Citation Rate
Citation Rate is the percentage of buyer-intent queries in which an AI search engine cites a given domain in its answer, calculated per engine or aggregated across engines.
Citation Rate is the percentage of buyer-intent queries in which an AI search engine cites a given domain in its answer, calculated per engine or aggregated across engines. It is the most basic AI visibility metric — does the model surface your brand at all when asked a relevant question?
The math is simple: cited queries divided by total queries × 100. If a 25-query buyer simulation against ChatGPT yields 8 answers that cite your domain, your ChatGPT citation rate is 32%. Aggregating across 5 engines and 25 queries gives 125 model-query pairs; total citations divided by that gives an overall citation rate.
Citation Rate is distinct from Share of Voice. Citation Rate ignores competitors — it only asks "were you cited?". Share of Voice divides your citations by all citations across named brands, so it captures relative position. A brand can have 80% Citation Rate but 10% Share of Voice if competitors get cited more often per query than they do.
For most reporting, both metrics are useful: Citation Rate tracks absolute AI presence over time; Share of Voice tracks competitive position. AEOlens reports both per simulation, per engine, with deltas to the previous run.
Frequently asked
What is a good Citation Rate score?
Category-leading enterprise brands tend to land at 50–80% across the major engines for branded queries and 25–45% for unbranded category queries. Mid-market SaaS often sees 15–35%. Anything under 10% is a sign the structural fundamentals (schema, robots, llms.txt, direct-answer content) need attention.
Should I track Citation Rate or Share of Voice?
Both. Citation Rate is your absolute AI presence ("are we showing up?"); Share of Voice is your competitive position ("who's winning the queries we care about?"). One can move while the other holds steady — and the divergence is informative.
See how AI engines read your own site
Run a free AEO audit on any URL — 48 structural checks, score in under 60 seconds, no signup.
Run a free audit