Writesonic study finds AI engines often skip naming source brands
What this answers
- Does ChatGPT name my brand when it cites my content?
- Per a Writesonic analysis of roughly 16 million brand appearances, ChatGPT left the source brand unnamed in about 37% of citations, versus 52% for Perplexity and 19% for Microsoft Copilot.
- Which AI engine most often cites content without naming the brand?
- Writesonic's study found Perplexity had the highest rate of unnamed-brand citations at 52%, followed by Google AI Mode at 49%.
Writesonic analyzed roughly 16 million brand appearances across seven AI answer engines over a 30-day window and found citations frequently reference source content without naming the brand behind it — what the study calls “ghost citations.” Rates varied widely by engine: Perplexity (52%), Google AI Mode (49%), Google AI Overviews (41%), ChatGPT (37%), Gemini (25%), Grok (22%) and Microsoft Copilot (19%). Writesonic’s CEO is the study’s author; the company says the numbers are a snapshot and don’t establish effects on clicks, brand recall, or conversions.
Why it matters: If measurement tools count a citation whenever an engine pulls from your content, but the engine never says whose content it was, visibility trackers built on citation counts alone are missing a real chunk of exposure.
The record: PerplexityGoogle AI ModeChatGPTWritesonic
Glossary: Answer engineAI OverviewsAI ModeGhost citation
Posted to the wire July 29, 2026. Edited by Joe Balewski.