Answer engine
An answer engine is an AI platform that replies to a question with a written answer, like ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google's AI Overviews.
An answer engine is an AI platform that replies to a question with a written answer instead of a list of links. ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Microsoft Copilot are answer engines. So are two parts of Google Search: AI Overviews and AI Mode.
The name comes from the difference with a search engine. A search engine points you to pages and lets you read them. An answer engine reads the pages for you and tells you what it found.
How an answer engine answers
Most answer engines search the web before they answer, at least for some questions. They read a handful of pages, combine what they found with what the model already knows, and write a reply. Many link to some of the pages they used, so you can check.
Each one decides for itself when to search, which pages to read and how many brands to name. That's why the same question can get quite different answers on each one.
The answer engines people use most
- ChatGPT, made by OpenAI
- Perplexity, which searches the web for every answer and numbers its sources
- Gemini, Google's assistant app
- Microsoft Copilot
- Google AI Overviews, the summary at the top of some Google results
- Google AI Mode, Google's conversational search
For example, ask "Which accounting software suits a freelancer?" on Perplexity and on Gemini, and you may get two different shortlists. One might cite a review site, the other a forum thread.
Answer engines in AnswerOrbit
We track all six of those, asking each one as a signed-out person in your prompt's market would. Every number can be split by platform. How we count shows what we keep from each.
What no tool like this can see is the answer inside someone's own signed-in account, or from an assistant that shows no sources.