Reddit Citations in ChatGPT Search Plummet in August 2026

Reddit's visibility within ChatGPT Search collapsed in August 2026, with its share of citations dropping from an average of 3.83% in late July to 0.52% by mid-August. Data from the AI search visibility platform Promptwatch shows a two-stage decline, featuring an initial dip on August 8 followed by a sharper collapse below 1% on August 14.

OpenAI modified its query fanout behavior around the time of the first drop, increasing the use of site: operators to target specific trusted domains instead of the open web. While this technical shift was intended to reduce spam and low-quality results, Promptwatch noted that the timing of the August 14 collapse does not fully align with the August 8 change.

Promptwatch founder Klaas Foppen reported that Reddit has been almost completely removed from prompt responses. However, Promptwatch has labeled the scale of the drop as provisional, noting that a data-collection issue cannot be entirely ruled out.