AI Citation Monitor — Which Sources AI Engines Cite

See which sources and domains ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Gemini cite when they answer your prompts — and whether your domain is one of them. This is the citation half of Generative Engine Optimization (GEO): the Rank Tracker tells you if you're mentioned; the Citation Monitor tells you what content AI trusts and links to, so you know what to create to get cited.

Export results, run via API, schedule and monitor runs, or integrate with other tools.

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What it does

For every prompt × engine, the actor records:

• brand_cited — was your domain cited as a source?
• citation_domains / citation_urls — every source the answer relied on
• competitor_domains_cited — which rivals got cited alongside (or instead of) you
• new_domains / lost_domains — what changed since the last run
• citation_status — new, gained, lost, unchanged, or absent for your domain

Plus a run SUMMARY in the key-value store:

• citation leaderboard — the domains AI cites most for your topics, with share %
• brand citation rate — how often your domain is cited
• citation gap domains — high-authority sources cited ahead of you (your opportunity list)

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Input

Field	Type	Description
brandDomain	string	The domain you want cited (e.g., notion.so).
competitorDomains	string[]	Competitor domains to track in citations.
prompts	string[]	Questions to monitor (auto-generated from industry if empty).
industry	string	Fallback for prompt generation.
trackingId	string	Stable ID for run-over-run citation history.
maxPrompts	integer	Cap on prompts per run (cost control).

Engines, models, and web search are managed internally (all four engines, web search on) for predictable cost.

Example input

{
  "brandDomain": "notion.so",
  "competitorDomains": ["evernote.com", "obsidian.md"],
  "prompts": [
    "What is the best note-taking app for teams?",
    "Recommend an all-in-one workspace tool."
  ]
}

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API key (required)

All engines run through OpenRouter — set a single environment variable on the actor (Console → Settings → Environment variables, mark Secret):

OPENROUTER_API_KEY = sk-or-...

If the key is missing, checks are reported with an error and not charged.

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Output

Each row:

{
  "brand_domain": "notion.so",
  "engine": "perplexity",
  "model_used": "perplexity/sonar",
  "prompt": "What is the best note-taking app for teams?",
  "brand_cited": true,
  "brand_cited_urls": ["https://notion.so/product"],
  "citation_urls": ["https://notion.so/product", "https://zapier.com/blog/..."],
  "citation_domains": ["notion.so", "zapier.com", "g2.com"],
  "competitor_domains_cited": ["evernote.com"],
  "total_citations": 8,
  "new_domains": ["g2.com"],
  "lost_domains": ["reddit.com"],
  "previous_brand_cited": false,
  "citation_status": "gained",
  "error": null,
  "checked_at": "2026-06-08T12:00:00.000Z"
}

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Pricing (Pay Per Event)

Event	When
actor-start	Once per run.
prompt-engine-check	Each successful prompt × engine check.

Failed checks are not charged.

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Scheduling for trend tracking

1. Run once to seed a baseline.
2. Schedule daily/weekly with the same trackingId.
3. Each run diffs cited domains vs the last snapshot (new_domains / lost_domains) and updates your domain's citation_status.

History is stored in a named key-value store (ai-citation-history-<trackingId>), so multiple sites track independently.

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Use cases

• GEO content strategy — find the exact sources AI cites for your topics, then earn placement on them.
• Citation gap analysis — see which authoritative domains outrank you and prioritize outreach.
• Competitive monitoring — track when competitors gain or lose AI citations.
• Pairs with the AI Visibility Rank Tracker for a full GEO picture: mentions + citations.