Observatory · Comparison
ChatGPT vs Perplexity: same questions, different reading lists
On identical buying questions, Perplexity takes 55.2% of its cited sources from rankings and comparison pages against 30.0% for ChatGPT, and cites a source in 99.1% of answers. Data: 3,732 ChatGPT and 3,698 Perplexity answers from two tracked projects, July 12 to October 11, 2026.
Updated
30% / 55%
rankings among sources (ChatGPT / Perplexity)
96% / 99%
answers citing sources (ChatGPT / Perplexity)
4 / 3.4
sources per answer (ChatGPT / Perplexity)
| ChatGPT | Perplexity | |
|---|---|---|
| Rankings among sources | 30% | 55% |
| Answers citing sources | 96% | 99% |
| Sources per answer | 4 | 3.4 |
This comparison asks ChatGPT and Perplexity the same buying questions: 3,732 ChatGPT answers and 3,698 Perplexity answers, from two projects tracked by Archipel in Peec AI.
Both cite almost always: 99.1% of answers for Perplexity, 96.1% for ChatGPT. ChatGPT cites 4.0 sources per answer and Perplexity 3.4 in this sample. The gap is in the type of source: rankings make up 55.2% of Perplexity sources against 30.0% for ChatGPT.
Note that across the full Observatory (Profound data, 106,045 answers), Perplexity cites 9.7 sources per answer; the lower figure here reflects a different tool and question set. Duels use Peec AI data: identical questions asked to both engines over the same period. Figures can differ from the engine pages, which use larger Profound samples.
For a brand, Perplexity rewards presence in the lists of your category more than ChatGPT does on the same questions.
Method
406,626 AI answers collected every day from July 12, 2026 to October 11, 2026 on over 1,700 purchase-intent questions tracked by Archipel (mostly in French, plus the United States and the Netherlands). ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Copilot: Profound data. Claude and Gemini: Peec AI data. Sources are classified automatically from their address and title. Figures are aggregated: no brand or client is published. Free to reuse with a link to this page.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
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