Key takeaways
- Reddit, YouTube, and LinkedIn are tracked by almost every GEO tool as plain domains, but very few break out the specific threads, videos, channels, and posts AI cites.
- The numbers move fast. In Promptwatch's data for Sep 28 to Oct 4, 2026, ChatGPT drew just 0.46% of its citations from social platforms, while Google AI Overviews drew 12.2%.
- Per-engine tracking matters more than a blended number. Reddit is nearly gone from ChatGPT but still shows up in Perplexity and Google surfaces.
- If you want dedicated Reddit, YouTube, and LinkedIn reports plus content workflows, Promptwatch is the most complete option. Peec AI, Otterly.AI, Profound, and Ahrefs Brand Radar cover the basics at different price points.
Why social citations need their own tracking
A year ago the advice was simple: go post on Reddit, because AI loves Reddit. A Peec AI study of 30 million sources, reported by Search Engine Land, ranked Reddit the most-cited domain across ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Gemini, Perplexity, and AI Overviews, with YouTube, LinkedIn, Wikipedia, and Forbes right behind.
That advice is now shaky. Promptwatch's data on Reddit citations dropping in ChatGPT shows reddit.com held a steady 3.83% share of ChatGPT citations from Jul 18 to Aug 7, 2026, then fell under 1% on Aug 14. The Aug 14 to 17 average was 0.52%. Promptwatch flags the size of that drop as provisional, since a data-collection issue can't be fully ruled out, but the direction is clear. Meanwhile AI Overviews eased only from 2.37% to 2.10% over the same stretch, and AI Mode went from 2.22% to 1.54%.
So a tool that tells you "Reddit is cited X% of the time" is almost useless. You need to know which engine, which thread, which date, and whether the citation was yours or a competitor's.
What the latest numbers say
Promptwatch's social media citations by AI model report (Sep 28 to Oct 4, 2026) gives the clearest current picture:
| Engine | Share of citations from social platforms | Top social platform |
|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | 0.46% | LinkedIn (0.3%) |
| Google AI Overviews | 12.2% | YouTube (4.28%) |
| Perplexity | 2.7% | LinkedIn and Reddit tied (0.86%) |
Averaged across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and AI Overviews, YouTube took 1.70% of citations, Reddit 1.03%, LinkedIn 0.90%, and Facebook 0.81%. Reddit in ChatGPT fell from 5.19% in the earlier report to 0.09%. In AI Overviews, Facebook more than doubled to 2.38% and now passes Reddit at 2.15%.
My read: the "social platforms are AI's favorite sources" story is really a Google story now. If your buyers use ChatGPT, social citation work has a much smaller payoff than it did early this year.
What to look for in a tool
Most GEO tools can tell you that reddit.com appeared as a source. That is domain-level tracking, and it's the floor. For this specific job, check for:
- URL-level detail: the exact subreddit thread, YouTube video, or LinkedIn post cited.
- Per-engine splits, since ChatGPT, AI Overviews, and Perplexity behave very differently.
- Your own channels filtered from everyone else's, so you can see if your content is the thing being cited.
- Trend lines, not snapshots. The Reddit drop only shows up if you have daily history.
- A path from insight to action. Knowing a competitor's YouTube video is cited is only useful if you can do something about it.
- Real interface data rather than API output, because user-facing answers and citations can differ from API responses.
The tools compared
| Tool | Reddit/YouTube/LinkedIn depth | Content and action features | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Promptwatch | Dedicated Reddit, YouTube, and LinkedIn reports with "My channels" filter | Content Agent, Action Board, crawler logs | Teams that want to fix gaps, not just see them |
| Peec AI | Source and domain-level analysis | Light suggestions | Quick, multilingual tracking |
| Otterly.AI | Citation tracking, published YouTube research | Basic | Budget-conscious marketers |
| Profound | Enterprise citation intelligence | Reporting-heavy | Large brands |
| Ahrefs Brand Radar | Mentions and cited pages | Fits Ahrefs workflow | Existing Ahrefs users |
| Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit | Source-level reporting | Fits Semrush workflow | Existing Semrush users |
I couldn't find reliable, current pricing comparisons for every tool above, so check each vendor's pricing page before you commit. Note too that several "best tools" listicles on this topic are written by vendors who rank themselves first.
Promptwatch
Promptwatch is the one I'd start with for this specific use case, because social citations are a dedicated feature rather than an afterthought. It has separate reports for the subreddits, videos, channels, and LinkedIn posts that AI cites, plus a "My channels" filter to isolate your own accounts. Citation Trends classify every citation into 22 content types and 20 source types, with first cited date, ramp-up, peak, and decay half-life per page.
It monitors the real interfaces of ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot, and others, so you see what users see. Where it pulls ahead of monitoring-only tools is what happens next: the Action Board turns gaps into a prioritized to-do list, Offsite Mentions catches third-party pages that name your brand without linking, and the Content Agent can draft and publish pages to WordPress, Webflow, or Framer. Paid plans start at $95/month for Essential; confirm current pricing at promptwatch.com/pricing.
Peec AI
Peec AI produced the 30-million-source study that put Reddit on top, so it clearly has the data muscle for source analysis. It's a clean tracker that gets visibility monitoring running fast and handles multiple languages well. It is less about content execution and more about measurement.
Otterly.AI
Otterly is the budget entry point, aimed at marketers and agencies who want mentions, citations, and GEO performance in a self-serve tool. It also published a YouTube GEO study in 2026 analyzing AI citations across ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, and others, which suggests YouTube is on its radar.
Profound
Profound is a strong enterprise monitoring platform with deep citation intelligence. Expect a higher price point, and note that it lacks some of the social-specific reporting and agentic execution you get elsewhere.
Ahrefs Brand Radar and Semrush
If your team already lives in Ahrefs or Semrush, the built-in AI tracking is convenient. The tradeoff is that these are SEO suites adding AI features, so prompt sets tend to be more fixed and the AI-specific depth shallower.
Indexly
Indexly pitches itself around LinkedIn authority and Reddit signals alongside GEO content agents. Its own listicle ranks itself first, so treat that ranking skeptically. It also claims LinkedIn articles make up 50 to 66% of cited LinkedIn content, which no longer matches Promptwatch's August 2026 figures (see below).
Platform by platform: what to track
LinkedIn is now ChatGPT's top social platform at 0.3% of citations, and it ties Reddit on Perplexity at 0.86%. What matters is the page type. In Promptwatch's LinkedIn citation page types for August 2026:
- Across all models, Pulse articles are 30.41% of LinkedIn citations and posts are 27.75%. Together that is about 58%, down from about 70% in the May 18 to Jun 17 window.
- Company pages rose from 13.35% to 18.05%.
- In ChatGPT, company pages are 33.68% of LinkedIn citations, and Pulse articles only 3.65%.
- In Perplexity, posts (37.32%) beat Pulse articles (26.01%).
The practical takeaway: a complete, active company page matters more than it used to, especially for ChatGPT. Pick a tool that splits LinkedIn by page type and by engine, or you'll chase the wrong format.
YouTube
YouTube is the safest bet of the three for Google-driven discovery. It leads AI Overviews' social citations at 4.28%. Perplexity's YouTube share dropped from 2.67% to 0.79% in the latest report, so don't assume it holds everywhere. For deeper background, see Promptwatch's YouTube in AI Search report from February 2026. You want a tool that shows which videos and channels get cited, not just youtube.com.
Reddit is the most volatile. Promptwatch's Reddit in AI Search report covers the January baseline, and the later data shows the ChatGPT collapse. Its advice is to track each engine separately and use rolling trends instead of single-day comparisons. That is the right call: one day's dip can be noise.
A practical setup
- Build a monitor of 30 to 50 prompts your buyers actually use, split into branded, competitor-comparison, and category prompts.
- Run it across ChatGPT, AI Overviews, AI Mode, and Perplexity, in each country that matters.
- Look at social citations per engine. Ignore the blended number.
- Filter to your own channels. Note which of your posts, videos, and company page are cited and which competitors' are.
- Match action to engine. Per Promptwatch's recommendations: if buyers search on Google, put YouTube first and keep public Facebook and Instagram profiles complete. Don't rely on Reddit threads to get into ChatGPT. For Perplexity, publish on both LinkedIn and Reddit. Skip X in AI search plans.
- Review weekly, and recheck after any model change. ChatGPT changed its query fanout behavior on Aug 8, 2026, and Reddit's share began sliding that same day.
Which tool should you pick?
- You need dedicated social citation reports and a way to act on them: Promptwatch.
- You want fast, multilingual measurement and little else: Peec AI.
- You're on a tight budget: Otterly.AI.
- You're a large brand that wants enterprise reporting: Profound.
- You already pay for Ahrefs or Semrush and want something basic: their built-in tools.
To browse more options, the GEO software directory at bestgeosoftware.com lists dozens of trackers with reviews.
The bottom line
Social citation tracking is only useful if it is specific. Reddit in ChatGPT went from a core channel to a rounding error in a matter of days, while Google AI Overviews pulls roughly 26 times more of its citations from social platforms than ChatGPT does. Pick a tool that shows you engine, platform, and URL, and revisit your plan monthly. A strategy built on last quarter's citation data is already out of date.