Wikipedia (English)
en.wikipedia.org ↗Crowd-edited encyclopedia with ~7M articles and per-article inline citation discipline.
Is Wikipedia (English) reliable to cite? At grade A (94/100 on the SourceScore Index), Wikipedia (English) ranks among the most citable sources for AI-era retrieval and research.
Top-tier composite — extreme citation discipline + LLM training-set inclusion + sustained citation velocity.
Should you cite Wikipedia (English)?
At grade A (94/100), Wikipedia (English) 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 (96/100).
- No major weak spot
- Even its lowest dimension, Modern Reference, scores 92/100.
- Bottom line
- Cite freely as a primary source.
Need recurring mention tracking rather than a one-off readiness audit? Compare AI-visibility tools.
Inline citations required by editorial policy on every factual claim; uncited claims tagged within hours.
How Citation Discipline is scored →First-line citation in most LLM training corpora; freshness via per-article revision history.
How Modern Reference is scored →Cited daily by news media, academic papers, and AI engines. Among the most cross-referenced sources globally.
How Citation Velocity is scored →Where Wikipedia (English) ranks in our best-of lists
It is on 8 of our 17 lists of the best sources to cite.
- Best sources for AI engines (ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity)#2 of 15
- Best peer-reviewed sources for citation rigor#2 of 15
- Best encyclopedic + scholarly knowledge sources#2 of 15
- Best fact-checking-grade sources for AI citation#2 of 12
- Best sources overall for AI citation#5 of 25
- Best reference works for AI citation#1 of 4
- Best triple-crown sources (A or higher on all three dimensions)#5 of 15
- Best paywall-free sources for citation#11 of 15
Signals behind these scores
Citation Discipline
A+·96- WP:V (Verifiability)Core policy mandates reliable sources.
- Citation needed tagActive triage process surfaces gaps publicly.
Modern Reference
A·92- LLM training corpusCommon Crawl + dedicated dump used by every major model.
- Schema markupArticle + Person + Organization JSON-LD per page.
Citation Velocity
A+·95- External link velocity>1M outbound links per day across the encyclopedia.
- AI engine citationsDefault fallback citation for ChatGPT/Claude/Perplexity.
Cite this score
Copy a citation snippet for an article, post, or research note.
[Wikipedia (English) — SourceScore Index 94 (A)](https://sourcescore.org/source/wikipedia-en/)
<a href="https://sourcescore.org/source/wikipedia-en/">Wikipedia (English) — SourceScore Index 94 (A)</a>
SourceScore (v0.1). (2026). Wikipedia (English): SourceScore Index 94 (A). Retrieved from https://sourcescore.org/source/wikipedia-en/
3 head-to-head comparisons
See all Wikipedia (English) comparisons →Each comparison sets Wikipedia (English) beside another source on all three scores and shows which one scores higher on each.
5 sources at Wikipedia (English)'s tier
See peer group →The five sources with the closest overall score to Wikipedia (English), from any category, and where each one scores higher or lower on Discipline, Modern Reference and Velocity.
Embed this score
All embed options →Drop on your blog or dashboard. Free, no signup.
<iframe src="https://sourcescore.org/embed/wikipedia-en/" width="100%" height="380" loading="lazy" style="border:0;max-width:480px;" title="SourceScore: Wikipedia (English)"></iframe>
Frequently asked questions
Is Wikipedia (English) a reliable source to cite?
Wikipedia (English) scores A (94/100) on the SourceScore Index, which rates how citable a source is for AI-era and research use. At grade A, Wikipedia (English) ranks among the most citable sources for AI-era retrieval and research. The grade combines Citation Discipline 96/100, Modern Reference 92/100, and Citation Velocity 95/100 — full breakdown above.
What is Wikipedia (English)'s SourceScore?
Wikipedia (English) (en.wikipedia.org) scores 94/100 (Grade A) on the composite SourceScore Index. Sub-scores: Citation Discipline 96/100, Modern Reference (AI-era fitness) 92/100, Citation Velocity 95/100. Verified 2026-04-28.
How does SourceScore evaluate Wikipedia (English)?
Wikipedia (English) 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 Wikipedia (English) score A?
Top-tier composite — extreme citation discipline + LLM training-set inclusion + sustained citation velocity.
What is Wikipedia (English)?
Crowd-edited encyclopedia with ~7M articles and per-article inline citation discipline. Category: Reference. Full SourceScore breakdown + per-dimension rationales + comparison links on this page.