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AI engines fan out very differently. Peec’s analysis of 5 million query fan-outs across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Grok (April 1–21, 2026, full study) measured both volume and strategy:
  • Perplexity (Sonar): 1.4 fan-outs per prompt. Typically just strips filler and reruns a cleaner version of the same search — the least useful optimization signal.
  • ChatGPT: 2.1 fan-outs per prompt. Stays close to the user’s intent but injects brand names, product comparisons, and keywords like “best”, “top”, “reviews” — see Words ChatGPT adds to fan-outs.
  • Grok: 6.8 fan-outs per prompt — more than triple ChatGPT. Treats a query as a research brief: broad start, then year modifiers, brand-vs-brand comparisons, and targeted source searches.
Grok’s trusted-source behavior stands out (Apr 2026 data): it uses the site: operator in 18.3% of all chats. Reddit appears in 10.5% of Grok chats, and 9 of 10 of those are site:reddit.com directives. Wirecutter and Consumer Reports appearances were 100% Grok-injected — never in the user’s prompt. Takeaway: ChatGPT and Grok fan-outs are the most useful signals for content optimization; Perplexity’s give almost nothing to work with. Definition and RRF: What is a query fan-out. Source: Patterns we see in ChatGPT query fanouts, Peec (Tomek Rudzki), May 2026.