DATED EXAMPLE

Which sources appear for AI comparison questions?

What does an AI web-search run look for when comparing Ahrefs and Semrush?

The run split the question into a broad comparison, one official-pricing query per product and a small-business review query. OpenAI returned the sources on the same search action, so that action-level connection can be shown truthfully.

01

Fixed protocol

Provider
OpenAI API
Model
GPT-5.6 Luna
Tool
web_search · low context
Limits
8 searches · 500 output tokens
Provider storage
store: false
Version
native-fanout-tool/1.0.0
Open machine-readable protocol
02

Observed queries

Original query strings from the API response. These are not post-run search ideas.

27 Aug 2026, 15:13:59Ahrefs vs Semrush for small businessUS · en · completed
  1. Ahrefs vs Semrush small business pricing features 2026
  2. Ahrefs pricing official
  3. Semrush pricing official
  4. Ahrefs Semrush review small business SEO comparison

Source domains on the search action

  • ahrefs.com
  • semrush.com
  • help.ahrefs.com
  • stackcompare.net
  • formativedigital.com
  • insidepro360.com
  • softoraguide.com
  • angletutoring.com
  • static.semrush.com
  • sec.gov
  • youtube.com
  • reddit.com
  • cdnc.heyzine.com
Input
12,876 Tokens
Output
475 Tokens
Estimate
$0.0131
03

What this supports

  • Four query strings were exposed.
  • Two queries explicitly asked for official pricing.
  • The action returned first-party product domains, reviews, Reddit, YouTube and an SEC domain.
04

What it does not prove

  • The API linked sources to the search action, not to one exact query inside that four-query action.
  • A citation is not an endorsement or ranking.

This example is not an independent model benchmark. It documents individual API observations under a published protocol and does not reproduce the ChatGPT or Gemini consumer interface.