Google AI Overviews cite social networks far more often than ChatGPT, and it hardly cites the same content. This is what emerges from the study “GEO Social 2026”, carried out by Minddex under the direction of Thibaut Fitoussi, president of Kortaix. GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) refers to the set of practices aimed at being cited or reproduced in the responses of generative engines.
- Les AI Overviews de Google citent bien plus les réseaux sociaux que ChatGPT.
- Les deux moteurs citent presque jamais les mêmes contenus sociaux.
- YouTube domine sur Google, tandis que Reddit et LinkedIn devancent YouTube sur ChatGPT.
- Le suivi de position ne mesure pas la visibilité sociale : chaque moteur doit être analysé séparément.
The study covers 151,718 AI‑generated responses in France between August 27 and September 25, 2026, of which 83,138 come from chatgpt.com and 68,580 from Google AI Overviews. Overall, 1,842,720 citations were recorded, of which 90,846 point to social networks. Social content remains a minority in volume, accounting for 4,93 % of citations, but it appears in 28,7 % of responses that include sources and in each of the 32 sectors examined.
AI Overviews and ChatGPT do not cite the same social content
The clearest gap concerns citation frequency. 65,0 % of sourced AI Overviews responses contain at least one social source, versus 3,5 % for ChatGPT. In terms of citation share, social accounts for 18,85 % of AI Overviews sources and 0,41 % of ChatGPT’s.
The overlap between the two engines is, however, minimal. Only 130 social contents appear both among the URLs cited by AI Overviews and among those cited by ChatGPT, i.e., 0,21 % of the 61 868 social contents cited by the former. The ranking of networks reverses: on AI Overviews, YouTube leads with 49,46 % of responses citing at least one content, whereas on ChatGPT, Reddit (1,62 %) and LinkedIn (1,20 %) outrank YouTube (0,64 %). Minddex notes that this observation does not demonstrate that a network is favoured by an algorithm, but that it requires measuring the engines separately.
Distinct formats and citation logics
On AI Overviews, Reddit and YouTube follow opposite logics. 77,8 % of cited Reddit URLs also appear in the organic results retrieved for the same query, versus only 7,8 % for YouTube. These video citations mainly go through the AI Overview video module (99,8 %) and through thumbnails in the response text (91,1 %).
The types of pages cited also vary by network. On Instagram, 93,0 % of citations point to a Reel, on YouTube, 86,2 % to a long video, and on Reddit, 99,5 % to a discussion thread. For YouTube videos displayed by AI Overviews, 38,0 % run between 3 and 10 minutes and 26,6 % date from 2022 or earlier. Minddex also notes that 37,0 % of Reddit citations from the top 150 communities carry the platform’s French translation setting.
For professionals, the study recommends measuring engine by engine, using an identical and repeated prompt panel, rather than relying on an aggregated “AI” score. It nevertheless acknowledges its own limitations: the panel only covers chatgpt.com and AI Overviews, over one month and in France. Google AI Mode and Perplexity are not included.
