Is Reddit Still Worth It for AI Visibility After ChatGPT Dropped It?

Ahrefs recently published a study: over 6 months, ChatGPT's citations of Reddit fell 88%. Our data shows a similar drop. It also shows something you cannot see by comparing only the start and end of a six-month window: ChatGPT switched Reddit off and on, and off again, more than once.

Every day, the Dageno team collects answers from 8 AI platforms through their web interfaces. For each answer, we record which sources it cites and sort them by type: brand websites, media, communities, retailers and so on. For every Reddit link, we also check whether the answer text actually used it. This article covers February to September 2026.

1. We've been posting on Reddit to get into AI answers. Which AI platforms still use it?

Mainly Google's two AI products.

Figure 1. Reddit now shows up mostly in Google's AI answers (September 2026, all regions).

In September 2026, among AI answers that cited sources:

• Google AI Overviews: 38.6% linked to Reddit.
• Google AI Mode: 27.7%.
• Perplexity: 8.5%. Gemini: 5.6%.
• Grok: 1.7%. ChatGPT: 1.4%.
• Copilot and Alexa almost never linked to Reddit (0.04% and 0%).

The orange bars show how often Reddit content actually made it into the answer text (an estimate; how it is calculated is explained in section 5). Google AI Mode was at 24.9% and Google AI Overviews at 14.8%. Every other platform was under 6%.

2. ChatGPT and Grok used to link to Reddit often. What happened?

Both platforms have almost stopped linking to Reddit.

Figure 2. Two AI platforms nearly dropped Reddit in 2026 (monthly, all regions).

• ChatGPT: in February, 34.8% of answers with sources linked to Reddit. By September, only 1.4% did.
• Grok: 79.5% in February, still 74.8% in June. By September, only 1.7%.

Platforms entered our database in different months (February, March or April), so the long-term trends of different platforms in this chart cannot be compared side by side.

ChatGPT's drop was not gradual. In the daily US data, it moved in one-day steps:

Figure 3. ChatGPT's Reddit links: off, on, and off again (US, daily).

• June 13: fell from 54% to 6% in one day.
• July 7: came back, jumping from 11% to 37%.
• August 8: fell from 26% to 15%.
• August 14: fell from 13% to 2%. From then until September 30, it stayed around 2% and never went above about 3%.

Each of these steps happened within a single day, which makes them stronger evidence than the monthly trend. The makeup of the question sets changes a little each month, and that can move monthly shares, but it is hard to explain a single-day jump by the mix of questions. We did not change how we collected or parsed data at any point during the study, so these steps came from the platform side. Other trackers saw this drop too. Section 3 puts their numbers next to ours.

What we cannot answer is "why." OpenAI has not announced any change to how it picks sources. Our data shows only the final answer, not what ChatGPT retrieved behind the scenes, so we cannot tell whether the change happened at retrieval, in content licensing or at display. This has also happened before: Profound recorded that in September 2025, Reddit's share of ChatGPT citations fell from about 7% to about 1%, then recovered to about 3%. So today's 2% should be read as the current state, not necessarily a permanent one.

3. Other trackers reported the drop too. Why don't their numbers match ours?

They all point the same way. How big the drop looks depends on what each tracker counts and which two time periods it compares.

There are two ways to count. One is "the share of answers that cite Reddit at least once" (Ahrefs, Searchable and us). The other is "Reddit's share of all citations" (Promptwatch, OpenLens, Goodie). The second gives much smaller percentages, because one answer can cite 10 or more sources.

• Ahrefs (October 12, 2026): the share of US ChatGPT answers citing Reddit fell from about 1 in 5 in March to about 1 in 43 in late September (−88%). Monthly samples of 2.4 to 3.8 million answers.
• Searchable (LinkedIn post, October 2026): on the same set of 173,000 questions, spring versus the most recent month, the share of ChatGPT answers using Reddit fell from 42% to 5% (−88%).
• Promptwatch (August 18): Reddit's share of ChatGPT citations, July 18–August 7 versus August 14–17, fell from 3.83% to 0.52% (−86%).
• OpenLens (August): on the same set of questions, before versus after, Reddit's share of citations fell from 2.93% to 0.12% (−96%).
• Goodie (September 10): Reddit's share of ChatGPT citations, August 1–13 versus August 14–25, fell from 8.0% to 2.9% (−64%).
• Otterly (August 27): across 16 brand reports, ChatGPT's Reddit citations fell at least 73% in mid-August.
• Dageno (this article): the share of ChatGPT answers with sources that linked to Reddit, March versus September, fell from 20.8% to 1.4% (−93%). Around August 14 (US, the 6 days before versus the 7 days after): from 12.8% to 2.3% (−82%).

Although the question sets differ, our March and September levels are close to Ahrefs' (about 1 in 5, down to about 1 in 43). What daily data adds is what happened between those two points. Comparing only March and September, you see one drop. Looking day by day, ChatGPT cut Reddit on June 13, brought it back on July 7, and cut it again in two steps in August.

4. Same AI answers, different industry questions. Is the Reddit share the same?

ChatGPT is equally low in every industry. Google's two products vary a lot.

Besides the general question set, we also collect answers for 4 industry question sets. The table below shows ChatGPT's figures for August and September, and Google's AI figures for each question set in September (share of answers with sources that linked to Reddit):

Each industry question set is collected on only some platforms. The "Google's AI" column lists the Google products we actually collected for that set. Figures for Perplexity, Gemini and Grok on the industry question sets are in the data files on our website.

• ChatGPT fell to 1.4% or below in every question set. In August it was still between 6.4% and 14.3%. In September every set dropped to between 0.4% and 1.4%. When questions on such different topics all fall together, the main cause is the platform, not the mix of questions.
• For Google's AI, it depends on the industry. In September, 50.3% of Google AI Overviews answers to web scraping API questions linked to Reddit, but only 10.1% for customer messaging and social CRM questions. Google AI Mode ranged from 22.0% to 39.7% across question sets.

So the finding that "Google's AI still uses Reddit" needs to be checked against your own category. Don't apply the overall numbers directly.

5. If an AI answer links to Reddit, does that mean it used Reddit content?

Not necessarily. Most reports on Reddit and AI miss this.

Figure 4. A Reddit link doesn't mean the answer used Reddit.

From February to July, 56% to 80% of Grok answers with sources linked to Reddit. But among those Reddit-linked answers, only 0.3% to 14.6% actually used Reddit content in the answer text. The link was there, but mostly as just a name in the source list.

Google AI Mode was the opposite. Among its answers that linked to Reddit, 72% used Reddit content in the text in April. That share rose every month after, reaching 90% in September.

The "used in the text" rate here is an estimate. For every Reddit-linked answer, we checked at collection time whether the answer text used the Reddit source (a footnote pointing to Reddit, or text that matches the Reddit source). This judgment is not in the data tables we publish, so third parties cannot recompute it from those tables. Each platform's monthly rate is in the appendix and data files on our website (link at the end). The "used in the text" share in Figure 1 = share linking to Reddit × used-in-text rate.

So if you only count links ("Reddit appears in X% of answers"), you will overstate Reddit's influence on some platforms. Your own website can have the same gap: an AI answer cites your page, but its text never mentions your brand name.

6. ChatGPT cut Reddit overnight. Were brand websites cut too?

No. When ChatGPT cut Reddit on August 14, brand websites barely moved, and no type of source clearly filled Reddit's place.

Figure 5. When ChatGPT cut Reddit, brand websites held steady (US, around August 14).

The table below shows the share of ChatGPT answers with sources that cited each type of source (US, the 6 days before August 14 versus the 7 days after, simple average of daily shares):

One answer can cite several types of source at once, so the rows do not add up to 100%. "Other communities (not Reddit)" = the share for community sources (UGC) minus the share for Reddit, because Reddit itself counts as a community source; this is an approximation. Weighted by answer volume, Reddit's average for the 6 days before is 13.0%, and the conclusion does not change.

The table tells us three things:

• ChatGPT replaced Reddit, not community sources as a whole. The share for other communities and forums barely changed. In July, about 69% of ChatGPT answers that cited a community source included Reddit. By September, only about 11% did.
• Measured as "the share of answers citing a type of source," no type clearly filled the gap. Brand websites and other classified sources rose by only about 1 percentage point, and media, institutional and academic, and reference sources kept falling. This differs from Searchable and OpenLens, who saw "government and research sources rise." There are three possible reasons: they count share of citations while we count share of answers; the question sets differ; and we compared only one week before and one week after.
• Brand websites are a basic source on every platform. In September, 77% to 99% of answers with sources on 6 platforms (ChatGPT, Grok, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Overviews and Google AI Mode) cited at least one brand website. That share did not change noticeably before or after any of the drops above.

7. Where in the buyer's journey, from learning to buying, does Reddit still play a role?

At the very start.

AI answers mention Reddit most in early "help me understand" questions, less in comparison questions, and least at the decision stage. We counted only "platform × month" combinations with complete date coverage and data for all three stages: 51 in total, and 48 of them followed this order. Take Google AI Overviews in September: 22.9% of answers to learning-stage questions mentioned Reddit, 15.7% at the comparison stage, and 8.3% at the decision stage. Split by intent, transactional questions had the lowest share of Reddit mentions in 42 of the 51 "platform × month" combinations.

"Mentioned" here means the name Reddit appears in the answer text. It is a different measure from "linked to Reddit." This measure changed definition in June, so we do not compare trends across June.

The top threads change fast. Of the 50 Reddit links ChatGPT cited most in August, only 1 was still in the top 50 in September. Google AI Overviews kept 23.

The threads that get cited also carry the topic bias of the question sets. In the general question set, the subreddits that appeared most in each platform's top 50 Reddit links from February to September were r/HairRemoval, r/travel and r/TravelHacks, leaning toward consumer, beauty and travel topics. September's top 50 also included a few subreddits that appear to be run by brands themselves (our inference, not checked one by one). So which subreddits get cited depends heavily on what questions are asked. Don't treat them as a list that applies to every industry.

8. Now that Reddit is no longer a one-size-fits-all channel, what should marketing teams do next?

• Stop treating Reddit as a shortcut into ChatGPT. That path is almost closed now, and it switched on and off several times this year. Don't build plans that count on it coming back.
• If you invest in Reddit, aim at Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, and check your own category first. These two platforms still link to Reddit and still use Reddit content in their answers, but the share varies by industry (section 4).
• Get your own website right first. Every platform cites brand websites, and when Reddit's share swung wildly, your website's share did not move with it. Make the pages AI answers need easy to cite: product and use-case pages, documentation, pricing pages, comparison pages, FAQs.
• Put your Reddit content at the top of the funnel, and keep it genuine. Answer real questions in the subreddits your buyers visit, and share first-hand experience. Top threads change fast, so showing up consistently is worth more than betting on one viral post. Don't ignore other communities and niche forums either.
• Track "linked," "used in the text" and "mentioned" separately, platform by platform, every week. A link is not the same as being used. A drop on one platform does not mean a drop on another. And all of these changes happened overnight, with no announcement.

Method

The data in this article comes from the Dageno AI answer database. From February to September 2026, we collected answers every day through the web interfaces of 8 AI platforms: ChatGPT, Grok, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Copilot and Alexa. Each platform started in a different month. The questions come from 1 general question set and 4 industry question sets. They are fixed questions, not randomly sampled user queries, so the findings describe how platforms cite sources for these questions. All figures in the article are shares; the "used in the text" rate is an estimate judged answer by answer at collection time.