Growwer

Original data study · Q3 2026

The news outlets AI cites most in Spain

Which newspapers and magazines ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, AI Overviews and Perplexity cite when someone asks what to buy, who to hire or where to go. 23,466 answers to the buyer questions of 42 brands in 8 sectors.

See the ranking
23,466
AI answers analysed
167,818
citations to external sources
190
news outlets cited
4%
of citations go to the press

What the data says

  1. Three outlets for almost everything. El País shows up in the answers for 38 of the 42 brands. Only two more, Cadena SER (23) and AS (21), show up for half of them or more.
  2. ChatGPT reads PRISA. 28.5% of its press citations go to PRISA Media outlets (El País, Cadena SER, AS, El HuffPost), which signed a content deal with OpenAI in 2024. In Google AI Mode those outlets get 4.1%.
  3. Google prefers La Vanguardia and elEconomista. They are the two outlets AI Mode and AI Overviews cite most. 86.8% of the citations to elEconomista come from Google.
  4. Perplexity goes for magazines. 30.9% of its press citations go to the Spanish editions of Hearst’s Elle, Cosmopolitan, Harper’s Bazaar and Esquire, which the other engines hardly cite.
  5. Specialist titles outweigh general news. Magazines and trade outlets take 48.5% of press citations; national general news, 36.3%.

The outlets AI cites for the most brands

Sorted by the number of brands, out of 42, whose answers cite the outlet, and then by citations.

# Outlet Brands
1 El País elpais.com · National news 38
2 Cadena SER cadenaser.com · National news 23
3 AS as.com · Specialist and lifestyle 21
4 El Español elespanol.com · National news 20
5 La Vanguardia lavanguardia.com · National news 18
6 Europa Press europapress.es · National news 14
7 El Confidencial elconfidencial.com · National news 14
8 20minutos 20minutos.es · National news 13
9 OKDIARIO okdiario.com · National news 13
10 Interempresas interempresas.net · Specialist and lifestyle 12
11 El Confidencial Digital elconfidencialdigital.com · Business news 12
12 El Mundo elmundo.es · National news 12
13 La Razón larazon.es · National news 11
14 El HuffPost huffingtonpost.es · National news 11
15 La Voz de Galicia lavozdegalicia.es · Regional and local 11
16 ABC abc.es · National news 10
17 Mundo Deportivo mundodeportivo.com · Specialist and lifestyle 9
18 El Independiente elindependiente.com · National news 9
19 laSexta lasexta.com · National news 9
20 elDiario.es eldiario.es · National news 9

Download the full ranking (CSV)

Each engine has its own outlets

The ten outlets each engine cites most, by number of citations.

ChatGPT

  1. 1 El País 586
  2. 2 Vogue 287
  3. 3 La Vanguardia 175
  4. 4 AS 162
  5. 5 Cadena SER 146
  6. 6 Glamour 120
  7. 7 Motor.es 97
  8. 8 Europa Press 96
  9. 9 20minutos 74
  10. 10 Trendencias 67

Google AI Mode

  1. 1 La Vanguardia 143
  2. 2 elEconomista 99
  3. 3 Mujerhoy 59
  4. 4 Movilidad Eléctrica 52
  5. 5 Glamour 51
  6. 6 El País 50
  7. 7 ¡HOLA! 44
  8. 8 El Confidencial 39
  9. 9 La Razón 36
  10. 10 ABC 33

Google AI Overviews

  1. 1 La Vanguardia 84
  2. 2 elEconomista 72
  3. 3 ABC 58
  4. 4 Movilidad Eléctrica 47
  5. 5 Marketing4eCommerce 46
  6. 6 Time Out 43
  7. 7 Autonomía Coches Eléctricos 29
  8. 8 El Español 25
  9. 9 Interempresas 24
  10. 10 El País 23

Perplexity

  1. 1 Elle 73
  2. 2 Cosmopolitan 44
  3. 3 El País 38
  4. 4 Harper’s Bazaar 35
  5. 5 Mundo Deportivo 33
  6. 6 Time Out 31
  7. 7 El Español 21
  8. 8 La Vanguardia 20
  9. 9 Más por Menos 19
  10. 10 Esquire 18

How much the big publishing groups weigh

Share of each engine’s press citations that goes to each group’s outlets.

Press citations by publishing group and engine

PRISA Media

ChatGPT 28.5%
Google AI Mode 4.1%
Google AI Overviews 2.8%
Perplexity 7.4%

Condé Nast

ChatGPT 16.4%
Google AI Mode 7.7%
Google AI Overviews 3.2%
Perplexity 1%

Hearst

ChatGPT 0.2%
Google AI Mode 0%
Google AI Overviews 0%
Perplexity 30.9%

PRISA Media: El País (with Cinco Días), Cadena SER, AS, El HuffPost and Los40. Condé Nast: Vogue, Glamour, GQ, Traveler, Vanity Fair, Wired and Allure. Hearst: Elle, Cosmopolitan, Harper’s Bazaar, Esquire, Men’s Health and Women’s Health. PRISA Media (March 2024) and Condé Nast (August 2024) signed content deals with OpenAI.

What kind of press each engine cites

Press citations by type of outlet

All engines

National news 36.3%, Business news 4.6%, Regional and local 3%, Specialist and lifestyle 48.5%, International 7.6%

ChatGPT

National news 42.9%, Business news 2.6%, Regional and local 1.4%, Specialist and lifestyle 44%, International 9.1%

Google AI Mode

National news 29.6%, Business news 7.6%, Regional and local 5.3%, Specialist and lifestyle 54%, International 3.5%

Google AI Overviews

National news 30.5%, Business news 8.2%, Regional and local 4.8%, Specialist and lifestyle 45.9%, International 10.7%

Perplexity

National news 29.4%, Business news 1%, Regional and local 2.4%, Specialist and lifestyle 62.8%, International 4.4%

Share of all citations that goes to news outlets, by the brand’s sector
Retail and ecommerce 7.7%
Legal, finance and insurance 5.4%
Technology, education and automotive 5.2%
Health, clinics and pharmacy 4.4%
Travel, events and leisure 3.4%
Industry, construction and B2B services 1.3%

What it means for your brand

Get into the outlets AI cites Check what AI cites on your topic

Is your outlet in the ranking?

Add this badge to your website with a link to the study. Copy the code and paste it where you want it to show.

How the study was done

The data comes from Mencoro, the AI brand tracking platform of the same group as Growwer. Mencoro asked the buyer questions that 42 brands track in Spain (what to buy, who to hire, where to go) to ChatGPT with web search, Google AI Mode, Google AI Overviews and Perplexity between 1 July and 30 September 2026, and stored every source each answer cited.

An outlet is “cited for a brand” when it shows up at least once in the answers to that brand’s questions. The ranking sorts by that count and then by citations, because one brand with many questions can pile hundreds of citations on an outlet in its niche. The brands’ own websites are left out, and so are the subdomains of outlets that are not editorial content (company directories, shops, courses or betting).

The 42 brands are in health, legal and finance, retail, industry, travel and leisure, technology, education and automotive, and are not disclosed. Their sectors shape the result: fashion brands push up Vogue and Glamour, industrial ones Interempresas. Outlets are grouped by domain, so elle.com includes its Spanish edition.

Frequently asked questions

  • El País, by far: 84.1% of the citations to El País in this study come from ChatGPT. Vogue, La Vanguardia, AS and Cadena SER follow. PRISA Media outlets add up to 28.5% of ChatGPT’s press citations.

  • No. AI Mode and AI Overviews mostly cite La Vanguardia, elEconomista and ABC, and hardly ever Cadena SER: 99.3% of the citations to SER come from ChatGPT.

  • By getting coverage in the outlets that engine already uses as a source for the questions in your niche. Check which sources AI cites for your topic with our AI visibility checker and see how we work on LLM SEO.

  • Yes, with a link to this page. You can download the full ranking as a CSV file, with the 125 outlets cited for three or more brands. If your outlet is in the ranking, there is a badge for your website below.