Speak with the teamStart your trialAustralia · September 2026
See which websites AI cites when helping Australians decide what to buy and who to choose.
Method
We tracked the websites AI uses and cites when answering Australian buying questions.
Questions about choosing products and providers in Australia, from broad shortlists to specific needs.
Which domains appeared in retrieval and which were cited in the answers.
Each domain counts once per question, per AI platform. Repeated links within an answer do not add extra votes.
01
23,396 buying questions across nine Australian markets. Explore the sources AI cites in yours.
02
The share of citations going to .au websites across nine markets.
The .au share splits the nine markets in two.
In Clinics, Finance & Accounting and Home Services more than 81% of retrieval goes to .au domains. In Beauty, Fashion and B2B Software the share is under 43%.
All three AI platforms
.au domains are used as a proxy for Australian sources. Australian businesses using other domains are included in the remainder. Figures include engine links.
03
The 10 domains with the most citation votes, aggregated across all markets.
The 10 domains with the most retrieval votes, aggregated across all markets.
The ranking reflects this study’s dataset.
Results are aggregated across nine Australian markets. The prominence of legal directories and law firms (legal500.com, chambers.com, doylesguide.com) should not be read as universal importance across industries.
Citation votes are aggregated by domain across all nine markets in this study. Dot colour is the source family, as in the block below.
Retrieval votes are aggregated by domain across all nine markets in this study. Dot colour is the source family, as in the block below.
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04
The share of sources retrieved by AI engines across all nine markets.
| Source family | Share of retrieval | What’s included |
|---|---|---|
| Market players | 64.61% | Company websites, retailers and other businesses |
| Publishers | 10.99% | News sites, media publishers and editorial content |
| Intermediaries | 10.84% | Directories, comparison sites, review platforms and other intermediaries |
| Institutions | 6.56% | Government, educational and non-profit organisations |
| Engine links & unidentified | 7.00% | Links from AI engines and sources we could not classify |
Figures show the share of sources retrieved across 23,396 prompts in nine Australian markets. Source families are mutually exclusive.
All three AI platforms
05
All three AI platforms
The same set of questions surfaces different types of sources across ChatGPT, Google AI Mode and Google AI Overviews.
Institutions
ChatGPT relies on institutional sources more
Share of sources from government, educational and non-profit organisations.
Intermediaries
AI Mode uses intermediaries the most
Share of sources from directories, comparison sites, review platforms and other intermediaries.
Social cite rate
AI Mode cites social sources far more often
Share of retrieved social sources that are cited in the final answer.
Figures show the share of sources across 23,396 prompts in nine Australian markets.
These comparisons describe behaviour on the research dataset, not a universal characteristic of the platforms.
All three AI platforms
06
In the Beauty market, AI Mode retrieves many international sources but cites Australian sources more often.
Why this happens
In Beauty, 57.52% of sources retrieved by AI Mode are Google Shopping links, and these have 0% citations. This pulls the retrieval share towards international sources, while the cited sources, skipping Shopping links, are much more Australian.
07
The questions reflect real buying decisions, from comparing options to finding the right product or provider for a specific need.
Use case examples
“what are the best HVAC companies for a complete breakdown in a heatwave in Australia as of latest information?”
HVAC companies · use case
“which sports vitamin brands specialise in night calf cramps after long runs in Australia as of latest information?”
sports vitamin brands · use case
Criterion examples
“how do protein bar brands compare on protein content per calorie in Australia as of latest information?”
protein bar brands · criterion
“which pest control companies are best on child and pet safe chemical options in Australia as of latest information?”
pest control companies · criterion
Bare question examples
“what are the best HVAC companies in Australia as of latest information?”
HVAC companies · bare question
“what are the best banking law firms in Australia as of latest information?”
banking law firms · bare question
Audience examples
“which pet hygiene suppliers are best for apartment cat owners in Australia as of latest information?”
pet hygiene suppliers · audience
“which commercial banks are best for first-home buyers with small deposits in Australia as of latest information?”
commercial banks · audience
Problem examples
“foundation feels heavy and suffocating on skin. what are my options in Australia as of latest information?”
cosmetics brands · problem
“shoulder and knee tendon pain after crossfit. which sports vitamin brands can help in Australia as of latest information?”
sports vitamin brands · problem
Findrix shows whether AI names your brand, on which prompts, and which of these sources it reads to get there.
“A pretty serious push that quickly changed our approach to how we fill our pages.”
Nikita Vikhrov · SEO/GEO specialist at Kinescope
This study looks at the sources AI platforms use when answering commercial questions for Australian users. Findrix analysed which websites AI systems retrieve and which sources they ultimately cite when people compare products, providers and solutions.
The study covers ChatGPT, Google AI Mode and Google AI Overview. Where their behaviour differs, the results are reported separately rather than combined into a single metric.
The full Australian AI Source Study includes 23,396 prompts across nine markets. Every prompt was tested across all three AI platforms.
Each market has its own dataset and its own Source Index page, where the prompt, retrieval and citation counts for that market are published.
Findrix analysed Beauty, Fashion, Pet care, Sports nutrition, Clinics, Home services, Finance and accounting, Legal, and B2B software.
The markets span consumer products, professional services, local services and software, which shows how source behaviour changes between very different buying environments.
Unbranded, shortlist-style questions: the kinds of questions people ask AI when comparing products, providers or solutions.
Examples from the dataset are on this page, in the section on how the questions were built.
Retrieval refers to sources an AI platform pulls in while constructing an answer. Citations are sources that appear as references in the final answer.
A source can therefore be retrieved without ultimately being cited.
For country-level comparisons, .au domains are used as a proxy for Australian sources.
This is a conservative measure. An Australian company using .com or another domain is included in the remainder, so the metric measures .au representation rather than the nationality of every organisation.
ChatGPT, Google AI Mode and Google AI Overview do not use the same source mix. The study therefore measures each platform separately and shows where their retrieval and citation patterns diverge.
The findings describe behaviour within this dataset, rather than universal rules about how each AI platform works.
No. Source importance varies substantially by market. A domain that appears frequently in Beauty can be far less important in Legal, B2B Software or Home Services.
That is why each of the nine markets has its own Source Index rather than relying only on an overall ranking.
