Glossary

Citation rate / visibility rate

Citation rate is the share of your tracked queries on which an AI engine actually cites your domain — a single percentage that summarizes how present you are in AI answers.

Updated May 2026Definition
The short answer

Citation rate (also called visibility rate) is the share of your tracked queries on which an AI engine cites your domain. You divide the number of queries where you are cited by the total number of queries you monitor, then express it as a percentage. It is a single, trackable number that captures how often AI answers actually point to you — the AI-search equivalent of a keyword coverage metric, but for citations inside generated answers.

What does citation rate mean?

Citation rate answers a simple question: of all the queries you care about, on what share does AI actually cite you? It converts a scattered set of wins and misses into one percentage you can watch over time and compare across engines.

How is it different from share of voice?

Citation rate measures your own coverage across your tracked queries. Share of voice measures your slice relative to competitors on the same queries. Citation rate can rise even if competitors also gain; share of voice is zero-sum.

Example

Say you track a query bank of 40 buyer questions and an engine cites your domain on 10 of them. Your citation rate is 10 of 40, or 25%. Want to find your real number? Run a free Domain Check to see which queries already cite you.

Frequently asked questions

How is citation rate calculated?
Citation rate = queries where you are cited divided by total tracked queries. If you track a fixed set of buyer questions, it tells you what fraction of them point to you.
Does it count mentions or only citations?
Citation rate counts queries where you are linked as a source. A parallel mention rate would count queries where you are only named. See mention vs citation.