When Perplexity cites a source, some citations carry a small shield icon. The icon marks a domain that Perplexity’s source review process has rated, and it comes with one of three labels: Government, Academic, or Trusted. Select or hover over a source to see its label and a short explanation of why the domain received it. Labels help you see at a glance what kind of source you are reading.
How Perplexity labels sources
Perplexity rates the whole website a source comes from, not each individual page. The source review process decides whether a site should carry a label by checking objective questions, such as:
Does the site correct its mistakes?
Does it say who wrote each piece?
Does it keep news separate from advertising and opinion?
Sites that clearly meet these tests receive a label. Labels are set by the source review process alone. Perplexity’s partnerships, payments, and other business arrangements do not affect a site’s label.
Most domains on the web do not have a label. No label does not mean a site is low quality, and it is not a negative judgment. It means the domain has not been rated yet, or there is not yet a clear rating for it. A label is also not an endorsement of what a site publishes.
The three labels
Rated sources fall into one of three categories:
Government — the official website of a government organization. This label helps with legal questions, financial matters, government services, and similar topics. Examples:
nasa.gov(NASA missions, space and Earth science, aeronautics research, and official data and education resources from the U.S. civil space agency) andepa.gov(U.S. federal environmental regulation, science-based pollution control guidance, and agency data and program information).Academic — scientific sites. This label helps with medicine, biology, physics, mathematics, and similar topics. Examples:
science.org(peer-reviewed scientific research, news, and careers information published by AAAS’s Science journals) andjournals.plos.org(open-access peer-reviewed scientific and medical journal articles from the nonprofit publisher PLOS).Trusted — a broad category for sites that appear often enough in results to receive a label and that publish information within their own area of expertise. Examples:
reuters.com(international news wire covering global business, politics, and world events) andmayoclinic.org(patient health information published by the Mayo Clinic).
Figure 1 — The Government label on a nasa.gov citation, with a one-sentence description of what the site publishes.
Figure 2 — The Academic label on a science.org citation.
Figure 3 — The Trusted label on a reuters.com citation, shown in the sources panel of an answer.
Reading a label
Select or hover over a source in an answer to open its details. The panel shows the source’s label along with a one-sentence description of what the site is known for — for example, “nasa.gov is a government source for NASA missions, space and Earth science, aeronautics, official data, news, and education.” That context helps you judge the source at a glance.
Each source panel also includes Rate this source, which you can use to send feedback about that domain.
What labels do not tell you
A label describes the website as a whole, not any single article or claim on it. It is not an opinion about the site’s views. A label can change as sites are reviewed again. And a label is never a substitute for reading the source yourself.
Good to know
Labels reflect the type or category of an overall website, not the accuracy of any single article or claim on it.
A label does not mean Perplexity agrees with a site’s views, and the absence of a label is not a judgment that a source is low quality.
Labels can change over time as sites are reassessed.
Perplexity aims for accuracy, but reviewing the original sources yourself remains the best way to build confidence in an answer.
For website owners
Do you own or work for a website? Contact us via Help > Contact Support with any questions about source labels.
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