Observatory · Source type
YouTube: the Google AI Overviews source other engines ignore
YouTube makes up 6.7% of the sources Google AI Overviews cites on buying questions, while the other five engines stay at 0.4% or less. Data: 406,626 answers, July 12 to October 11, 2026.
Updated
2%
of all cited sources
7%
for Google AI Overviews
3%
in finance and wealth management
Across all engines, YouTube weighs 1.5% of cited sources. That average hides a split: Google AI Overviews cites YouTube for 6.7% of its sources, while Perplexity is at 0.4%, ChatGPT at 0.2%, Gemini at 0.1%, and Claude and Copilot at 0.0%.
Within AI Overviews, the YouTube share depends on the sector: 17.7% in coaching and advisory, 15.4% in finance, 9.2% in B2B software, 6.8% in retail and fashion and 6.1% for marketing agencies.
Month by month, YouTube went from 6.4% of AI Overviews sources in July to 7.4% in September, then 4.8% over the first 11 days of October. Since AI Overviews now appears on 86.7% of tracked buying searches, a video that answers a buying question is one of the most direct ways into Google's AI answers. See our Google AI Overviews optimization service.
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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