How we calculate AI visibility

Every metric on the Cited Index in plain English. Hover the column headers or the brand detail panel labels on the dashboard for the one-line definition; deeper explanations live below.

The Cited AI Visibility Score measures how frequently a brand appears in AI-generated answers to non-branded consumer-intent prompts across 5 major AI platforms: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Overviews, and Google AI Mode. Scores range from 0 to 100, where 100 means the brand is mentioned in every AI response across every platform. The score is calculated as a simple average of per-platform mention rates, with each AI platform weighted equally.

Brands are discovered from AI responses — not pre-selected — making the index a true reflection of which brands AI actually recommends. The Cited Index currently tracks 226+ brands across 10 categories in India.

Every brand is measured across 5 AI platforms, weighted equally:

Every prompt is written as a real consumer with no brand in mind — the way people actually type into ChatGPT. No brand names, no marketing jargon, no leading language.

We use 6 consumer-language prompt archetypes, each reflecting a different way real shoppers ask AI for help:

Quality control: Every prompt is tested against a banned vocabulary list (no marketing jargon like “D2C”, “premium segment”, “value proposition”) and scored for consumer authenticity — “would a real person actually type this?”

Minimum 20 prompts per category for statistical relevance.

Four steps:

1. Run all category prompts across 5 AI platforms
2. Parse every response — extract ALL brand entities mentioned (LLM-driven discovery)
3. For each brand, calculate mention rate per platform
4. AI Visibility Score = simple average across all platforms

Display threshold: A brand must have ≥5% mention rate on at least 2 platforms to appear in the index.

Sentiment is classified from how AI describes the brand. Positive means AI uses favourable language, mixed means a blend of pros and cons, and negative means AI flags concerns. Sentiment is aggregated across all mentions across all platforms.

Position measures where in the AI response a brand appears. #1 means it's the first brand mentioned. Lower is better. Position measures recommendation priority — being mentioned first carries significantly more weight than being listed fifth.

Framing tags are the specific words AI uses to describe a brand (e.g., “stylish”, “affordable”, “durable”). Shown for the top 3 brands per category on the free index; full breakdown available in the paid platform.

Monthly. Each edition runs all prompts fresh across all 5 AI platforms, discovers brands from the new responses, and recalculates all scores. New categories are added regularly. Month-over-month comparisons resume from July 2026 — June was a basis-change edition (4 → 5 platforms) so deltas are intentionally not shown for this edition.

Brands are discovered automatically from AI responses — not manually added or sponsored. Any brand meeting the display threshold (≥5% mention rate on at least 2 platforms) appears in the index.

If your brand doesn't appear, it means AI platforms aren't mentioning you in response to consumer prompts in your category. A GEO audit can help you understand why and how to improve your AI visibility.

The Cited AI Visibility Score does not measure:

• Purchase conversion or click-through rates
• Paid ad placements within AI responses
• Regional variations within India (national average only)
• Real-time changes (monthly snapshots only)

AI responses are non-deterministic — the same prompt can produce different responses across runs. This is why we use multiple runs and aggregate across prompts for confidence.

The index reflects consumer-intent prompts. Enterprise B2B prompts or highly technical searches may show different brand distributions.