By the Variask team · Updated
Definition
Sources are all the pages an AI engine read or retrieved while writing an answer. Citations are the subset it shows to the user as links. A page can shape an answer without being cited.
When an engine searches, it may read many pages and cite only a few. Some engines show a broader list of sources consulted, others only inline citations. If you only count citations, you miss pages that quietly shape what AI says about you.
Questions
Citations bring clicks. Sources shape the words of the answer. Both matter for different reasons.
Related terms
Measurement
AI citations
AI citations are the links an AI assistant shows next to its answer to point to the pages it used, such as the numbered sources in Perplexity or the source links in ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews.
ReadHow AI search works
Grounding
Grounding is when an AI model bases its answer on specific sources, such as live search results or a set of documents, instead of relying only on what it learned in training.
ReadDisciplines
Earned media
Earned media is coverage of your brand that you did not pay for or publish yourself, such as press articles, reviews, forum discussions, lists and social posts. AI assistants lean heavily on it when they recommend brands.
ReadHow AI search works
AI hallucination
An AI hallucination is a confident statement from an AI model that is false or not supported by any source, such as a wrong price, a feature that does not exist or an invented quote.
Read