iTechGuides is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Learn more
Mencoro’s Q3 2026 study found that company websites supplied most citations in its tracked commercial answers, but the platforms did not cite sources in the same way. Its dataset contains 176,332 citations across 23,466 answers from four AI platforms. Those figures describe selected buyer questions tracked by 42 participating brands in Spain—not all questions people ask AI, or a universal rule for what ChatGPT or Google will cite.
What the study measured
Mencoro collected answers from July 1 through September 30, 2026, for commercial buyer questions chosen by 42 brands with markets that include Spain. The study covered eight sectors and four platforms: ChatGPT with web search, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, and Perplexity. The participating brands are not named.
Mencoro’s methodology puts the scope plainly: “The questions are commercial questions chosen by each brand, not a random sample of what people ask AI.” The report counts source links attached to each answer, grouped by registrable domain, and removes each tracked brand’s own domains from its rankings while reporting them separately. It counts the source list returned with an answer, not every page that may have influenced the system.
Recommended Free Tools
Across the study, Mencoro reports 23,466 answers, 176,332 citations, and 22,193 distinct domains. Platform coverage differed: ChatGPT and AI Mode covered 42 brands each, AI Overviews covered 40, and Perplexity covered 16. That uneven coverage matters when comparing platform totals, particularly raw counts.
#1 Best Overall
Which websites did AI cite most in Spain?
In Mencoro’s sample, company websites dominated the citation mix. The report classifies 72.6% of citations as company websites, compared with 11.6% for directories, reviews, comparison sites, and marketplaces, and 4.3% for news and magazines. Mencoro notes that unlisted domains are classified as company websites, which may slightly inflate that share.
The result is a snapshot of answers to participating brands’ selected commercial questions, not a general ranking of the web or a representative survey of Spanish AI use. The sector mix and the questions each brand chose shape the totals.
Sources were also highly fragmented: 57.4% of citations went to domains that appeared for only one brand. That suggests the observed citation landscape was not simply a short list of sites appearing across every tracked company. The study’s aggregate figures do not establish which domains matter for a particular brand or sector.
Windows Errors? Fix Them Before They Spread
Repair common Windows errors and clear accumulated junk for a smoother, more stable PC - no reinstall needed.Free scan · no reinstallCrashes, No Sound, or Screen Glitches?
Random freezes, missing sound and display glitches usually trace back to one bad driver. Find and replace yours safely.Free scan · under a minuteDo ChatGPT and Google’s AI cite the same sources?
Not consistently in this dataset. Mencoro reports distinct platform patterns for social networks, news, public bodies, marketplaces, and the number of sources attached to answers. These are observations from the recorded answers, not evidence of stable platform rules.
Social networks and video
Instagram appeared in answers for 40 of the 42 brands. Google AI Overviews and AI Mode accounted for 97.6% of Instagram citations in the dataset. Mencoro recorded no TikTok citations from ChatGPT during the study period, while TikTok did appear in Google AI Overviews and AI Mode.
Perplexity contributed 191 of the 246 YouTube citations recorded, but it covered only 16 brands. Its raw count should not be compared directly with platforms that covered 40 or 42 brands.
News, forums, public bodies, and marketplaces
ChatGPT accounted for 84.1% of citations to El País, 99.3% of citations to Cadena SER, 63.9% of citations to Reddit, and 94.4% of citations to Spain’s official state gazette, BOE. Government and public bodies made up 11.7% of ChatGPT citations, compared with 3.5% for AI Mode. Google’s engines supplied 95.4% of Amazon citations in the dataset.
Free tools Windows power users keep installed
One-click scans. No signup required.
These percentages describe each named source’s citations across the study’s recorded answers. They do not mean that a platform always prefers that source, or that the pattern will hold for other queries, places, or time periods.
Sources listed per answer
Mencoro reports an average of 9.1 sources per ChatGPT answer with web search, 6.8 for AI Mode, 6.8 for Perplexity, and 6.5 for AI Overviews. The publisher cautions that ChatGPT’s returned list can include retrieved pages that are not linked in the answer text, so the counts are not necessarily equivalent to visible in-text citations across platforms.
How much did brands cite their own websites?
The tracked brand’s own site accounted for 4.8% of citations to answers for its own questions overall. Mencoro reports a range from 3.5% in ChatGPT to 6.6% in AI Overviews. This finding does not show that on-site content is unimportant: it measures citation share in this dataset, not the effect of a company website on answer quality, visibility, or business results.
What the findings can—and cannot—tell marketers
The study is useful for understanding the variety of domains that appeared in one defined set of Spanish commercial answers. It does not test whether a marketing action caused more citations. Advice such as prioritizing social platforms or investing in digital PR is Mencoro’s interpretation of its observations, not an intervention result established by the dataset.
Mencoro’s own recommendation is to track buyer questions and inspect which domains each engine cites. For a practical assessment, compare answers for your own questions by platform and sector, and keep the denominator visible: how many questions, brands, and answers were included. The study does not offer a universal list of sites every business should target.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How Mencoro collected the data
The study’s stated collection window was July 1 to September 30, 2026. It gathered answers to participating brands’ commercial buyer questions on ChatGPT with web search, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, and Perplexity. Mencoro then counted the source links returned alongside answers and rolled them up to registrable domains.
- The questions were selected by brands rather than sampled randomly from public queries.
- The brands are unnamed, and the platform samples were not equal in size.
- Only the answer’s returned source list was counted; other material that may have influenced an answer is outside this measure.
- The source-type taxonomy uses reviewed lists for the most-cited domains and rules for other domains; unlisted domains are treated as company websites.
These design choices make the report a bounded snapshot, not an independent audit of AI systems or a population estimate for all AI conversations in Spain. The findings and methods are reported by Mencoro in its Q3 2026 study of AI-cited domains.
Quick Recap
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
The Tool Desk
Outbyte PC Repair FREERepair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Outbyte Driver Updater FREEFix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →
