Unacademy takes ChatGPT off PhysicsWallah; the leader still owns Gemini and AI Mode at 78%.
Unacademy takes ChatGPT off PhysicsWallah; the leader still owns Gemini and AI Mode at 78%. After yesterday's clean PhysicsWallah sweep, the Test Prep arc splits engines on day two: Unacademy flips ChatGPT to 72% SoV (rank 2 → 1) on the back of a 20 → 32 cite jump for its own UPSC IAS goal page, while PhysicsWallah holds Gemini and AI Mode at 78% apiece and extends its combined lead to 72% (+4.7 pp). Unacademy itself adds 6.6 pp to reach 65.3% combined — the day's largest mover by brand. Adda247 slips 3.4 pp to rank 4 as Vedantu inches into third on tie-breaker mentions; BYJU'S is stuck at 18.7% with a now 28%/12% ChatGPT-vs-AI-Mode spread, still the widest single-brand gap in the vertical.
cite.solutions/state-of-ai-india/test-prep/reports/2026-05-20The Daily Fixing
3 engines · live
Timeline · 2 editions
Click any day to open that edition
Previously on The CITE Index
1 prior chapter
- 19 May
Edition #1 across all three engines combined
PhysicsWallah
108 mentions · rank 1 overall
72.0%
Share of voice today
Editor's note
20 May 2026 · 21:00 IST
Cite Solutions Research
Unacademy takes ChatGPT off PhysicsWallah; the leader still owns Gemini and AI Mode at 78%.
The move
After yesterday's clean PhysicsWallah sweep, the Test Prep arc splits engines on day two: Unacademy flips ChatGPT to 72% SoV (rank 2 → 1) on the back of a 20 → 32 cite jump for its own UPSC IAS goal page, while PhysicsWallah holds Gemini and AI Mode at 78% apiece and extends its combined lead to 72% (+4.7 pp).
Unacademy itself adds 6.6 pp to reach 65.3% combined — the day's largest mover by brand.
Adda247 slips 3.4 pp to rank 4 as Vedantu inches into third on tie-breaker mentions; BYJU'S is stuck at 18.7% with a now 28%/12% ChatGPT-vs-AI-Mode spread, still the widest single-brand gap in the vertical.
What it means
The ChatGPT flip is a citation-pool story, not a brand-momentum story: Unacademy is winning ChatGPT because aggregator pages academycheck.comimsindia.comtime4education.comfindmyinstitute.com and its own UPSC product URL all gained cites in parallel, while PhysicsWallah's ChatGPT gains concentrated in UPSC review aggregators visionias.inlegacyias.comdrishtiias.com.
Gemini and AI Mode reward the brand whose own domain (pw.live) and store listings dominate the citation pool; ChatGPT rewards the brand cited by third-party listicles.
For an AEO specialist working a test-prep brand, the lesson is engine-specific: chase domain authority and Play Store presence for Gemini/AI Mode, and chase placement in 'best UPSC/JEE coaching' listicles for ChatGPT.
BYJU'S remains exposed — heavy on cautious sentiment (11%) and absent from the AI Mode citation pool that the leaders own.
What moved this — the receipts
5 cited
Unacademy
Rank flip
ChatGPTUnacademy moves rank 2 → 1 on ChatGPT (72% SoV); its own UPSC goal page jumped 20 → 32 cites (+12), the single largest source delta of the day.
uUPSC Civil Services Examination IAS Preparation· unacademy.comPhysicsWallah
Growing citationAI Mode28 → 33 cites (+5) on AI Mode — the foundation of PhysicsWallah's 78% AI Mode hold.
pPhysicsWallah — UPSC Batches· pw.live- Growing citationChatGPT
9 → 13 cites (+4) on ChatGPT — kept PhysicsWallah at 60% on the engine it lost the top slot on.
vVisionIAS· visionias.in - BBYJU'SGrowing citationAI Mode
8 → 11 cites (+3) on AI Mode — rare AI Mode gain for BYJU'S, but not enough to close the 12% vs 28% engine gap.
vUPSC Online Coaching· vajiramandravi.com - Growing citationChatGPT
6 → 9 cites (+3) on ChatGPT — aggregator-driven lift supporting Unacademy's ChatGPT rank flip.
iIMS India· imsindia.com
The figures
9
Brands tracked
331
Total mentions
2 of 3
Engines in agreement on #1
234
Sources cited
Per-engine verdict
Full lineup
9 brands · 3 engines
MentionsSource pool
Hover for engine split
Sentiment composition
Cite this edition
CC BY 4.0 · Attribution terms →https://cite.solutions/state-of-ai-india/test-prep/reports/2026-05-20
Data licensed under CC BY 4.0. Reproduce, distribute, build on this data — including commercially — provided you credit Cite Solutions and link back to cite.solutions/state-of-ai-india.
The CITE Index · India · Test Prep Edtech · Edition 002
Data licensed under CC BY 4.0. Reproduce, distribute, build on it — with credit to Cite Solutions and a link to cite.solutions/state-of-ai-india.