Reddit Ranked in Google's Top 10 for 102 of 119 Review Searches. AI Answers Cited It Far Less.

A buyer who has heard of your product and wants a second opinion types one of three things: "[brand] reviews", "is [brand] legit", or "is [brand] worth it". Those are the searches where a brand's reputation is decided, and they are the searches where Reddit has become hardest to avoid.

We wanted to know two things for one category we know well. How often does Reddit own those searches on Google? And when an AI writes the answer instead — Google's AI Overview, Google AI Mode, ChatGPT — does Reddit's ranking carry over into the answer?

On 13 October 2026 we ran all three searches for 40 AI-software brands and asked AI Mode and ChatGPT "is [brand] worth it?" for each.

Reddit was in Google's top 10 on 102 of 119 review-intent searches, and ranked first on 41. The AI answers were far more selective: Google's AI Overview cited Reddit on 42 of 115, AI Mode on 18 of 40 — and ChatGPT on 4 of 40, despite retrieving Reddit pages for 17 of them.

How we measured

• Brands: the 40 AI-software brands behind our highest-impression Bing queries, from image generators and chat apps to transcription and face-search tools — the same 40 we used to measure how often Google answers branded searches with an AI Overview.
• Google: three searches per brand — "[brand] reviews", "is [brand] legit", "is [brand] worth it" — US English, desktop, top 20 organic results, with the AI Overview loaded, through DataForSEO. One search ("is meshcapade worth it") failed on every attempt and is left out, so the base is 119.
• AI Mode and ChatGPT: "is [brand] worth it?" for all 40 brands, US English. ChatGPT ran with web search forced on and reported its model as gpt-6. We recorded the sources each answer cited and, for ChatGPT, the pages it retrieved while searching.
• Comparison: the plain brand searches from our 9 October study — the brand name, "[brand] pricing" and "is [brand] free" — for the same 40 brands.
• When: 13 October 2026, 13:11–19:46 UTC. Every response was checked for a successful status before it was used.

What we found

On Google, Reddit owns the review search

Ask Google about a brand and Reddit ranks first about one time in ten. Ask whether the brand is any good and Reddit ranks first one time in three. For 39 of the 40 brands, Reddit was in the top 10 for at least one of the three review searches, and for 24 brands it was the first result at least once.

Google adds a second Reddit surface on top. A "Discussions and forums" panel appeared on 45 of the 119 searches, and 66 of its 104 entries — 63.5% — were Reddit threads.

Google's AI Overview cites Reddit on half the review searches — but not the "legit" ones

The 9 October figures include citations listed inside the Overviews' sub-sections, which the first count in that study missed; its totals move slightly (639 to 657 links) and its headline figures do not change.

An AI Overview appeared on 115 of 119 review searches. Review intent made Reddit more likely to be cited than plain brand searches did — 36.5% of Overviews against 24.5%. But even at its best, Reddit supplied fewer than one link in ten.

The "legit" searches split the two layers apart. Reddit ranked first on 16 of the 40 "is [brand] legit" searches — more than on either other search — yet the AI Overview cited Reddit on only 4 of 38. On those searches Google's Overview leaned on trust and review sites instead: Trustpilot alone supplied 24 cited links, against Reddit's 9. Across all 40 searches where Reddit ranked first and an Overview appeared, the Overview cited Reddit on 24.

And Reddit was not the biggest outside voice in the Overviews at all. YouTube was cited 150 times in 67 Overviews — more than twice Reddit's 67 links in 42. That repeats what we found on plain brand searches: in this category, Google's AI answer reaches for video first.

AI Mode cites Reddit most; ChatGPT finds it and rarely cites it

AI Mode was the most Reddit-friendly answer we measured: nearly half its answers cited a Reddit page, and one in eight of its links was Reddit.

ChatGPT is the surprise. It cited Reddit in only 4 of 40 answers. But in 17 of those 40 answers, Reddit pages were among the pages ChatGPT retrieved while searching — 53 Reddit pages in all — and in 13 of those answers it cited none of them. ChatGPT's search turned Reddit up on more than four in ten of these questions; its answers credited Reddit on one in ten.

One piece of context on access. The robots.txt Reddit serves to an ordinary visitor, as we fetched it on 13 October, disallows every crawler:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /

Both Google and OpenAI also have direct agreements with Reddit. Google's announcement of 22 February 2024 says "Google now has access to Reddit's Data API, which delivers real-time, structured, unique content", and OpenAI announced its own Reddit partnership in 2024 covering access to the same Data API. We cannot see from outside whether either agreement affects what gets cited, so we do not offer it as the explanation. What we can measure is the result: on the same questions, Google's AI answers cite Reddit several times as often as ChatGPT does.

What this means for brands

• Assume Reddit is on page one for your brand's reputation searches. On this panel it was in the top 10 for 86% of them. Search your own brand with "reviews", "legit" and "worth it" and read what ranks.
• Treat Reddit as a source of influence, not just of citations. ChatGPT retrieved Reddit on 17 of 40 questions and credited it on 4. A thread can shape the answer without appearing in its sources — and citation tracking alone will under-count it.
• Know which AI surface cites what. AI Mode cited Reddit on 45% of answers; ChatGPT on 10%. The same thread matters very differently depending on where your buyers ask.
• For "is it legit" questions, look past Reddit. Google's Overview leaned on Trustpilot and similar sites there. A brand with no presence on the trust sites leaves that answer to whoever reviewed it.
• Answer the question on your own site, too. Brand-owned pages supplied about one cited link in ten on these searches. A clear, honest page about pricing, limits and refunds gives the answer something of yours to cite.

What we could not test

• Sentiment. We measured whether Reddit appeared, not whether the threads were positive or negative.
• Other categories. AI software is young and discussed heavily on Reddit; a category with an older review culture may look different.
• One day, logged out, US English. Rankings and AI answers vary by location, day and run — on our volatility test, about half of ChatGPT's cited pages changed between two runs minutes apart.
• Why. We can see who cites Reddit, not why. The robots.txt and partnership context above is background, not a tested explanation.

Run this on your own brand

1. Search your brand three ways — "reviews", "is [brand] legit", "is [brand] worth it" — logged out, and record the top 10 and the AI Overview's sources.
2. List every Reddit thread that ranks, and read them. They are what buyers read, and what AI search turns up.
3. Ask AI Mode and ChatGPT the same question, and note which sources each cites.
4. Check the trust sites — Trustpilot, G2, Product Hunt — for the "legit" question in particular.
5. Repeat monthly. Rankings for these searches move, and AI answers move faster.

Where Semrush fits

Steps one and five are a tracking job. Position Tracking, in Semrush's SEO Toolkit, checks a fixed keyword list daily, and its Knowledge Base notes that "All SEO Toolkit levels can track up to 20 competitors per Position Tracking campaign" — enough to add reddit.com and trustpilot.com as competitors on your review searches and see the day either moves above you. Its Landscape report "benchmarks your search visibility against competitors in one view."

Finding the searches in the first place is what Keyword Gap does: Semrush's Knowledge Base says it "offers a side-by-side comparison between keyword profiles of up to five competitors." Put your domain beside reddit.com and the keywords containing your brand name that Reddit ranks for and you do not become a list.

The AI half is the job of the AI Visibility Toolkit. Its Visibility Overview report has a Cited Sources tab — "The websites that AI systems reference when generating answers" — and the Brand Performance reports include a Top Cited Domains view that "Lists the most cited domains that AI platforms cite for non-branded questions in your topic area." In Semrush's own example of that view, reddit.com sits third among the most cited domains — the same pattern our panel found from the outside.

Reddit is not the only way an AI answer can skip you: if your own pricing and support pages cannot be crawled, the answer has nothing of yours to cite. Site Audit reports pages that are "currently blocked from being accessed by AI search engines," in its Knowledge Base's words.

For the market-level question — how much of your category's traffic flows to Reddit at all — Traffic Analytics, part of Semrush's separate Traffic & Market Toolkit, "gives you a comprehensive snapshot of any domain's website traffic". Semrush notes it is built on clickstream data rather than any site's own analytics, so treat it as an estimate.

Position Tracking, Keyword Gap, Site Audit and the AI Visibility Toolkit all sit in Semrush One, which Semrush's own affiliate graphic sums up as a set of linked capabilities — Competitor Gap Analysis and AI + SEO Visibility among them.

A planning note: the free trial belongs to Semrush One, not to the AI Visibility Toolkit or the Traffic & Market Toolkit bought on their own. Semrush One's page offers "Try free for 7 days" with "Unlimited access to all Semrush One tools" — "Offer available to new users only", checked on 13 October 2026. Read that as Semrush's terms, not our test; every measurement above was made without a Semrush account.

What we actually learned

Reddit owns the review search on Google: top 10 on 102 of 119, first on 41 — three times as often as on a plain brand search. The AI answers built on top of those results are far more selective. Google's AI Overview cited Reddit on about half the "reviews" and "worth it" searches and almost never on "legit", where Trustpilot took its place. AI Mode cited Reddit on 45% of answers. ChatGPT cited it on 10% — while its search turned Reddit up on more than four in ten.

So the Reddit question is two questions. Whether Reddit outranks you is a rankings problem you can track. Whether Reddit shapes the AI answer about you is harder to see, because ChatGPT's search turned Reddit up on 17 of 40 questions and its answers credited Reddit on 4.

Sources and method

Written by Sohail Akhtar. Every figure here is a measurement on a stated date; the raw search results, AI answers and classification script are saved and can be re-run.