What changed on 14 August 2026
For most of 2026 the advice on this page was simple: get discussed on Reddit and ChatGPT quotes you. In April, Reddit was the single most cited domain in ChatGPT Search, at 4.14% of all citations. Then it stopped.
- 3.83% was Reddit's average share of ChatGPT Search citations from 18 July to 7 August.
- 0.52% from 14 to 17 August. A relative drop of 86.4%, and it did not bounce back.
- The cause is mechanical. On 8 August ChatGPT started running site-scoped searches at scale, from 0.37% to 16.8% of fan-out queries. It picks sites to open instead of searching the open web and taking what comes back. Whatever won under the old logic lost overnight.
Numbers from Promptwatch, which tracks citations across the real interfaces of the main AI platforms. Google AI Overviews is also citing Reddit less, but slowly, nothing like the ChatGPT cliff.
The part that still works
Someone asking "what do you use for X" in a thread is a buyer today, and no model has to quote them for that to be true. The comment sits there, ranks on Google, gets read for months. Citations were the bonus on top, never the case for doing it.
Do Reddit for the person reading the thread. If the models come back, fine.
Now it is your own pages
If ChatGPT picks sites to open instead of trawling the open web, the site it opens has to hold the answer. On your key pages:
- Lead with the answer in the first paragraph, before any headers.
- Add FAQPage schema with real questions phrased the way people actually ask.
- Add Article schema with datePublished and dateModified so freshness is clear.
- Use HowTo schema for step-by-step pages, and SoftwareApplication on product pages.
- Keep JSON-LD in the head, never fabricate ratings, and update dateModified when you change the page.
- Write the page a model can quote in one paragraph: a direct claim, a number, a date, a source.
Publish your docs and help pages properly too, since those are the pages a site-scoped search lands on.
How to comment so it is worth reading
Whether or not a model quotes it, a comment that helps is the one that works.
- Give real guidance, not a sales line.
- Include specifics: numbers, steps, honest trade-offs.
- Mention your product only when it genuinely answers the question, or when asked.
- Get there early. In a thread with 200 comments, yours is at the bottom.
We sell the buyer in the thread, not the citation
Getting cited by AI: FAQ
Does ChatGPT still cite Reddit?
Barely, since 14 August 2026. Reddit went from an average 3.83% of ChatGPT Search citations to 0.52%, an 86.4% relative drop. In April it was the most cited domain of all, at 4.14%.
Why did it collapse?
On 8 August ChatGPT started running site-scoped searches at scale, from 0.37% to 16.8% of fan-out queries. It goes to chosen sites now instead of trawling the open web, and Reddit lived off the old logic.
Is Reddit still worth it?
Yes, for the humans. The person asking for a tool in that thread is a buyer today, the comment ranks on Google, and Google AI Overviews still cites Reddit. What is gone is the shortcut into ChatGPT answers.
What gets you cited now?
Your own pages: a direct answer in the first paragraph, FAQPage and Article schema, real dates, no invented ratings, and docs that document.