GEO Basics
What is an 'answer engine'?
Updated January 12, 2026GEO Expert Team
Summary
An answer engine is a system that tries to return the answer directly (often with citations), rather than a list of links. This includes AI assistants and AI-powered search features like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews.
Detailed Answer
An answer engine is a system that tries to return the answer directly (often with citations), rather than a list of links. This includes AI assistants and AI-powered search features.
Examples of answer engines:
- ChatGPT with web search
- Perplexity AI
- Google AI Overviews
- Microsoft Copilot
- Claude with web access
Key characteristics:
- Generate natural language responses
- Often cite sources (varying levels of attribution)
- May not require user to click through
- Use retrieval-augmented generation (RAG)
definitionanswer-engines