Does a press release help to be cited by AI?
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Rarely directly, and mostly through the articles it generates. Out of more than 25 million links cited by ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, Muck Rack counted 1.1% of press releases in May 2026, compared to 84% of so-called earned sources: press, encyclopedias, research, institutions, content from other companies. A press release primarily serves to obtain this coverage. If it is not picked up by anyone, it carries little weight in AI responses.
For what type of question? It all depends on the question asked to the AI. On industry trends, press releases stand out more; on a question of choice, "what is the best...", they are 3.5 times rarer. Yet this second question is the one most customers ask.
How much weight a press release carries in AI citations
Muck Rack analyzed more than 25 million links cited by ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini on consumer questions across seventeen sectors. In its May 2026 report, press releases represent 1.1% of citations, wherever they are published. The figure varies from one edition to another: 1.2% in July 2025, 6% in December 2025. The study mainly attributes the recent decline to ChatGPT, which cites them less.
Paid or sponsored content carries even less weight, 0.3%. Conversely, earned sources, those a brand does not control, make up about 84% of citations, a share that has remained between 82 and 89% since July 2025.
Where the press release stands out: trends, not choices
Press releases appear almost exclusively in answers to questions about industry trends: about 1% of these answers cite one, 3.5 times more than answers to "what is the best..." questions. On a trend question, the AI looks for news; on a choice question, it looks for comparisons, guides, and reviews.
For a company, this is the key point: a customer hesitating between several suppliers asks a choice question, and it is on this very question that the press release is cited the least.
The real role of the press release: getting others to write
Generative Pulse, Muck Rack's analytical service, put it this way in June 2026: the press release is a means to get articles, and its success is measured by the brand's place in AI responses, not by the press release itself. What the AI cites is the news article, the encyclopedia listing, or the third-party page that picks up the information.
To optimize a press release for AI, what the industry calls the GEO of PR, the same article provides writing rules: start with the answer, in 75 to 150 words of simple sentences; stick to the facts, without unverifiable superlatives; attribute quotes to a named person; always refer to the company and its products by the same name; publish the text on a clean HTML page on the company's website, before or at the same time as its distribution by a news agency.
What AI made of this question
On September 25, 2026, we asked this question to the three AIs, twice each. All six responses say yes, with some nuances: ChatGPT specifies that the effect is indirect and not guaranteed, while Claude and Gemini present the press release as a lever to be optimized. None of them provide the share of press releases measured in May 2026, 1.1%. Claude, in both of its responses, claims that citations of press releases have increased fivefold since July 2025: this was true in Muck Rack's December 2025 edition, which went from 1.2% to 6%, and is no longer the case in the May 2026 edition. One of its responses also categorizes press releases as paid content, at 0.3%, whereas the study counts them separately.
The sources selected differ from one AI to another. Claude and Gemini mainly cited public relations players: software publishers, press release distribution services, and agencies, including Muck Rack, present in all four of their responses, Cision, Meltwater, and Business Wire. ChatGPT read the question as a technical one: its searches, all conducted in English, targeted documentation from Google, OpenAI, Microsoft, and Perplexity on source selection, and more than half of its citations come from Google domains. In one of its responses, it cited two press releases, published by distribution services about their own offering.
On this question, the pages that AIs retain are therefore mostly written by those who sell press release distribution: they are the ones publishing on the subject, and the answers carry their angle. And a figure continues to circulate after being surpassed. A page that gives the most recent measurement, with its date and source, brings what current answers do not have.
What this changes for a company
A press release keeps its utility: announcing a new fact to journalists. But it guarantees no presence in the sources that AIs consult on your clients' questions: everything depends on who picks it up.
Its writing rules apply to any page. Our measurements point in the same direction: with Claude, a paragraph of 50 to 100 words is cited 3.7 to 4.8 times more often than a short paragraph. This is the method of our thematic sites: one question per page, the answer first, the facts and limits of the product, links to the brand marked as sponsored, published directly where AIs search, without waiting for a pickup.
What we do not know
We did not measure the place of press releases in citations ourselves: the figures on this page are those from Muck Rack, based on consumer questions asked to ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini across seventeen sectors; the study specifies neither the language nor the country. They describe citations, not the effect of a press release on the articles that pick it up. Our measurement of September 25, 2026 relates to this single question, asked twice to each AI by its API.
Sources
- Muck Rack — "What is AI Reading?" (Generative Pulse), May 2026 report, .
- Muck Rack — "Generative Pulse: Earned Media Consistently Drives AI Citations, Holding at 84%", press release, .
- Generative Pulse — "How to use press releases and PR for AEO visibility", .
- FaireDuBruit measurements, from September 4 to 16, 2026 — see "How we measured".