The full ledger
Every entry in the record, newest first. Verified statistics and citation-behavior research on AI search: each claim links to a primary source, vendor interests are flagged in-line, and each number carries its measurement date — see the methodologyfor the full rules.
October 2026
5 entries
- No. 032
68,879vs12,593
Dataset named in the sentence 68,879Pew's base for the 1% 12,593Pew's 1% counts 12,593 searches. The sentence quoting it says 68,000.
- No. 031
93%vs92%
Linkedin post 93Meltwater page, 22/24 92LinkedIn's VP quotes 93%. The report he cites prints 92%.
- No. 030
39.5%vs47.1%
Readme sentence, 234/592 39.5Readme chart, 982/2,083 47.139.5% and 47.1% describe the same test. One has the wrong denominator.
- No. 029
60%vs68.01%
Paid release 60Sparktoro study 68.01The release says 60%. The study it links says 68.01%.
- No. 028
93 of 100vs63 of 100
Long, serpapi scrape 93Ahrefs panel 63One test says 93 of 100 brands. The study citing it says 63 of 100.
September 2026
8 entries
- No. 027
94%vs51%
Ziff Davis, top of the range 94%Ziff Davis, bottom of the range 51%Three click-through ranges in one filing. The widest ran in neither story.
- No. 026
68.27%
Templated, 68.27%Not detected as templated584,107 llms.txt files. 68.27% templated. 22.56% contain no links.
- No. 025
+$14.6Mvs-$5.4M
Original 10-K: up $14.6M, or 2%Recast exhibit: down $5.4M, or 1%Advertising up 2%. Then down 1%. The AI Overviews sentence survived.
- No. 024
12.6%to97%
12.6%Jul 202597%Sep 2026One tracker says 100%. The other says 86%. Same feature, same August.
- No. 023
2,601vs183
In the grounding data 2,601In the displayed output 183Two experts, one 8.2 million conversation sample, and the numbers 59,545 and 51
- No. 022
47%vs22%
Mid-sized regional, alleged 47%Larger national, alleged 22%Two newspapers sued OpenAI and called it an answer engine
- No. 021
5 d 15 h
Quote predates model 5 d 15 hReport to Google reply 24 h 15 mAI Mode stopped showing citations. The reassuring quote was five days old
- No. 020
39.1%vs65.3%
Election queries 39.1%Non-political 65.3%Google showed AI Overviews on 39.1% of election queries and 65.3% of others
August 2026
12 entries
- No. 019
3vs1
Denominators in the source 3Denominators in the sentence 1Half of web traffic is non-human. Three Cloudflare numbers became one.
- No. 018
2vs1
Credited to McKinsey 2Found in the McKinsey article 1An SEC filing credits McKinsey for a 60% stat. The number is Bain's.
- No. 017
3vs0
Named as multi-purpose 3Named as meeting them 0Cloudflare set four conditions for Googlebot. It names nobody who meets them.
- No. 016
-18.8ppvs+8.8pp
AI Mode forced -18.8ppOverviews hidden +8.8pp18.8 points lost, 8.8 recovered. Only one was measured cleanly.
- No. 015
150:1to227:1
150:1Q1 2026227:1Q2 2026179:1, 6,000:1, 50,000:1: three tools, one metric, no shared definition
- No. 014
15to32
15Filed 202532Filed 2026Generative engine optimization is in 47 SEC filings. Read the risk factors.
- No. 013
96.37%
Advertiser absent from sources, 96.37%Present, 3.63%ChatGPT ads reached five more countries. The ad rarely buys the citation.
- No. 012
43%vs59%
AI Overviews & ChatGPT 43% eachFriends & family 59%AI Overviews out-trust TikTok. The headline number isn't in the report.
- No. 011
22%vs1%
Core sessions down 22%Session-based revenue down 1%A publisher put AI Overviews in an SEC filing. Revenue fell 1%.
- No. 010
5vs1
Scored by the prompt panel 5Real crawl & referral logs 1Cloudflare shipped an AI visibility score. It asks two models.
- No. 009
5vs0
Fields the AI report shows 5Clicks or CTR among them 0Google shipped the AI opt-out without the data to use it
- No. 008
41%vs66%
Japan 41%US mobile 66%The zero-click rate is 46.96%. The average is the least useful part.
July 2026
7 entries
- No. 007
1xto8.4x
1x15 Apr 20268.4x30 Jun 2026Google is now AI Mode's #2 cited domain. Read the footnote.
- No. 006
72%vs42%
Fresh by update date 72%Published within a year 42%The freshness illusion: why AI cites edited pages, not new ones
- No. 005
7.3%to1.6%
7.3%Dec 20231.6%Dec 2025The position-1 CTR collapse: from 7.3% to 1.6% in two years
- No. 004
1 / 94,614
94,614 AI-cited URLs, 1 mark = 1,000The 1 cited URL: too small to draw herellms.txt does not work: 1 cited URL in 94,614
- No. 003
61.7%
Outside organic top 100, 61.7%Inside, 38.3%Ghost citations: 61.7% of AI citations rank outside the organic top 100
- No. 002
76%to38%
76%Jul 202538%Mar 2026AI search visibility statistics 2026: every verified number, sourced
- No. 001
15.9%vs1.76%
ChatGPT referral 15.9%Organic search 1.76%AI referral traffic is small, and converts at 9x the organic rate
By category
AI crawlers 3
AI Mode 3
AI Overviews 6
- No. 028One test says 93 of 100 brands. The study citing it says 63 of 100.
- No. 025Advertising up 2%. Then down 1%. The AI Overviews sentence survived.
- No. 020Google showed AI Overviews on 39.1% of election queries and 65.3% of others
- No. 012AI Overviews out-trust TikTok. The headline number isn't in the report.
- No. 011A publisher put AI Overviews in an SEC filing. Revenue fell 1%.
- No. 009Google shipped the AI opt-out without the data to use it
Answer engines 4
- No. 027Three click-through ranges in one filing. The widest ran in neither story.
- No. 024One tracker says 100%. The other says 86%. Same feature, same August.
- No. 023Two experts, one 8.2 million conversation sample, and the numbers 59,545 and 51
- No. 022Two newspapers sued OpenAI and called it an answer engine