Do ChatGPT, Gemini and Google Show YouTube When Buyers Research Expensive Decisions? We Tested 60 Queries

Everyone says AI search is the new Google, and that YouTube videos get cited by AI. I run a YouTube agency, so I would love that to be true. I wanted to check it on the questions that matter for my clients: what a buyer asks before paying for veneers, a lawyer, a franchise or a financial advisor.

So we took 60 of those questions and asked them in Google, ChatGPT and Gemini. The result was not what I expected, and it changed how I explain YouTube to clients.

What did we test?

We took real questions from Google autocomplete, six for each of ten niches where one client is worth thousands of dollars: dental, aesthetic surgery, legal, real estate, financial advisors, franchises, construction, B2B services, coaching and investing. Questions like “are dental implants really worth it”, “how to choose a personal injury lawyer” and “is buying a franchise worth it”.

Each question went to three places:

• Google search with US settings. Did a YouTube video appear on the first page? Did the AI Overview cite YouTube?
• ChatGPT with web search on. Did any cited source link to YouTube?
• Gemini. Did any cited source link to YouTube?

The full method and its limits are at the end of the page.

How often does YouTube show up in each place?

Here is the whole result in one picture.

<a href="https://evgenymaximov.com/blog/youtube-in-ai-answers-study/"><img src="https://evgenymaximov.com/img/chart-youtube-in-ai-answers.png" alt="Bar chart: for 60 buyer questions, YouTube was on Google page one for 52%, cited in Google AI Overview for 42%, cited by Gemini for 0% and by ChatGPT for 0%" width="1200" height="675"></a>
Source: <a href="https://evgenymaximov.com/blog/youtube-in-ai-answers-study/">Evgeny Maximov, YouTube in AI Answers Study (2026)</a>

How often does Google show YouTube for buyer questions?

Often. For 31 of the 60 questions, 52%, Google showed YouTube videos on page one.

<a href="https://evgenymaximov.com/blog/youtube-in-ai-answers-study/"><img src="https://evgenymaximov.com/img/chart-youtube-google-by-niche.png" alt="Bar chart by niche: Google showed YouTube on page one for investing 5 of 6 questions, real estate, franchises, construction and coaching 4 of 6, dental and aesthetic surgery 3 of 6, financial advisors 2 of 6, legal and B2B services 1 of 6" width="1200" height="675"></a>
Source: <a href="https://evgenymaximov.com/blog/youtube-in-ai-answers-study/">Evgeny Maximov, YouTube in AI Answers Study (2026)</a>

The part I like most is who got there. Not only big media channels. For “how to choose a personal injury lawyer”, Google showed a video by Iacobelli Law Firm, a Toronto injury law firm, with 1,671 views. For choosing a listing agent, a video by realtor Karrie Hill with 626 views. For “is buying a franchise worth it”, a video by franchise consultant Brian Beers with 5,669 views. A clear answer to a buyer's question was enough to get on page one.

Which buyer questions get YouTube videos?

The type of question mattered more than the niche. When a buyer is choosing (“how to choose a business coach”, “general contractor vs construction manager”), Google showed YouTube 70% of the time. When a buyer asked about price, only 22%. Price questions were answered by text pages and the AI Overview.

<a href="https://evgenymaximov.com/blog/youtube-in-ai-answers-study/"><img src="https://evgenymaximov.com/img/chart-youtube-google-by-question-type.png" alt="Bar chart by question type: YouTube on Google page one for 70% of how-to-choose and comparison questions, 56% of how and what questions, 38% of is-it-worth-it questions and 22% of cost questions" width="1200" height="675"></a>
Source: <a href="https://evgenymaximov.com/blog/youtube-in-ai-answers-study/">Evgeny Maximov, YouTube in AI Answers Study (2026)</a>

That's useful for planning. Your “how to choose” and “X vs Y” videos are the ones Google wants to show. Your price is better explained on a page of your site.

Does Google's AI Overview cite YouTube?

Yes, and this is the twist. Google showed an AI Overview for all 60 questions, and for 25 of them, 42%, YouTube was one of the sources it cited. In real estate it was 6 of 6. So Google's own AI does use YouTube. The two chatbots below did not.

Does ChatGPT cite YouTube?

No. In 60 of 60 answers, ChatGPT with web search did not cite a single YouTube video. We also asked a few questions without asking for sources, the way a normal buyer would. Still no YouTube.

What it cited instead was clear. On average 6 sources per answer, and about 70% of the domains were government sites, universities and professional associations. The most cited were sba.gov, the FTC, investor.gov, the SEC, the International Coaching Federation, plasticsurgery.org and the American Bar Association.

Does Gemini cite YouTube?

Also no. 0 of 60 answers cited YouTube. This surprised me more, because Gemini is a Google product and Google owns YouTube.

Gemini used about 4 sources per answer and leaned more on commercial sites and media: Forbes, NerdWallet, Zillow, SmartAsset, Chase, plus associations like plasticsurgery.org and the SEC. Only about 20% of its sources were .gov, .edu or .org.

How often do AI bots read a small business site?

A lot more than I thought. Here is my own site, evgenymaximov.com, in Cloudflare for the 30 days before this test. AI crawlers made about 24,000 successful requests to read its pages:

OpenAI's crawlers alone downloaded about 418 MB of the site's HTML. They read text. A video on YouTube gives them a title, a description and, at best, a transcript. An article on your own site gives them the whole answer. That's the gap the chatbots' answers showed.

Does anyone actually find a business through ChatGPT?

Yes, it happens. Not long ago a man called me and said he found my number through ChatGPT. He had asked it for a videographer in Novorossiysk, a city in Russia where I used to live, film content and run social media for local businesses. He didn't come from a video. ChatGPT found me through what had been written about me and my work online over the years.

That fits the data. In this test the chatbots cited pages with text, not videos. So the way into AI answers is through text: your site, your profiles, and mentions of you on other sites.

What does this mean for a business on YouTube?

YouTube still works, but not the way the hype says. Here is how I explain it to clients now.

• Film the questions buyers ask when they choose. Google showed videos for half of the buyer questions and for 70% of “how to choose” questions, and small channels made page one. Google's AI Overview cited YouTube for 42%. That's where a video brings new people.
• Turn every video into text on your site. Chatbots in this test cited web pages, not videos. An article made from each video, with the same answers, is how your expertise gets into AI answers. We help clients turn videos into articles when they ask for it. You can see the format on this blog.
• Get mentioned where chatbots look. Associations, directories and industry media showed up again and again. A profile and a few mentions there help more than another viral attempt.
• Use the long video for trust, not for discovery by AI. The buyer who found you on Google or YouTube still watches you for 20 minutes before the call. That part didn't change.

More on the text side is in how to get cited by ChatGPT and Google AI, and on the search side in YouTube SEO for business.

How was the study done, and what are its limits?

• Questions: 60, from Google autocomplete (US, English), 6 per niche in 10 high-ticket niches.
• When: 28 October 2026. Each question was asked once per tool.
• Google: standard search with US language and region settings, first page including video blocks, all 60 questions. “AI Overview cites YouTube” means YouTube was shown as one of the cited sources inside the AI Overview.
• ChatGPT: chatgpt.com with web search, not logged in. Each question had “(I'm in the US). Please cite your sources with links.” added, so the answer used US sources and showed them as links. A small control without that line also showed no YouTube.
• Gemini: gemini.google.com, same question and same added line.
• Not included: Perplexity blocked automated access, so it is not in the test.
• Limits: AI answers change from day to day, and one run per question is a snapshot. The requests came from Europe with a note that the buyer is in the US. Treat the numbers as a direction, not a law.

Download the data: youtube-in-ai-answers-study-2026.csv, every question with its results. You're welcome to use it. Please cite it as “Evgeny Maximov, YouTube in AI Answers Study (2026), evgenymaximov.com” with a link to this page.

Evgeny Maximov

Founder of a done-for-you YouTube agency for high-ticket founders. Making content since 2014. More about me