Reddit’s stock of ChatGPT Search citations fell sharply successful mid-August, according to caller search information from Promptwatch.
The GEO analytics patient observed that reddit.com maintained an mean of 3.83% successful ChatGPT Search citations from July 18 to August 7. This stock past decreased to an mean of 0.52% from August 14 to August 17, marking an 86.4% comparative decline.
The uncovering dispersed quickly crossed tech and waste and acquisition outlets, immoderate tying the driblet to a alteration successful really ChatGPT generates its inheritance hunt queries connected Aug. 8. However, this mentation doesn’t clasp up against Promptwatch’s numbers and complicates immoderate speedy telephone to deprioritize Reddit. Gizmodo reported that OpenAI did not respond to a petition for remark connected the alteration astatine the clip of that publication.
What ChatGPT Changed On Aug. 8
Promptwatch connects the alteration successful citations to a different alteration it observed successful ChatGPT Search’s fanout queries, which are the inheritance searches ChatGPT performs while crafting an answer.
On Aug. 8, fanout queries utilizing the site: operator, which scopes a hunt to a azygous domain, jumped from 0.37% to 16.8% of each fanout queries successful a azygous day, a astir 46-fold increase. The mean number of fanout queries per consequence besides astir doubled that aforesaid day, from astir 1.08 to 1.83.
Promptwatch co-founder Klaas Foppen, penning successful the site: usability report, said ChatGPT “is nary longer conscionable searching the unfastened web and seeing what comes back; it is deliberately going to circumstantial sites to propulsion accusation from them.”
The Timing Doesn’t Fully Line Up
ChatGPT started scoping much of its inheritance searches to individual domains connected August 8. According to Promptwatch, this stock has remained unchangeable astatine astir 16% to 17% of fanout queries since then. Reddit’s citation stock didn’t illness until six days afterward.
Promptwatch’s study connected the Reddit diminution specifications 2 chopped drops. The first occurred connected Aug. 8, erstwhile the stock dropped from the precocious 3s to the mid 2s, and was followed by a sharper diminution connected Aug. 14, erstwhile Reddit’s stock fell beneath 1%. The six-day interval doesn’t exclude the anticipation of a site: usability alteration influencing the first dip, but it besides indicates that this alteration unsocial does not explicate the sharper diminution connected Aug. 14.
Promptwatch doesn’t explicate what happened connected Aug. 14. The institution calls the size of the wide driblet provisional and says it can’t yet norm retired a data-collection rumor connected its ain end.
A Similar Drop Happened Before
Reddit’s ChatGPT visibility fell sharply erstwhile before. In September 2025, several AI-visibility trackers reported reddit.com’s ChatGPT citation stock collapsing wrong a fewer weeks, and Reddit’s banal value moved on pinch the coverage.
An mentation astatine that clip suggested that ChatGPT’s behaviour was not owed to immoderate Reddit-specific change. Around September 10, 2025, Google removed the num=100 hunt parameter, which galore SEO devices and information providers relied connected to retrieve up to 100 hunt results per request.
G2 maturation advisor Kevin Indig argued, utilizing hedged language, that the alteration made it much challenging for extracurricular information providers, for illustration those OpenAI purchases hunt results from, to entree the deeper parts of Google’s results wherever Reddit threads often appear. He mentioned that it was apt this change, alternatively than immoderate circumstantial decisions by OpenAI aliases Reddit, that led to the driblet successful citations, though he stopped short of saying it was decidedly the cause.
Why This Matters
The main mentation explaining August’s diminution successful Reddit citations is that ChatGPT changed which sources are cited. This seems reasonable and worthy keeping an oculus on, but Promptwatch’s information doesn’t afloat corroborate this, and a akin driblet occurred before, pinch an mentation 1 expert tied to Google, not to OpenAI aliases Reddit.
Before you make immoderate changes to really you utilize Reddit for AI hunt optimization, cheque your ain domain’s citation trends. A alteration successful 1 vendor’s tracked mean doesn’t needfully bespeak your visibility, and the nonstop origin of this alteration is uncertain.
Looking Ahead
Promptwatch says it’s continuing to track whether Reddit’s ChatGPT stock recovers, and whether the Aug. 14 break turns retired to beryllium a information artifact alternatively than a lasting change.
Either way, that’s worthy tracking, but your determination to usage Reddit should travel down to whether it makes consciousness for your brand, not whether it appears successful ChatGPT citations.
Featured Image: Cast Of Thousands/Shutterstock
English (US) · 
Indonesian (ID) · 
