ChatGPT Sources vs Citations: What's the Difference?

When you run a prompt through ChatGPT Search, you might notice two different lists of URLs: Sources and Citations. They're not the same thing, and the distinction matters if you're trying to track your visibility in AI search.

TL;DR: Sources are URLs that ChatGPT's web search tool considered while generating its response. Citations are URLs that actually appear in the response text. Being in Sources means you were evaluated. Being in Citations means you were trusted enough to quote. Gemini only has Citations—no Sources equivalent.

What Are Sources?

When ChatGPT performs a web search, it queries Bing and retrieves a list of potentially relevant URLs. These are the Sources—the URLs that the model considered before generating its answer.

Think of it like research. Before writing an essay, you might pull up 10 articles. You read through them, but you only end up quoting 3. The 10 articles are your sources. The 3 you quoted are your citations.

Sources tell you: "ChatGPT looked at your page."

What Are Citations?

Citations are URLs that ChatGPT explicitly referenced in its response. These appear as inline links within the text, or as numbered references at the end of the answer.

If your URL is in the Citations, that means the model found your content trustworthy and relevant enough to quote or reference directly. This is the real visibility win.

Citations tell you: "ChatGPT trusted your page enough to cite it."

Why Does This Matter?

The difference has practical implications for tracking AI visibility:

Being in Sources but not Citations means your content is being discovered, but not selected. Maybe your page ranks well in Bing, but your content isn't structured in a way that makes it easy to quote. Or maybe a competitor's content is clearer.

Being in Citations means you've achieved actual AI visibility. Users see your brand and can click through.

Not appearing in either means you're not in the search results at all. Check if your page is indexed by Bing.

Gemini Only Has Citations

Here's where it gets interesting: Google's Gemini doesn't have a Sources concept.

When Gemini performs a web search using its Grounding API, it returns what Google calls "grounding chunks." These are the URLs it cited in the response—equivalent to ChatGPT's Citations.

There's no separate list of "pages I considered but didn't cite." Gemini gives you the end result without showing the research process.

This means when you're monitoring visibility across both platforms:

• ChatGPT: Check both Sources and Citations
• Gemini: Only Citations are available

How to Track Both

In our Prompt Monitor, we track Sources and Citations separately for ChatGPT responses. For Gemini responses, we only show Citations because that's all the platform provides.

If you see a Sources section with "(ChatGPT only)" next to it, that's why. It's not that we're hiding Gemini data—it simply doesn't exist.

What If I'm in Sources but Not Citations?

This is actually useful signal. It means:

1. Your page is indexed by Bing
2. ChatGPT's search found you relevant enough to retrieve
3. But the model chose to cite something else

Usually this comes down to content structure. The model picked a source that was easier to extract a clean quote from. Check your headings, add a TL;DR section, and make sure you directly answer the question being asked.

See our guide to ChatGPT citations for specific tactics.

The Bottom Line

Sources and Citations measure different things. Sources measure discoverability—whether AI search found you. Citations measure authority—whether AI search trusted you enough to quote.

Track both when possible. Focus on improving your Citation rate. And remember that Gemini only gives you half the picture since it doesn't expose Sources data.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Gemini have a Sources feature?

No. Gemini's Grounding API only returns the URLs that appear in the response (equivalent to Citations). There's no separate list of pages that were considered but not cited.

Why do my ChatGPT Sources include weird URLs?

Sometimes you'll see internal Google redirect URLs or aggregator sites in Sources. This is Bing's index showing through. The Sources list reflects what the search retrieved, not necessarily what the model found useful.

Can I appear in Sources but never in Citations?

Yes. If your content is consistently being found but never cited, that's a signal to improve your content structure. Make your answers more direct and quotable.

Which is more important—Sources or Citations?

Citations. Being in Sources is step one, but it doesn't give you visibility. Only Citations appear to the end user. Focus on getting cited, not just getting found.

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Want to track your visibility across ChatGPT and Gemini? Set up a Prompt Monitor to see exactly where your content appears—and where it doesn't.