were collected while the search data provider Peak Answer used then missed some AI Overviews, so the comparison between months mixes real changes with that gap.
• 88 AI Overviews in November 2026 had no list of cited pages. They count as shown but add no cited pages.
• Stored authority scores cover 64% of cited domains. Domains without one are left out of the authority figures.
• The study is descriptive only. It shows what the data holds, not what caused it.

Download the data

The CSV files hold every cited page and the figures behind the tables. Units are in the column names.

• Every cited page, November 2026 and October 2026 (3,492 rows)
• Headline numbers, November 2026 against October 2026 (9 rows)
• Most-cited domains (15 rows)

How to cite this study

Peak Answer, "AI Overview Citations: What Google Cites (2026 Study)", https://peakanswer.com/research/ai-overview-citations.

Related

The AI Overview checker shows whether an AI Overview appears for your own searches and which pages it cites.

The GEO guide covers how AI search engines choose what to cite.