DATED EXAMPLE
Which sources appear for AI comparison questions?
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.
The citation guide explains why these domains belong to the shared search action, rather than to individual queries. Understand queries, search actions and cited sources.
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
Observed queries
Original query strings from the API response. These are not post-run search ideas.
- Ahrefs vs Semrush small business pricing features 2026
- Ahrefs pricing official
- Semrush pricing official
- Ahrefs Semrush review small business SEO comparison
Source domains on the search action — not mapped to individual queries
- 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
Operator reading
This section interprets the observation. It is not a field returned by the provider.
- 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.
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.
View the planned monthly topic set
Test the workflow yourself
The observations were collected on 27 August 2026. These instructions were added on 9 October 2026. A new run can expose different queries and sources.
- Enter Ahrefs vs Semrush for small business; use OpenAI, English and United States.
- Inspect the exposed query strings and the source scope returned by that new run.
- Open the relevant primary source and verify its claim. Keep domains at action or run level unless the response supplies a narrower relationship.
A related control case: How to compare OpenAI and Gemini fanout locally.