TL;DR — Perplexity explicitly cites its sources with every answer, so your brand either appears in that citation list or it doesn’t. Go to Visibility > Citation Sources filtered to Perplexity to see which URLs it pulls and whether your domain is among them, then check Visibility > Responses to see where your citation falls in the answer hierarchy. Pro tip: being cited as source [1] in the direct answer paragraph is worth far more than source [5] in a “learn more” section — read the actual responses, not just the citation count.
The Question
“Is my brand being included in Perplexity’s cited sources?”Unlike ChatGPT or Claude, Perplexity always shows the sources behind its answers. That transparency is both an opportunity and an exposure: if your brand’s pages appear in Perplexity’s source list, you get a visible citation that users can click. If your competitors’ pages appear and yours don’t, that citation list becomes a curated endorsement of them over you — visible to every user who reads the answer. The question of whether you’re included in Perplexity’s sources is therefore more than a visibility metric. It’s a question about whether your content is being treated as a credible reference in your category. You might also be wondering:
- “Which specific pages on my site does Perplexity cite most often?”
- “Are my competitors being cited by Perplexity more frequently than I am?”
- “Does getting cited by Perplexity drive measurable traffic to my site?”
Where to Go in Qwairy
Start here: Visibility > Citation Sources
Navigate to Visibility > Citation Sources and filter by Provider: Perplexity.
This view lists every URL that Perplexity has cited across your tracked prompts, with citation frequency, the prompts that triggered each citation, and whether the cited URL belongs to your domain, a competitor’s domain, or a third-party source (publication, review site, directory).
Sort by citation frequency to identify the most-cited sources — and check immediately whether your domain appears in the top tier or is absent entirely.
Go deeper: Visibility > Prompts
Navigate to Visibility > Prompts and filter by Provider: Perplexity.
This shows prompt-level performance: for each tracked query, what score did you receive on Perplexity? Cross-reference with the Citations view — prompts where you score low tend to be the same prompts where your domain isn’t cited. This confirms the citation-to-score relationship and helps you prioritize which queries to target first.
Read the actual answers: Visibility > Responses
Navigate to Visibility > Responses, filter by Provider: Perplexity, and open individual responses.
Perplexity responses include inline citations ([1], [2], [3]) linked to source URLs. Reading the full response tells you: whether your brand is mentioned in the text (separate from being cited), whether the citation is to your homepage, a blog post, a product page, or a third-party article about you, and whether the citation places you in a primary or supporting role.
Track source page health: Analytics > Page Performance
Navigate to Analytics > Page Performance and look up the specific pages that Perplexity is (or should be) citing.
Page Performance shows crawlability, load speed, and indexing status for tracked pages. Perplexity’s crawler must be able to access and parse a page for it to appear as a citation source. A page that is slow, blocked by robots.txt, or returning errors cannot be cited.
What to Look For
Citations — Your Perplexity Source Footprint
The Citations view filtered to Perplexity is the authoritative answer to this question. It shows you the full source landscape for your tracked queries.| Element | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Your domain in the top cited sources | Perplexity is treating your pages as credible references — strong signal |
| Your domain absent; competitors present | Perplexity’s retrieval favors your competitors’ content over yours for these queries |
| Third-party sources citing you (reviews, press) | Indirect inclusion — you’re visible but not as the primary source; good but not optimal |
| Your domain cited on some prompts, absent on others | Topic-specific coverage gaps — you have authority in some areas but not others |
| Citation frequency declining over 30 days | A recent content change, crawl block, or competitor content gain is eroding your source footprint |
Responses — Citation Position and Context
Being cited by Perplexity is not binary. The position and framing of your citation within the answer matters significantly. A citation as source [1] in a direct answer paragraph is worth more than a citation as source [5] in a “see also” paragraph. Similarly, a citation to your core product page is more valuable than a citation to a generic blog post, because it places your brand in the decision-making context of the answer.Pro Tip: When reading Perplexity responses in Qwairy, note which specific claim in the answer your page is cited for. If Perplexity cites your pricing page to support a claim about “affordable options” and you don’t want to be known primarily for price, that’s a positioning problem addressable by making your differentiation clearer on that page.
Prompts — Citation Rate per Query
Cross-reference prompt scores with citation presence. A pattern of: high prompt score + your domain cited = your content is working. Low prompt score + competitors cited = direct competitive gap. Low prompt score + no one cited = Perplexity is synthesizing from training data with no live retrieval, which means real-time content improvements may have less immediate effect.| Pattern | Interpretation |
|---|---|
| High score + your domain cited | Perplexity treats your page as the authoritative source for this query |
| High score + third-party citing you | You’re recognized but not directly indexed — push for direct domain citations |
| Low score + competitor cited | Highest-priority gap to close with new or improved content |
| Low score + no citation | Query may be answered from training data — focus on increasing web mentions across publications |
Filters That Help
| Filter | How to use it for this question |
|---|---|
| Provider: Perplexity | Essential — citation behavior differs fundamentally between providers |
| Domain filter (in Citations) | Toggle between your domain, competitor domains, and third-party domains to understand the source landscape |
| Period: Last 30 days | Perplexity’s live retrieval means recent content can appear within days — short windows are actionable |
| Topic / Tag | Isolate citation patterns by product area to find your strongest and weakest topic coverage |
How to Interpret the Results
Good result
Your domain appears in the top 5 most-cited sources for Perplexity across at least 40% of your tracked prompts. Multiple pages from your site appear (not just your homepage), including product pages, use case pages, and at least one substantive blog or guide. Third-party sources (reviews, press) also cite your brand, giving Perplexity corroborating evidence beyond your own domain.Needs attention
Your domain appears in Perplexity citations fewer than 20% of the time across tracked prompts. Competitor domains and generic industry publications dominate the citation list. When your domain does appear, it’s your homepage — not specific pages tailored to the query. Alternatively, you’re getting cited but always as source [4] or [5], meaning you’re corroborating rather than leading the answer.Example
Scenario: A real estate platform tracks 14 prompts related to “best property management software for landlords.” Perplexity scores average 19 across those prompts. Three competitors score between 52 and 74.
- Open Visibility > Citation Sources, filter to Perplexity. The platform’s domain appears in 2 of 14 prompts. Competitor A appears in 10, Competitor B in 8. Third-party sources dominate: a Forbes Advisor review of Competitor A, a G2 comparison page for property management tools, and a BiggerPockets “best of” list.
- Open Visibility > Responses for the two prompts where the platform is cited. Perplexity cites the platform’s generic blog post on rental management tips — not the product page. The citation is as source [4] in a “for more context” paragraph.
- The platform’s core product page for “property management for landlords” is not appearing. Open Analytics > Page Performance — the page loads in 5.1 seconds on mobile and is missing a structured description meta tag.
- Action plan: fix page speed, add a concise meta description explicitly matching the query intent, create a comparison guide page that Perplexity-style queries tend to favor, and pursue placement in Forbes Advisor or BiggerPockets — publications Perplexity is already citing for real estate software queries.
Go Further
Track Perplexity citations daily
Monitor which of your URLs Perplexity cites daily using the source-urls data source in Looker Studio
Pull Perplexity source data via API
Use the source-urls endpoint to programmatically track which pages Perplexity is citing for your brand
How citations are tracked
Read the Citation Sources documentation to understand how Qwairy detects and tracks Perplexity citations
Related Questions
Which sources do AI providers cite when mentioning my brand?
Understand the broader citation landscape across all providers, not just Perplexity.
How do I get my content to rank as a source in AI answers?
Tactical content and technical steps to increase citation frequency across AI providers.
Why does ChatGPT recommend my competitor instead of me?
If Perplexity is one problem, understand the ChatGPT dynamic separately.