Peham/Ray: Chat GPT cites less, Reddit + Wikipedia

Key Takeaways:

• Peham (OtterlyAI) reports that ChatGPT

  1. cites less sources

  2. the shares of Reddit and Wikipedia decline

• Potential reasons:

  • OpenAI tries to save money doing less search grounding for guests / logged-out users (tests from Claneo supporting it)

  • A potential clean-up as both Reddit and Wikipedia were "overcited"

  • Ray: Google dropping the num=100 parameter led to search tools getting less results for grounding (one search only gets 10 results) - consequently Reddit and Wikipedia that are likely always in Top 30 but not as often in Top 10 would be cited less

  • Kronenberg: Recently introduced OpenAIs switch to Meta-Search to combine different search sources could be another reason as OpenAIs Update release notes indicate

  • Fiorelli points to OpenAIs agreement with Reddit that could lead to a better integration into training data without the need to cite it as source or use it in search grounding

• Update 18.11.2025 - Goralewicz reports a bounce back in Reddit citations to a share of 22% based on ZipTie data: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/goralewicz_reddit-is-back-impacting-22-of-share-7396349214278148097-3A5w/

Sources:

• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/thomaspeham_redditcom-is-declining-on-chatgpt-search-activity-7379047058499993600-Eu7N/

• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/lily-ray-44755615_so-llm-tracking-tools-are-reporting-that-ugcPost-7379094385977753600-IjAa/

• https://help.openai.com/en/articles/6825453-chatgpt-release-notes

• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/hannskronenberg_absturz-von-reddit-co-bei-vielen-tracking-ugcPost-7379451420229681152-toGe/

• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/fabrikantov_%F0%9D%97%A5%F0%9D%97%B2%F0%9D%97%B1%F0%9D%97%B1%F0%9D%97%B6%F0%9D%98%81-%F0%9D%97%B3%F0%9D%97%B2%F0%9D%97%B9%F0%9D%97%B9-%F0%9D%97%B3%F0%9D%97%BF%F0%9D%97%BC%F0%9D%97%BA-%F0%9D%97%AE%F0%9D%97%BD%F0%9D%97%BD%F0%9D%97%B2%F0%9D%97%AE-ugcPost-7395074701380829184-udxJ/