{
  "kind": "answer",
  "studySlug": "citation-sources",
  "slug": "how-often-do-docs-get-cited-by-ai",
  "title": "How often do docs get cited by AI?",
  "description": "Docs are a small but meaningful slice of the overall citation graph.",
  "lastUpdated": "2026-04-17",
  "lastTested": "2026-04-17",
  "sourceStudyUrl": "/trakkr-research/citation-sources",
  "sourceStudyTitle": "Where AI Gets Its Answers",
  "claimIds": [
    "citation-sources:docs-share",
    "citation-sources:total-citations"
  ],
  "relatedSlugs": [
    "answer:why-does-wikipedia-still-win-so-often",
    "answer:how-big-is-the-competitive-set-for-ai-citations",
    "fact:docs-are-a-niche-but-important-citation-layer",
    "tracker:top-cited-domain-tracker"
  ],
  "methodologySummary": "Built from the live citation index backing Trakkr Research, using 8,777,687 citations across 208,567 unique domains observed between October 3, 2025 and April 17, 2026.",
  "limitations": [
    "The live citation index is broader than the original December 2025 launch study, so percentages here should be read as the current benchmark.",
    "Domain share does not mean causal influence. It measures what models cited, not the full retrieval set.",
    "Category totals are domain-level rollups and may hide differences by model or query intent."
  ],
  "keywords": [
    "AI citations",
    "citation sources",
    "AI source preferences",
    "domain authority in AI",
    "docs citations AI",
    "technical docs AI"
  ],
  "schemaHints": {
    "pageType": "Article",
    "includeDataset": true
  },
  "question": "How often do docs get cited by AI?",
  "directAnswer": "Rarely. Docs hold 0.20% of the current corpus of 8.78M citations analyzed as of April 17, 2026, which is modest in raw share but important for technical troubleshooting and implementation questions.",
  "answerSummary": "While documentation pages do not typically win broad recommendation queries, they serve as the primary answer infrastructure for exact technical questions.",
  "keyFacts": [
    {
      "label": "Docs category share",
      "value": "0.20%",
      "detail": "Docs are cited less often overall, but they show up in technical query classes.",
      "claimId": "citation-sources:docs-share"
    },
    {
      "label": "Citations analyzed",
      "value": "8.78M",
      "detail": "Current live citation index as of April 17, 2026.",
      "claimId": "citation-sources:total-citations"
    }
  ],
  "evidenceTable": [
    {
      "label": "Docs category share",
      "value": "0.20%",
      "note": "Docs are cited less often overall, but they show up in technical query classes."
    },
    {
      "label": "Citations analyzed",
      "value": "8.78M",
      "note": "Current live citation index as of April 17, 2026."
    }
  ],
  "whyItMatters": "Operators must understand that optimizing documentation is a targeted play for technical query classes rather than a strategy for broad brand visibility, dictating where to allocate technical writing resources.",
  "whatToDo": [
    "Audit the domains that already dominate your category and decide which ones are realistic citation targets.",
    "Build source-worthy pages for the query shapes where AI is already citing third parties.",
    "Treat reference, review, and social sources as part of your AI visibility surface, not as noise."
  ],
  "faqs": [
    {
      "question": "What percentage of AI citations go to documentation pages?",
      "answer": "Documentation pages account for 0.20% of the 8.78M citations analyzed as of April 17, 2026."
    },
    {
      "question": "Should we optimize our docs for broad AI visibility?",
      "answer": "No, documentation is better suited for technical troubleshooting and implementation queries rather than broad recommendation visibility."
    }
  ]
}