Mention rate: definition and formula
The share of AI answers that name your brand or store.
Definition
Failed calls are left out. We ask 8 shopping questions by default on ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, each up to 3 times on paid plans; even so, read one measurement as a point on a trend.
Formula
mention rate = answers that mention you ÷ successful answersExample
24 answers, 2 failed, you’re mentioned in 6: 6 ÷ 22 = 27%.
How to read it
A mention is your domain, subdomains included, or your brand name as a whole word, ignoring case and accents. Brand names come from your domain name, unless it is very short, and from the store name in your project.
The rate is computed overall and per engine, over successful answers. When an answer is a list, we also record where you first appear in it; the position doesn’t change the rate.
The Citation rate counts sources instead, and the Share of voice sets your mentions against the sellers named next to you.
What it does not tell you
- Tone: whether a mention is positive or negative isn’t measured.
- One stable number: answers change from run to run. When three runs are planned, each question goes to each engine twice, and a third time only where the first two disagree about mentioning you or one answer is missing; a short monthly budget can lower the number of runs, and the run records it.
- Much, from few answers: in the example above, one answer moves the rate by about 4.5 points.
- Meaning, for everyday words: a brand name that is also a common word can match answers that don’t mean your store; each stored answer can be checked.
- Anything in the free test: it doesn’t ask AI assistants at all.
What moves it
- The questions: the rate depends on them, so compare runs that used the same questions.
- What engines find on the web: we ask with web search on, and the sources stored with each answer show which sites they relied on for your questions.
- Your store name in the project: it is matched as a name besides the domain.
Related terms
AI visibility (paid plans): What we record when we ask AI answer engines shopping questions about your category.