Which sites do AI engines cite for online math tutors?

What the numbers say

ChatGPT and Google cite different sites for the same questions. Of the 187 sites ChatGPT cited, 34 appeared anywhere in Google's results for these searches.

• ChatGPT cited wyzant.com more than any other site. It was cited on 17 of the 25 questions and in 63 of the 150 answers. preply.com came next, on 12 questions and in 33 answers.
• Google leans on community sites. Reddit showed up in Google's organic results for 21 of the 24 questions that returned results, and in AI Mode for 9. ChatGPT cited Reddit on 1 of the 25.
• Broad questions spread citations the widest. Across its 6 runs, "how to pick a math tutoring service" drew 21 different sites, "best online geometry tutor for homework help" drew 20, and "best test prep company" drew 19.
• Google showed an AI Overview on 2 of the 25 questions. Overviews appeared on 6 of 13 shorter searches.

How results changed between runs

ChatGPT was run 3 times on 7 October and 3 times on 10 October. Counting each day's 3 runs on their own, 29 sites were cited on 2 or more questions on 7 October and 40 on 10 October. 18 were on both lists. Of the 187 sites ChatGPT cited, 53 were cited on both days. Which sites get cited moves a fair amount between days, so a single check isn't a reliable read for any one site.

How this was measured

Peak Answer wrote 25 questions a buyer asks when a parent or student choosing and pricing an online math tutor or tutoring service, plus a few on online tutoring generally.

• ChatGPT: each question was asked 6 separate times, 3 on 7 October 2026 and 3 on 10 October 2026, from a US location. The 7 October runs were collected through Bright Data and ChatGPT searched the web on 72 of those 75 answers. The 10 October runs were collected through DataForSEO with web search on. Every cited link was recorded. Brand names were pulled from the answer text with Claude, for all 150 answers.
• Google: the same 25 questions were run once on 7 October 2026 for Google search (organic results), Google AI Mode and Google AI Overviews, US results. Google also ran 13 shorter searches, which are only used for the AI Overview count.
• Domains: a domain is the host of the cited link, with "www." removed. Subdomains are kept separate, so fiverr.com and pro.fiverr.com are counted apart.
• Named: a site counts as named in an answer when a brand name Claude pulled from the answer text matches the site's domain name. A firm that goes by a different name in the answer is not counted.

These were the 25 questions:

1. best online math tutor
2. best online math tutoring service for kids
3. top rated math tutoring company online
4. best private math tutor online
5. best online algebra tutor
6. best math tutor for a struggling middle schooler
7. best online math tutor for high school calculus
8. best math tutor for a child with dyscalculia
9. best online geometry tutor for homework help
10. best math tutor for SAT math prep
11. how to choose an online math tutor
12. what to look for in a math tutor for my child
13. how to pick a math tutoring service
14. how much does an online math tutor cost per hour
15. how much does math tutoring cost per month
16. average price of private math tutoring
17. online math tutoring vs in person math tutor
18. alternatives to Mathnasium for math help
19. is a math tutor worth it for my child
20. is online math tutoring effective
21. best online tutoring service
22. best test prep company
23. how much does online tutoring cost per hour
24. online tutoring service vs private tutor
25. is online tutoring worth the money

What this means

For an online math tutoring company, the pages that get cited are mostly tutoring marketplaces and companies' own pages, along with comparison and review blogs written by competitors. They sit in the same citation lists as research papers, government and education bodies and parent resource sites. Wyzant was cited on 17 questions, the most of any site, and its support and blog pages were cited too (support.wyzant.com on 5 questions, blog.wyzant.com on 5). Khan Academy math pages were cited on 10 questions, Varsity Tutors on 7 and the Mathnasium homepage on 5.

For example, Preply and Cuemath were cited with their own blog posts. Preply's "best math tutoring websites" post was cited on 12 questions, including "best online math tutor" and "top rated math tutoring company online". Cuemath's "best online math tutors" post was cited on 8, including "best online math tutor". Brighterly's Mathnasium alternatives post was cited on 7 questions, including "best online math tutor", and Cosmo AI's "Wyzant vs Varsity Tutors" comparison was cited on 7. Care.com's online vs in person tutoring article was cited on 6 questions about cost, like "how much does an online math tutor cost per hour" and "average price of private math tutoring". Understood.org's questions to ask when hiring a tutor was cited on 5, including "best math tutor for a child with dyscalculia", and the Stanford NSSA tutoring meta-analysis was cited on 5.

Google is different. Reddit showed up in Google's organic results for 21 of the 24 questions with results, in AI Mode for 9, and in ChatGPT's citations for 1. Being part of those conversations matters more on Google than on ChatGPT.

Limitations

• Only ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Google AI Overviews and Google search were measured. Claude, Gemini, Perplexity and Copilot may cite different sites.
• 6 runs over two days is a small sample for ChatGPT, and results can often vary significantly from run to run.
• Results are for US searches only.

Download the data

One row per site: the questions it was cited on by ChatGPT, Google AI Mode and Google search, and a page it was cited at.

• Per-site citation counts by engine (263 rows)

How to cite this study

Peak Answer, "Who AI Cites for Online Math Tutors", https://peakanswer.com/research/online-math-tutors.

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