Observatory · Engine
How often does Google AI Overviews appear, and what does it cite?
Google AI Overviews appeared on 76.5% of the buying searches tracked by Archipel between July 12 and October 11, 2026, rising from 56.3% in July to 86.7% in October. When it appears, it cites 8.0 sources per answer, and 6.7% of them are YouTube videos.
Updated
95%
answers citing sources
8
sources per answer
25%
rankings among sources
77%
ai overview displayed
| Month | Sources per answer | Rankings among sources | YouTube | AI Overview displayed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2026 (partial month) | 8.7 | 32% | 6% | 56% |
| August 2026 | 8.5 | 26% | 7% | 74% |
| September 2026 | 7.5 | 24% | 7% | 83% |
| October 2026 (partial month) | 7.6 | 21% | 5% | 87% |
Google AI Overviews is the only engine in the Observatory that does not always answer: Google decides search by search whether to show an AI summary. Across 113,652 tracked buying searches, mostly in French, it showed one 76.5% of the time. The rate climbed every month: 56.3% in July, 73.9% in August, 83.1% in September and 86.7% in October.
When it appears, AI Overviews cites at least one source in 95.1% of answers and 8.0 sources per answer, with a median length of 241 words. Brand sites, media and blogs make up 64.2% of its sources, rankings and comparisons 25.1%, YouTube 6.7%, reviews and directories 2.1%, forums 1.3% and LinkedIn 0.6%. No other engine cites YouTube at that level: ChatGPT is at 0.2%, Perplexity at 0.4%.
The display rate depends on the sector. AI Overviews appears on 92.2% of searches in coaching and advisory, 88.9% for marketing agencies and 88.2% in B2B software, but only 66.7% in real estate and 53.6% in travel and leisure. YouTube follows a similar pattern: 17.7% of sources in coaching and advisory, 15.4% in finance, 9.2% in B2B software.
AI Overviews is also the least stable of the four engines where stability is measured: the brand cited first changes from one week to the next in 65.5% of cases. See our Google AI Overviews optimization service for how we work on it.
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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