Citation share

What it is

Citation share is the proportion of times a given domain or page is cited inside AI-generated answers across a tracked set of prompts. It captures how often a model reaches for your content as a source relative to all sources it cites.

Why it matters

It is the AI-era equivalent of share-of-voice and, in 2026, the metric most predictive of branded discovery, because being cited is what puts a brand in front of users who never see a traditional results page.

How it works

Practitioners run a fixed prompt panel across models, log every citation, and calculate the share each domain holds, then lift it by publishing source-grade content that models prefer to quote and attribute.

When it applies

Track it continuously for any category where buyers ask AI assistants for recommendations or comparisons.

Examples

• A SaaS vendor cited in 40 of 100 buyer-intent prompts holds a leading citation share in its category
• A publisher comparing its citation share against three rivals across the same prompt set each month
• A brand watching its share rise after a cluster of well structured comparison pages is indexed

How it is measured

• Citations of your domain divided by total citations across the prompt set
• Citation share per model (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity)
• Trend in citation share week over week
• Citation share for branded vs unbranded prompts