We looked at 9 verticals, 23,396 research and consideration prompts and 3 AI answer engines: ChatGPT, Google AI Mode and Google AI Overview. Data was collected in September 2026 via the Findrix platform.

How are citations counted?

To keep comparisons between niches and between engines as clean as possible, a website counts at most once per answer, however many times that answer links to it. An answer citing six different websites contributes six; an answer linking the same website six times contributes one.

What counts as a citation?

Only sources linked in the answer text. Not everything the engine looked at behind the scenes, and not a brand named in the prose without a link.

Why use .au to decide what is Australian?

Seven in ten Australian small businesses use .au as their primary domain, and 82% of small businesses that choose it say they do so to present the business as Australian and for Australians, per auDA's Why .au? report (2026). That makes .au a reasonable proxy for an Australian business, though only a rough one: the three in ten trading on a .com are counted here as international, so the real Australian share is higher than shown.

What do the categories mean?

Every cited site is sorted into one of these, in plain terms. The difference between a review site and a comparison site is who produces the judgement: users and independent testers on one, the publisher's own editorial on the other.

Google's links to its own Shopping results, because that is the engine citing itself rather than a publisher. Also the small share of sources our classifier could not type, which is a gap in the measurement rather than a kind of website.

Findrix is an action-based AI visibility and GEO platform that turns ongoing tracking and analysis of a brand's presence across AI answers and search into fast optimization, built for brand managers, marketing leaders, and agencies running AI search for their clients.

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Sep 2026 · 3 engines · For Australian brands and agencies

Australian AI Source Index in

Know how to boost your visibility in your niche by understanding which sites the engines cite when Australians ask about supplements, protein and training, and which they ignore.

1,200Prompts

14,860Retrieval votes

8,929Citation votes

3AI platforms

The most comprehensive AI visibility study focused on the Australian market

The 100 domains the engines retrieved most in sports nutrition, not just the top 20
Compare how ChatGPT, Google AI Mode and AI Overview pick sources
Find out how much of what AI quotes is actually Australian

CSV · Sports nutrition only, not the whole study · Australia · Sep 2026

Research and methodology by Tom Wells, Lead Research Advisor at Findrix.

What three questions does this page answer?

Who gets cited the most?

Top 5 domains by share of citations (%)

1bulknutrients.com.au4.5%
2australiansportsnutrition.com.au4.2%
3vpa.com.au3.2%
4chemistwarehouse.com.au2.8%
5amazon.com.au2.6%

these five take 17.4% of all citations

What type of website gets cited most?

Share of citations by category (%)

Market player52.0%
Retailer16.0%
Press7.8%
Government6.6%
Comparison site4.1%

52.0% are market players

What share of sources are .au?

Share of sources that are .au (%)

70.8%

of sources are .au

23K prompts · 3 engines

What we actually asked

Six of the 1,200 prompts we asked in sports nutrition. Every one is a buying question, and every one was asked on ChatGPT, Google AI Mode and Google AI Overview.

Brand shortlist

“what are the best sports hydration brands in Australia as of latest information?”

Product shortlist

“what are the best standard pre-workouts in Australia as of latest information?”

Criterion

“how do protein bar brands compare on protein content per calorie in Australia as of latest information?”

Use case

“which fitness beverage brands would you recommend for overcoming the mid-afternoon energy slump in Australia as of latest information?”

Audience

“which protein powder brands suit everyday gym-goers wanting post-workout recovery best in Australia as of latest information?”

Problem

“shoulder and knee tendon pain after crossfit. which sports vitamin brands can help in Australia as of latest information?”

Who gets cited the most?

The three most cited sources here are Australian brand websites. The engines go to company websites first in this niche, so your own product pages carry more weight here than anything you place elsewhere.

Top 20 domains by share of citations (%)

1bulknutrients.com.auAU

4.5%

Market player

2australiansportsnutrition.com.auAU

4.2%

Market player

3vpa.com.auAU

3.2%

Market player

4chemistwarehouse.com.auAU

2.8%

Retailer

5amazon.com.auAU

2.6%

Retailer

6nutritionwarehouse.com.auAU

2.3%

Retailer

7elitesupps.com.auAU

2.0%

Market player

8ausport.gov.auAU

1.9%

Government

9trueprotein.com.auAU

1.9%

Market player

10reddit.com

1.4%

Forum

11drinkhyro.com.auAU

1.4%

Market player

12facebook.com

1.4%

Social

13nih.gov

1.3%

Government

14coles.com.auAU

1.2%

Other business

15woolworths.com.auAU

1.1%

Market player

16forbes.com

1.1%

Press

17supplementmart.com.auAU

0.9%

Market player

18instagram.com

0.8%

Social

19youtube.com

0.8%

Video

20healthline.com

0.8%

Press

	Domain	What it is	Share (%)
1	bulknutrients.com.auAU	Market player	4.5%
2	australiansportsnutrition.com.auAU	Market player	4.2%
3	vpa.com.auAU	Market player	3.2%
4	chemistwarehouse.com.auAU	Retailer	2.8%
5	amazon.com.auAU	Retailer	2.6%
6	nutritionwarehouse.com.auAU	Retailer	2.3%
7	elitesupps.com.auAU	Market player	2.0%
8	ausport.gov.auAU	Government	1.9%
9	trueprotein.com.auAU	Market player	1.9%
10	reddit.com	Forum	1.4%
11	drinkhyro.com.auAU	Market player	1.4%
12	facebook.com	Social	1.4%
13	nih.gov	Government	1.3%
14	coles.com.auAU	Other business	1.2%
15	woolworths.com.auAU	Market player	1.1%
16	forbes.com	Press	1.1%
17	supplementmart.com.auAU	Market player	0.9%
18	instagram.com	Social	0.8%
19	youtube.com	Video	0.8%
20	healthline.com	Press	0.8%

Only 8 of these 20 domains appear on all three engines. Twelve of the twenty are engine-specific, so one audit does not cover the market.

Market player
Retailer
Government
Forum
Social
Other business
Press
Video

23K prompts · 3 enginesTile area is share of every citation in Sports nutrition on all three engines. Together these twenty take 37.9%.

Are you in the other 62.1%?

The top 20 above take 37.9% of every citation in sports nutrition. The rest is spread across the long tail of domains the engines cited. Check whether yours is one of the 206 the engines retrieved most.

Free · no signup · same September 2026 run as this page

What type of website gets cited most?

Your own website does more of the work here than in most niches. The key to this niche is optimised product pages, content built around the subjects ausport.gov.au is quoted on, sentiment monitoring on reddit.com and an active presence on facebook.com.

Share of citations by category (%)

Biggest type52.0%4,501 citations

Market playermarket players52.0%
Retailermarket players16.0%
Presspublishers7.8%
Governmentinstitutions6.6%
Comparison siteintermediaries4.1%
Other businessmarket players3.5%
Everything else10.0%

23K prompts · 3 enginesEvery cited site in Sports nutrition on all three engines sorted into what it is. Hover a slice to name it.

This page measures sports nutrition. Findrix measures your brand inside it.

Findrix shows whether AI names your brand in sports nutrition, on which prompts, and which of these sources it reads to get there.

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“A pretty serious push that quickly changed our approach to how we fill our pages.”
Nikita Vikhrov · SEO/GEO specialist at Kinescope

Bonus: how Australian is sports nutrition compared to others?

Share of sources that are .au (%) · all three engines

Clinics88.4%

Home services87.5%

Finance & accounting85.2%

Pet care71.9%

Sports nutrition70.8%

Legal67.0%

Fashion53.3%

Beauty52.1%

B2B software32.8%

23K prompts · 3 enginesShare of sources on a .au domain in Sports nutrition on all three engines. A source counts once per answer, so this is every source the engines used, not a count of websites. Dashed line is every industry together.

Three numbers to take away

37.9%

of every citation goes to just 20 domains

Get on that list and you are in most answers in this niche.

70.8%

of cited sources are Australian

The other 29.2% of what the engines quote sits on international domains.

52.0%

of citations go to market players

Company sites in this market. The rest is mostly retailers, press and government sites.

Method

How we track the sources AI cites in Australia

Using the Findrix platform we collected data for 23,396 prompts in Australia across nine verticals on 15 and 16 September 2026, to find the top sources in ChatGPT, Google AI Mode and AI Overviews, reporting only citations, meaning in-answer text sources.

Research and methodology by Tom Wells, Lead Research Advisor at Findrix. Data collected and checked on the Findrix platform.

23,396 buying prompts

Research, consideration and decision questions only. No "what is" or "how does it work".

Nine Australian verticals

beauty, fashion, pet care, sports nutrition, clinics, home services, finance and accounting, legal and b2b software. Every prompt was asked on all three surfaces.

Every engine counted apart

Counted separately end to end. Every per-engine share is a share of that engine's own votes, not of the combined total. Only 8 of the top twenty domains in sports nutrition appear in the top twenty of all three.

Citations, not retrieval

A link in the answer text, not everything the engine read. One count per site per answer.

Australian means .au

A .com owned and run from Australia counts as international, so every Australian figure here is a floor.

Google's own links are off by default

Google linking to its own Shopping cards is 4.1% of retrieval across the study and the most-retrieved single source in 6 of nine markets. Not a publisher, so it is left out of the composition charts.

Get the top 100 sources retrieved in sports nutrition

The 100 domains the engines retrieved most in Australian sports nutrition, with what each site is, whether it is .au, how often it was retrieved and how many citations it took. The top 20 on this page are 37.9% of citations. The rest is where the placements you can still win are.

CSVSports nutrition only, not the whole study · Australia · Sep 2026

Australian AI Source Index in Sports nutrition BeautyFashionPet careSports nutritionClinicsHome servicesFinance and accountingLegalB2B software

The most comprehensive AI visibility study focused on the Australian market

What three questions does this page answer?

Who gets cited the most?

What type of website gets cited most?

What share of sources are .au?

What we actually asked

Who gets cited the most?

Are you in the other 62.1%?

What type of website gets cited most?

What share of sources are .au?

This page measures sports nutrition. Findrix measures your brand inside it.

Bonus: how Australian is sports nutrition compared to others?

Three numbers to take away

How we track the sources AI cites in Australia

Get the top 100 sources retrieved in sports nutrition

FAQ

Australian AI Source Index in