What sources does
ChatGPT cite?
Ask ChatGPT the question your buyers ask and get every page it cites, the domains it relies on most, and whether your site is one of them. 5 free source lookups a day, no account.
A ChatGPT citations checker for outreach lists
When ChatGPT answers a buyer question like “best CRM for small business”, it searches the web and builds its answer from a handful of pages. Those pages decide which brands get recommended. If you work in PR, SEO or AEO, they are the list worth knowing: the roundups to get into, the comparison pages to pitch, and the publishers ChatGPT trusts for your category.
This tool asks ChatGPT live and lays out what it used. You see which pages are linked inside the answer and which only sit in its source list, how many pages each domain contributed, and the exact searches ChatGPT ran, which tell you the queries your content has to win. Add your domain to see whether you made the list at all.
It answers a different question from the AI visibility checker, which checks whether your brand is named in ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overview answers. To collect cited sources across hundreds of prompts, use the ChatGPT API and run it daily from your own code.
How to find the sources ChatGPT cites
- 1
Type the question your buyers ask
Write the prompt the way a buyer would type it into ChatGPT, e.g. 'best crm for small business' or 'asana vs monday for agencies'. Comparison and 'best X for Y' questions make ChatGPT search the web and cite pages.
- 2
Add your domain (optional)
Enter a domain such as hubspot.com to highlight it. The tool tells you whether any of its pages were cited, at which positions, and whether the answer text links to it.
- 3
Read the sources and build your list
You get the opening of the answer, the web searches ChatGPT ran, the domains it cited most, and every cited page in ChatGPT's order with title, publisher and publish date. Those pages are your outreach list.
The same data from the API
One call to POST /api/v1/chatgpt/prompt returns the answer as Markdown, every cited page and the searches ChatGPT ran. 2 credits per answered prompt; failed prompts are free. A trimmed real response:
{
"data": {
"platform": "chatgpt",
"prompt": "best crm for small business",
"model": "gpt-6",
"sources": [
{
"url": "https://www.spotsaas.com/blog/best-crm-software-2026-reviews-pricing-feature-comparison?utm_source=chatgpt.com",
"title": "Best CRM for Small Business in 2026: 10 CRMs Compared on Price and Free Plans",
"snippet": null,
"source": "Spotsaas",
"published_at": "2026-06-04T00:00:00.000Z"
},
{
"url": "https://zapier.com/blog/best-crms-for-small-business/?utm_source=chatgpt.com",
"title": "The 11 Best CRMs for Small Business in 2026",
"snippet": null,
"source": "Zapier",
"published_at": "2026-07-03T00:00:00.000Z"
}
],
"search_queries": [
"best CRM software for small businesses 2026 pricing features comparisons"
]
},
"credits_used": 2
}Field reference in the ChatGPT API docs.
Frequently asked questions
What sources does ChatGPT cite?+
When ChatGPT searches the web to answer, it returns a list of the pages it used. For buyer questions these are usually review roundups, comparison articles, vendor pages and directories. The exact list depends on the question and changes over time, which is why this tool asks ChatGPT live and shows the pages it cited for your question right now.
What does the ChatGPT cited sources finder show?+
For one prompt it shows the opening of ChatGPT's answer, the web searches ChatGPT ran to write it, the domains it cited ranked by number of pages, and every cited page in ChatGPT's own order with title, publisher and publish date when ChatGPT provides them. If you enter a domain, it also tells you whether that domain was cited and where.
What is the difference between 'Linked in answer' and 'Source list'?+
'Linked in answer' means the page is linked inside the answer text itself, as an inline citation or a product link. 'Source list' means the page is in the sources ChatGPT returned with the answer but the text does not link to it directly. Pages linked in the answer are the ones a reader is most likely to click.
How is the position calculated?+
Position is the page's place in the source list ChatGPT returned, after removing exact duplicates. The domain table counts how many cited pages each domain has, how many of those are linked in the answer, and the position of its first page.
Why does ChatGPT sometimes cite no sources?+
For questions it can answer from its own knowledge, such as simple facts or definitions, ChatGPT often does not search the web, so there are no sources to cite. Questions that need current information, like 'best X for Y' or 'X vs Y', usually make it search and cite pages.
How do I use this for PR, SEO and link outreach?+
Run the prompts your buyers ask and collect the pages ChatGPT cites. Those are the pages it relies on for your category. Getting your product reviewed, listed or compared on them, and publishing a page that answers the same question well, are the most direct ways to influence the next answer. Re-run the same prompts later to see which pages stay in the list.
How is this different from the AI visibility checker?+
The AI visibility checker asks whether your brand is mentioned in the answers from ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews, and where it ranks. This tool focuses on ChatGPT's sources: which pages and domains it cites for a question, so you know where to earn coverage. Use both together.
Are the results live?+
Yes. Every lookup sends your prompt to ChatGPT at that moment, answered for the United States. ChatGPT can cite different pages for the same question on different runs, so run important prompts more than once before drawing conclusions.
Is it free?+
Yes. You get 5 free source lookups a day with no account. For more, get an API key: 50 free credits on signup, no card required, and each ChatGPT answer costs 2 credits.
How do I get the full list for many prompts?+
Call POST /api/v1/chatgpt/prompt with your prompt. The full JSON is available via the API: data.sources holds every cited page with url, title, snippet, source and published_at, and data.search_queries holds the searches ChatGPT ran. An optional country parameter takes a 2-letter country code. Prompts that fail to return an answer are not charged.
Collect ChatGPT's sources with the API
This tool is one endpoint on the Scavio API. Run every buyer prompt you care about through ChatGPT from your own code, collect the pages it cites, and compare them run to run.