# A Survey of Large Language Models on Generative Graph Analytics: Query, Learning, and Applications

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.14809 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.14809/

## Key facts

- Cited by 17 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 124 of its 202 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 23 Apr 2024.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 124)

- [GPT-4 Technical Report](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.08774/) (2023)
- [Training language models to follow instructions with human feedback](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.02155/) (2022)
- [Proximal Policy Optimization Algorithms](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1707.06347/) (2017)
- [LoRA: Low-Rank Adaptation of Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.09685/) (2021)
- [LLaMA: Open and Efficient Foundation Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.13971/) (2023)
- [Llama 2: Open Foundation and Fine-Tuned Chat Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.09288/) (2023)
- [Chain-of-Thought Prompting Elicits Reasoning in Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.11903/) (2022)
- [Semi-Supervised Classification with Graph Convolutional Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1609.02907/) (2016)
- [Training Verifiers to Solve Math Word Problems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.14168/) (2021)
- [Graph Attention Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1710.10903/) (2017)
- [Direct Preference Optimization: Your Language Model is Secretly a Reward Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.18290/) (2023)
- [Visual Instruction Tuning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.08485/) (2023)
- [Inductive Representation Learning on Large Graphs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.02216/) (2017)
- [Self-Consistency Improves Chain of Thought Reasoning in Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.11171/) (2022)
- [Toolformer: Language Models Can Teach Themselves to Use Tools](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.04761/) (2023)
- [Finetuned Language Models Are Zero-Shot Learners](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2109.01652/) (2021)
- [Neural Message Passing for Quantum Chemistry](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1704.01212/) (2017)
- [A Comprehensive Survey on Graph Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1901.00596/) (2019)
- [A Survey of Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.18223/) (2023)
- [Pre-train, Prompt, and Predict: A Systematic Survey of Prompting Methods in Natural Language Processing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.13586/) (2021)
- [Open Graph Benchmark: Datasets for Machine Learning on Graphs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.00687/) (2020)
- [Graph Neural Networks: A Review of Methods and Applications](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.08434/) (2018)
- [Is Your Code Generated by ChatGPT Really Correct? Rigorous Evaluation of Large Language Models for Code Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.01210/) (2023)
- [Gorilla: Large Language Model Connected with Massive APIs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.15334/) (2023)
- [MoleculeNet: A Benchmark for Molecular Machine Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1703.00564/) (2017)
- [Pitfalls of Graph Neural Network Evaluation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1811.05868/) (2018)
- [Graph of Thoughts: Solving Elaborate Problems with Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.09687/) (2023)
- [Are NLP Models really able to Solve Simple Math Word Problems?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.07191/) (2021)
- [Instruction Tuning with GPT-4](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.03277/) (2023)
- [RAFT: Reward rAnked FineTuning for Generative Foundation Model Alignment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.06767/) (2023)

## Built on by (most cited first, 17 of 17)

- [A Survey of Context Engineering for Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.13334/) (2025)
- [Unified Parameter-Efficient Unlearning for LLMs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.00383/) (2024)
- [GraphInsight: Unlocking Insights in Large Language Models for Graph Structure Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.03258/) (2024)
- [GraphOTTER: Evolving LLM-based Graph Reasoning for Complex Table Question Answering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.01230/) (2024)
- [LLM/Agent-as-Data-Analyst: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.23988/) (2025)
- [CausalAbstain: Enhancing Multilingual LLMs with Causal Reasoning for Trustworthy Abstention](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.00519/) (2025)
- [An Automatic Graph Construction Framework based on Large Language Models for Recommendation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.18241/) (2024)
- [On the Wings of Imagination: Conflicting Script-based Multi-role Framework for Humor Caption Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.06423/) (2026)
- [Path-LLM: A Shortest-Path-based LLM Learning for Unified Graph Representation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.05456/) (2024)
- [Large Language Models as Interpolated and Extrapolated Event Predictors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.10492/) (2024)
- [From PDFs to Structured Data: Utilizing LLM Analysis in Sports Database Management](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.17619/) (2024)
- [GeoGR^2:Zero-Shot Geospatial Inference via Geostatistically-Guided Iterative Refinement with LLMs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.04080/) (2025)
- [Multilevel Analysis of Cryptocurrency News using RAG Approach with Fine-Tuned Mistral Large Language Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.03527/) (2025)
- [GraphSeek: Next-Generation Graph Analytics with LLMs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.11052/) (2026)
- [Performance Evaluation of LLMs in Automated RDF Knowledge Graph Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.29878/) (2026)
- [LLMs+Graphs: Toward Graph-Native, Synergistic AI Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.11560/) (2026)
- [Structurally Speaking: Motif-Oriented Graph Captioning through Bidirectional Graph-Text Translation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.10923/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

A graph is a fundamental data model to represent various entities and their complex relationships in society and nature, such as social networks, transportation networks, and financial networks. Recently, large language models (LLMs) have showcased a strong generalization ability to handle various natural language processing tasks to answer users' arbitrary questions and generate specific-domain content. Compared with graph learning models, LLMs enjoy superior advantages in addressing the challenges of generalizing graph tasks by eliminating the need for training graph learning models and reducing the cost of manual annotation. However, LLMs are sequential models for textual data, but graphs are non-sequential topological data. It is challenging to adapt LLMs to tackle graph analytics tasks. In this survey, we conduct a comprehensive investigation of existing LLM studies on graph data, which summarizes the relevant graph analytics tasks solved by advanced LLM models and points out the existing challenges and future directions. Specifically, we study the key problems of LLM-based generative graph analytics (LLM-GGA) in terms of three categories: LLM-based graph query processing (LLM-GQP), LLM-based graph inference and learning (LLM-GIL), and graph-LLM-based applications. LLM-GQP focuses on an integration of graph analytics techniques and LLM prompts, including graph understanding and knowledge graphs and LLMs, while LLM-GIL focuses on learning and reasoning over graphs, including graph learning, graph-formed reasoning, and graph representation. We summarize the useful prompts incorporated into LLM to handle different graph downstream tasks. Moreover, we give a summary of LLM model evaluation, benchmark datasets/tasks, and a deep pro and cons analysis of the discussed LLM-GGA models. We also explore open problems and future directions in the research area of LLMs and graph analytics.