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A “good” citation rate depends on the engine. Peec’s Feb 2026 analysis of over 1 million citations (full study) recommends engine-specific benchmarks: 2.0+ for ChatGPT, 1.1–1.5 for Google AI Mode, and 1.5–2.0 for Perplexity. Citation rate is how often a URL is cited per AI answer relative to how often it is retrieved (see Retrieval vs citation).
  • ChatGPT is generous. 31% of URLs sit in the 2.0+ bucket, and those URLs account for 59% of all ChatGPT citations. Top-cited pages get disproportionately high visibility.
  • Google AI Mode is conservative and consistent. Over 90% of URLs have a citation rate below 1.0. The sweet spot is the 1.0–1.5 band, where only 3% of URLs make up 12% of citations. Above 1.5 is exceptional.
  • Perplexity is a tale of two extremes. 64% of URLs are never cited in answers (they appear only in the sidebar), while the 6% of URLs above 2.0 carry just under half of all Perplexity citations.
The dataset was harmonized — evenly split by query intent, all prompts non-branded — to give a balanced view. If content underperforms on Perplexity, cross-check ChatGPT and Google AI Mode: the same URLs often perform very differently per engine. Related: Citation rate by prompt intent and Content types cited most by engine. Source: What does a good citation rate look like? Benchmarks from over 1 million AI citations, Peec (Tom Wells), Feb 2026.