# What is Cited?

> What Cited checks, what it gives you, and what it doesn't do.

Source: https://youcited.com/docs/getting-started/what-is-cited
Section: Getting Started
Last updated: 2026-10-29
All docs: https://youcited.com/docs/index.md

## The short version

When someone asks ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude "who's the best plumber near me?" or "which CRM should a small agency use?", the AI writes one answer that names a few businesses. Cited checks whether yours is one of them. If it isn't, Cited shows you who gets named instead and gives you the changes, as ready-made files, that make AI more likely to pick you.

Cited is built for small businesses and the people who help them. You can use it in the browser, or let your AI assistant run the whole thing for you.

## What Cited does

### 1. Checks what AI says about you

An audit asks AI assistants the questions your buyers ask. For each answer, Cited records:

- whether the answer **cites** your website (links to it as a source),
- whether you're **visible** at all (named, or among the pages the AI read),
- which sites the AI **cited instead of you**.

The free audit asks five questions on ChatGPT. A paid audit asks your questions to OpenAI, Gemini and Claude, two models from each, three times per question, and can add Google AI Mode and AI Overviews. See [Running an audit](/docs/feature-guides/running-an-audit).

### 2. Turns the answers into scores

Each AI model gets one 0-100 score, and the scores roll up into one per engine and one overall. The report shows the actual answers behind every number. See [Understanding your scores](/docs/getting-started/understanding-your-scores).

### 3. Checks that AI can reach your site

The site check looks at the basics AI needs: whether AI bots are allowed in by your robots.txt and firewall, whether you have llms.txt, a sitemap, structured data, an About page and so on. See [Site check](/docs/feature-guides/site-check).

### 4. Tells you what to change

After a paid audit, Cited writes recommendations for your own site, each labelled **proven** (our citation research shows it wins citations) or **best practice**. See [Recommendations](/docs/feature-guides/recommendations).

### 5. Gives you the fix files

For each recommendation, Cited can generate the files to fix it (llms.txt, schema markup, FAQ blocks, robots.txt rules, page outlines) plus one install guide for your site builder. When you mark a fix done, Cited checks your live site to verify it. See [Fixes](/docs/feature-guides/fixes).

## What Cited doesn't do

- It doesn't write your blog posts or marketing copy.
- It never changes your website itself. You (or your developer, or your AI agent) add the files.
- It isn't a marketing suite. There are no rank trackers, social dashboards or ad tools.

## Built for agents too

Everything in the web app also works from an AI assistant:

- **Free audit by prompt.** Paste a prompt from the homepage into Claude or ChatGPT. See [Free audit with your AI assistant](/docs/getting-started/free-audit).
- **Hosted MCP connector** at `https://mcp.youcited.com/mcp` for Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and other MCP clients. See [Connect your AI assistant](/docs/integration-guides/connect-your-ai-assistant).
- **The `cited` command-line tool.** See [Cited CLI](/docs/integration-guides/cited-cli).
- **Agent signup and buying.** An agent can create an account and buy an audit for you; you claim the account with a link and a code. See [Agent signup and buying](/docs/integration-guides/agent-signup-and-buying).

## Pricing in one paragraph

The first audit is free and needs no account. After that you pay as you go with credits: 1 credit is $1, and there's no subscription. See [Credits and pricing](/docs/getting-started/credits-and-pricing) or the [pricing page](/pricing) for current prices.