Sources
The Sources tab in AI Visibility shows you which websites AI models actually pull from when they answer questions about your category. Every answer an AI gives is shaped by the pages it cites, so this tab is where you find the domains and individual URLs doing that shaping, how often each one is retrieved and cited, and whether your brand is mentioned on them. Use it to understand which sites influence what AI says about you, spot the review sites and publications worth earning a mention on, and see where competitors are showing up that you are not.
Getting to Sources
Sources is one of the tabs inside AI Visibility, which lives under Insights in the left sidebar. To open it:
In the left sidebar, click Insights. If the sidebar is collapsed to icons, click the toggle at the top of the sidebar to expand it, or hover over an icon to see its label.
Under Insights, click AI Visibility.
At the top of the page, click the Sources tab.
Domains and URLs views
Just below the filter bar, two sub-tabs switch the level of detail you are looking at. Both show the same kinds of metrics, just grouped differently:
Domains: sources grouped by website, for example one row for an entire review site. Start here for the big picture of which sites matter.
URLs: sources broken out to the individual page, so you can see exactly which articles and pages AI models cite. Use this when you need the specific page, not just the domain.
Citation rate by domain
The Citation rate by domain chart plots how often the top source domains are cited in AI answers over the selected date range. Each colored line is one domain, with a legend below naming them, so you can see which sources are gaining or losing influence over time. On the URLs view this chart becomes Citation rate by URL and tracks individual pages instead.
Tip: use the expand icon in the top-right of the chart to open a larger view, and hover any point on a line to read the exact citation rate for that date.
Sources Type
The Sources Type donut breaks the citations down by the kind of site they come from, with the total citation count in the center. It tells you at a glance whether AI answers about your category lean on company-owned content or independent media:
Corporate: citations from company-owned websites, such as vendor and product sites.
Editorial: citations from publications, review sites, and other independent media.
The Domains table
The table lists every source domain mentioned in AI answers for your prompts, ranked by how much it is retrieved. Use the Search box to find a specific domain, and the All Domain Types filter to limit the table to corporate or editorial sources. Click any column header to re-sort.
#: the source's rank in the list.
Source: the domain AI models referenced, shown with its icon.
Retrieved: how often AI models retrieved content from this domain when answering your prompts.
Citation Rate: how often this domain was actually cited as a source in the answers.
Is Tracked Brand Mentioned?: whether your tracked brand is mentioned on that source, shown as Yes or No. This flags the sites that already talk about you versus those that do not.
Brands Mentioned: icons for the brands that appear on this source, so you can see who else it covers.
Domain Type: whether the source is classified as Corporate or Editorial.
The URLs view
Switching to the URLs sub-tab breaks sources down to the individual page. The table works the same way but shows the exact page AI models cited, so you can see the specific article or landing page behind a domain's influence.
Url: the page title and its full web address. Click through to open the page.
Percent Retrieved: how often AI models retrieved this specific page when answering your prompts.
Citation Rate: how often this page was actually cited in the answers.
Is Tracked Brand Mentioned?: whether your tracked brand appears on that page, shown as Yes or No.
Tip: when a domain ranks high, switch to the URLs view and search for it to find the exact pages driving its citations. Those are the pages to target for a mention or a correction.
Filtering and scoping the data
The filter bar at the top of the page scopes both views without changing what Sona tracks. Use the brand selector, date range, and the tags, platforms, and topics filters to focus the data, for example to see which sources an individual AI platform relies on.
Note: the filter bar is shared across all AI Visibility tabs, so your selection carries over when you switch between Overview, Prompts, Rankings, Sources, and Site Pages. For a full breakdown of each control, see the AI Visibility Overview article, and for metric definitions see the AI Visibility metric glossary.
FAQs
What is the difference between the Domains and URLs views?
What is the difference between the Domains and URLs views?
The Domains view groups sources by website, so a whole review site is one row. The URLs view breaks the same data down to individual pages, so you see the exact articles AI models cite. Use Domains to find the sites that matter most, then switch to URLs to pinpoint the specific pages behind a domain's influence.
What do Corporate and Editorial mean?
What do Corporate and Editorial mean?
Corporate sources are company-owned websites, such as vendor and product sites. Editorial sources are independent media, such as publications and review sites. The split, shown in the Sources Type donut and the Domain Type column, tells you whether AI answers about your category lean on content companies control or on third-party coverage. A heavy editorial lean means earning mentions on those independent sites can lift your visibility.
What does "Is Tracked Brand Mentioned?" tell me?
What does "Is Tracked Brand Mentioned?" tell me?
It shows whether your tracked brand appears on that source. A Yes means the page or domain already mentions you, so AI models citing it may surface your brand. A No on a frequently cited source is an opportunity: that site is shaping AI answers in your category but does not yet mention you, making it a strong target for coverage.
How is this different from Top Sources on the Overview?
How is this different from Top Sources on the Overview?
The Top Sources panel on the Overview is a short summary of the most-cited domains. The Sources tab is the full view, with the citation trend chart, the corporate versus editorial breakdown, the complete searchable Domains table, and a URLs view for page-level detail. Use the Overview panel for a quick read and the Sources tab when you need to dig into who is shaping AI answers.