<p>This study examines whether journal articles with preprints are cited more rapidly than those without preprints. We construct a matched sample of articles published in the same journal, year, volume, and issue to ensure comparability between articles with and without preprints. Survival analysis is employed to estimate the temporal advantage of articles with preprints in receiving the first citation relative to those without preprints, while OLS regression quantifies this advantage in terms of days. The key findings are as follows: (1) articles with preprints have a 35.2% higher hazard of receiving their first citation than those without preprints; (2) among articles that received at least one citation during the observation period, articles with preprints were associated with a 69.042-day shorter time to first citation than comparable articles without preprints; (3) both early visibility and the additional dissemination channels of preprint platforms are associated with a shorter time to first citation, with early visibility showing a relatively stronger association. Notably, these estimates reflect conditional associations rather than causal effects, given the observational design.</p>