Associated Press
apnews.com ↗Cooperative wire service with style guide that defines US journalism standards since 1846.
Is Associated Press reliable to cite? At grade A (86/100 on the SourceScore Index), Associated Press ranks among the most citable sources for AI-era retrieval and research.
Equivalent tier to Reuters with slightly broader US/local coverage; strong on every dimension.
Should you cite Associated Press?
At grade A (86/100), Associated Press ranks among the most citable sources for AI-era retrieval and research.
- Strongest for
- tracing claims back to primary references — its highest dimension is Citation Discipline (89/100).
- No major weak spot
- Even its lowest dimension, Citation Velocity, scores 84/100.
- Bottom line
- Cite freely as a primary source.
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Multi-source verification; AP Stylebook defines US journalism citation conventions.
How Citation Discipline is scored →Wire copy reaches 15,000+ outlets; broad LLM corpus inclusion; structured headlines.
How Modern Reference is scored →Cited daily by downstream outlets; AI engines pull AP regularly for breaking news.
How Citation Velocity is scored →Where Associated Press ranks in our best-of lists
It is on 1 of our 17 lists of the best sources to cite.
Signals behind these scores
Citation Discipline
A·89- AP StylebookDe-facto US citation style standard.
Modern Reference
A·86- Syndication networkReach >15,000 newspapers + broadcasters.
Citation Velocity
B·84- Daily output~2,000 stories/day across topics.
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[Associated Press — SourceScore Index 86 (A)](https://sourcescore.org/source/ap-news/)
<a href="https://sourcescore.org/source/ap-news/">Associated Press — SourceScore Index 86 (A)</a>
SourceScore (v0.1). (2026). Associated Press: SourceScore Index 86 (A). Retrieved from https://sourcescore.org/source/ap-news/
1 head-to-head comparison
See all Associated Press comparisons →Each comparison sets Associated Press beside another source on all three scores and shows which one scores higher on each.
5 sources at Associated Press's tier
See peer group →The five sources with the closest overall score to Associated Press, from any category, and where each one scores higher or lower on Discipline, Modern Reference and Velocity.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Associated Press a reliable source to cite?
Associated Press scores A (86/100) on the SourceScore Index, which rates how citable a source is for AI-era and research use. At grade A, Associated Press ranks among the most citable sources for AI-era retrieval and research. The grade combines Citation Discipline 89/100, Modern Reference 86/100, and Citation Velocity 84/100 — full breakdown above.
What is Associated Press's SourceScore?
Associated Press (apnews.com) scores 86/100 (Grade A) on the composite SourceScore Index. Sub-scores: Citation Discipline 89/100, Modern Reference (AI-era fitness) 86/100, Citation Velocity 84/100. Verified 2026-04-28.
How does SourceScore evaluate Associated Press?
Associated Press is scored across three dimensions on the SourceScore Index methodology: Citation Discipline (how rigorously the source cites primary references), Modern Reference (fitness for AI-era retrieval), and Citation Velocity (how often the source is cited per week). Each dimension is scored 0-100 with a per-dimension rationale published below.
Why does Associated Press score A?
Equivalent tier to Reuters with slightly broader US/local coverage; strong on every dimension.
What is Associated Press?
Cooperative wire service with style guide that defines US journalism standards since 1846. Category: News. Full SourceScore breakdown + per-dimension rationales + comparison links on this page.