Unsourced – AI Bot Monitor & AI Search Citation Tracker
See which AI assistants cite your site, who is really crawling it, and whether your fixes work, backed by verified evidence, not vanity scores.
Use with caution
Unsourced works, but test it on a staging site before relying on it in 2026. Is rated 1/5 and was last updated 2 months ago, and scores 43/100 on our health check.
- Momentum — downloads up 133.7% vs the previous 30 days
- Small user base (<10 active installs)
- Very few reviews so far
- Only tested up to WordPress 6.9 (latest is 7.1)
How does it stack up?
Side-by-side on installs, updates, ratings & support
Daily downloads
Download spikes usually follow a new release — each site that auto-updates counts as a download.
Rankings
Where Unsourced stands todayWordPress.org search rankings
Live position in the plugin search, top 100| Keyword | Position |
|---|---|
| AI | >100 |
| ai-crawler | >100 |
| citations | #45 |
| gptbot | #79 |
| seo | >100 |
Rating breakdown
★★★★★★★★★★ 1 from 1 reviews
About Unsourced
From the official readme · v1.4.4Description
AI assistants now answer the questions your readers used to type into Google, often using your content. Are they citing you, or sending people to a competitor? Unsourced is the WordPress plugin for Unsourced, the evidence layer for AI search, also known as GEO (generative engine optimization), AEO (answer engine optimization), or AI SEO.
Unsourced shows independent publishers and content creators which AI assistants cite them, who is really crawling their site, and whether their fixes actually move the needle, backed by verified evidence, not the inferred “AI visibility scores” most tools sell.
The AI companion to your SEO plugin. Yoast SEO and Rank Math optimize your pages for Google. Neither can tell you whether AI assistants like ChatGPT, Claude or Perplexity actually cite you. Unsourced adds the missing layer: your AI search visibility plus verified crawler evidence, running alongside the SEO plugin you already use.
Server-side bot detection: catches the bots that skip JavaScript
Most analytics tools are blind to AI crawlers because bots like GPTBot and ClaudeBot never execute JavaScript. This plugin runs inside WordPress at the PHP level, checks every request against 22 known AI bot signatures, and logs each visit to your Unsourced dashboard with zero impact on page load time. The server-side layer is what actually catches AI crawlers, and the plugin adds no JavaScript to your pages.
Bot Trust: verified, impostor, or unverifiable
Anyone can put “GPTBot” in a User-Agent string. Unsourced verifies each crawler’s true identity against the operator’s published IP ranges and forward-confirmed reverse DNS (FCrDNS), then sorts every visitor into Verified, Impostor, or Unverifiable, with honest, copy-paste block rules. You see who is genuinely OpenAI or Anthropic, and who is just wearing the badge.
AI citation monitoring: are they citing you or a competitor?
Beyond crawl detection, Unsourced runs weekly citation checks across 8 AI models, including ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, Perplexity and Bing / Copilot. It generates high-intent questions tailored to your actual content topics (the same kind of questions your audience types into AI assistants), then checks whether the AI cites your domain or sends users to a competitor instead.
Every check is logged: which AI platform, which prompt, whether you were cited, what context surrounded the mention, and which competitor domains appeared instead. You get a clear picture of your AI search presence across all 8 models Unsourced monitors.
Origin Signal: live crawl or training data?
When an AI assistant’s answer reproduces your wording, Unsourced checks whether a verified AI crawler (caught by this plugin’s server-side detection) actually fetched that page in the same window. If it did, the citation is backed by a live crawl rather than older training data. Each match is logged with a timestamp and the scan window it belongs to.
Combined with your bot-visit logs and citation results, that gives you a documented, timestamped record of live use of your content, a starting point for licensing conversations or escalation.
Measured lift: did your fix actually work?
When Unsourced flags a gap (a topic where AI recommends a competitor instead of you) and you act on it, you can mark it actioned. Unsourced then re-checks that exact topic about a week later and tells you whether your citations actually moved: measured evidence of a change, not a promise. No causation is overclaimed; you simply see the before and after.
What you see in your dashboard:
- Which AI bots visited, which pages, and how often, and which are Verified, Impostor, or Unverifiable
- Your citation rate across all 8 AI models: ChatGPT, ChatGPT (web search), Claude, Gemini (grounded search), Grok, Meta Llama, Perplexity and Bing / Copilot
- Which competitor domains are cited instead of you, and for which topics
- Whether each citation came from a live crawl of your page or from older training data
- Whether a fix you actioned produced measured lift on its topic
- Weekly AI Visibility Audit and Evidence Report PDFs, generated from your live data
Detected bots (22 signatures):
* GPTBot, ChatGPT-User & OAI-SearchBot (OpenAI)
* ClaudeBot & anthropic-ai (Anthropic)
* PerplexityBot & Perplexity-User
* CCBot (Common Crawl)
* Google-Extended, GoogleOther, Google-CloudVertexBot
* Bytespider (ByteDance / TikTok)
* cohere-ai, Diffbot, Amazonbot, YouBot
* Meta-ExternalAgent
* Applebot-Extended
* omgilibot, PetalBot, Timpibot, BrightBot
External Services
This plugin sends data to Unsourced (https://unsourced.app), an external service that logs and displays AI bot activity and citation intelligence for your site. A connection to this service is required for the plugin to function.
What data is transmitted:
- Your site URL
- The URL of the page being visited by the bot
- The detected bot name and raw User-Agent string
- The visitor IP address
When data is sent:
Only when a valid Unsourced API key has been configured in the plugin settings. Bot event reporting fires only when a request matches a known AI bot signature, sending the details above. The plugin also contacts Unsourced when you connect and verify your account, sending your site URL and API key. Human visitors are not affected by bot reporting.
Service links:
- Website: https://unsourced.app
- Terms of Service: https://unsourced.app/terms
- Privacy Policy: https://unsourced.app/privacy
Installation
From the WordPress Plugin Directory (recommended):
- In your WordPress admin, go to Plugins → Add New
- Search for “Unsourced AI Bot Monitor”
- Click Install Now, then Activate
- Go to Settings → Unsourced
- Click Connect to Unsourced → to open unsourced.app in a new tab
- Sign in or start your free trial, and the plugin connects automatically, no copy-pasting needed
- Return to WordPress admin and you’ll see the green “Plugin connected” confirmation
Already have an API key? Expand the “Already have an API key?” section and paste it directly.
From a ZIP file:
- Download the ZIP from unsourced.app or the Plugin Directory
- Go to Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin
- Upload the ZIP, activate, and follow steps 4–7 above
Frequently asked questions
Will this help my site show up in ChatGPT and AI search?
Unsourced is a measurement and evidence tool, not a magic ranking switch. It shows you exactly which AI assistants already cite you, which ones crawl your site, and which send readers to competitors instead, then re-checks whether the changes you make actually move your citations. That evidence is what lets you improve your presence in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Claude and other AI answers deliberately, instead of guessing. It does not pay for placement or guarantee a citation, and it is honest about that.
What is GEO / AEO / AI SEO?
They are emerging names for the same shift: optimising so AI assistants cite your content when they answer questions, the way SEO optimises for Google’s results pages. GEO stands for generative engine optimization, AEO for answer engine optimization, and “AI SEO” is the catch-all. Unsourced is the evidence layer for all three: instead of selling you an inferred “visibility score”, it shows verified crawler activity, real citation results across 8 AI models, and measured before-and-after when you act on a gap.
Does this slow down my site?
No. The server-side bot check is a lightweight PHP hook that adds negligible overhead, and the report to Unsourced is a non-blocking background request, so your page renders immediately without waiting for it. The plugin adds no JavaScript to your pages.
Does this block AI bots?
No. Unsourced is a monitoring and intelligence tool, not a firewall. Bots are recorded and reported but served normally. Use your robots.txt or a WAF if you want to restrict access.
What is citation monitoring and how does it work?
Citation monitoring is the core intelligence feature of the Unsourced platform. Once your site is verified, Unsourced runs weekly checks across 8 AI models (ChatGPT, ChatGPT web search, Claude, Gemini grounded search, Grok, Meta Llama, Perplexity, and Bing / Copilot). It generates a set of high-intent questions based on your actual content topics (the same kind of queries your readers type into AI assistants) and checks whether the AI cites your domain in its response. Every result is logged, including uncited responses (so you can see who the AI recommended instead of you).
What is an Origin Signal?
It is how Unsourced tells a live crawl apart from training data. When an AI assistant’s answer reproduces your wording, Unsourced checks whether a verified AI crawler (caught by this plugin’s server-side detection) fetched that page in the same window. If it did, the citation is backed by a live crawl rather than older training data, and that is logged with a timestamp. The plugin injects no code into your pages to do this.
Does the plugin inject JavaScript into my pages?
No. The plugin detects AI crawlers entirely server-side, in PHP, which is exactly what catches bots that do not run JavaScript. It adds no JavaScript or beacon to your pages, so there is nothing extra to load. If you also want to capture human visits, Unsourced offers a separate optional beacon snippet you can add yourself; it is not part of this plugin.
Do I need a paid Unsourced plan?
No. Unsourced offers a free 10-day trial with full access to bot detection, citation monitoring, and report generation. After the trial, an Indie (£39/mo), Studio (£89/mo) or Agency (£199/mo) subscription is required to continue.
My site is on WordPress.com, will this work?
WordPress.com managed hosting does not support third-party plugins. This plugin is for self-hosted WordPress (WordPress.org sites). If you cannot install plugins, you can still add the Unsourced JS beacon manually via your theme or a custom code block.
Can I use the plugin without an Unsourced account?
No. The plugin requires a valid Unsourced API key to record events. Without it, the plugin loads but does not send any data.
Changelog
Adds server-side AI-referral capture: see when a real visitor arrives from an AI assistant that cited you. Privacy-preserving and only fires on AI referrers. Recommended for all users.
1.4.4
- Added: AI-referral capture. When a real visitor arrives from an AI assistant (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, Copilot and more), the plugin now records that an AI answer cited your site and drove a real click. It runs fully server-side, reports only which assistant sent the visitor and the landing page (no visitor IP or browser details), and fires only when the referrer is a known AI assistant, so ordinary traffic is untouched.
1.4.3
- Fixed: the plugin’s saved “site matched” status was being wiped on every save, so the “verify your site” notice could never clear even after your site was verified. It now persists correctly and clears as soon as your site matches.
- The connected screen now shows “finishing setup” instead of “monitoring active” until your site is actually matched, with a one-click Re-check button to confirm.
- Removed mentions of a JS beacon / canary being injected into your pages. The plugin detects AI crawlers fully server-side and never needed JavaScript; no script is added to your site.
1.4.2
- Fixed: the “verify your site” banner could persist after a site was already verified. The plugin now re-checks verification status with Unsourced on connect and when the settings page loads, so the banner clears as soon as your site is matched.
- Clearer connected state: if your WordPress address doesn’t match a verified site on your account yet, the settings page now says so plainly instead of showing “monitoring active”.
- Copy: makes clear that on WordPress the plugin alone covers bot monitoring — no Cloudflare worker needed.
1.4.1
- Added two AI crawler signatures: OAI-SearchBot (OpenAI’s search crawler) and Perplexity-User (Perplexity’s on-demand fetch). The plugin now detects 22 AI bot signatures.
- Listing refreshed to reflect the full platform: server-side AI bot detection plus AI search citation tracking.
1.4.0
- One-click connect flow: click Connect in the plugin settings to open Unsourced in a new tab; the plugin detects your sign-in automatically and saves your API key with no copy-pasting
- Dashboard preview: connected settings page now shows a live preview of your Unsourced dashboard with a direct link
- Persistent admin notice: banner appears across all admin screens until the plugin is connected, so setup is never forgotten
- Tested up to WordPress 6.9
1.3.0
- Origin Signal upgrade: canary token is now fetched live from the Unsourced API and cached locally for 5 minutes via WordPress transients. Token rotates per scan so the Unsourced dashboard can confirm a citation came from a live crawl during the active scan window, not just from training data.
Screenshots
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FAQ
Unsourced: quick answers
Straight answers, pulled from live WordPress.org data.
Live data from WordPress.org · checked Oct 5, 2026
Is Unsourced free?
Yes. Unsourced is free to download and use from the official WordPress.org plugin directory.
Is Unsourced safe to use in 2026?
Unsourced works, but test it on a staging site before relying on it in 2026. Is rated 1/5 and was last updated 2 months ago, and scores 43/100 on our health check.
How many websites use Unsourced?
Unsourced is active on <10 WordPress websites and has been downloaded 1,490 times since it launched in May 2026. It was downloaded 666 times in the last 30 days.
Does Unsourced work with WordPress 7.1?
Unsourced is officially tested up to WordPress 6.9.9, while the latest release is 7.1.2. It may still work, but try it on a staging site first.
What PHP version does Unsourced need?
Unsourced requires PHP 7.4 or higher. Most hosts run PHP 8.x today, so it works on any modern WordPress hosting.
When was Unsourced last updated?
The latest version, 1.4.4, was released on August 3, 2026 (2 months ago).
Who makes Unsourced?
Unsourced is developed and maintained by unsourcedapp.
What are the best alternatives to Unsourced?
The most popular alternatives to Unsourced are Elementor Website Builder (10M+ installs), All in One SEO (2M+ installs) and AI Agent by SiteGround (1M+ installs).
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