Updated 2026-07-06
What is share of voice in AI search?
Share of voice (SOV) in AI search is the percentage of AI answers, across a defined prompt set, in which your brand appears relative to competitors. If ChatGPT answers 100 monitored prompts and names your brand in 18 while naming any tracked brand in 60, your share of voice is 30% (18 of 60 brand appearances).
Definition and formula
Share of voice measures competitive presence, not just your own visibility:
SOV = your brand's appearances ÷ total appearances of all tracked brands, over the same prompts and period.
The denominator is what makes it useful. Your mention rate can rise while your SOV falls — if competitors are rising faster. SOV catches that; a solo metric doesn't.
How SOV differs from mention rate and citation rate
- Brand-mention rate — the share of answers naming you. Yours alone; no competitive context.
- Citation rate — the share of answers linking your domain as a source.
- Share of voice — your slice of all competitor appearances. The zero-sum, market-share view.
Reading SOV correctly
SOV is prompt-set-relative: it describes the prompts you monitor, not the whole internet. That's a feature — a well-chosen prompt set represents the deals you actually compete for. Compare SOV per platform (engines disagree more than most teams expect) and per topic cluster to see exactly where competitors own the conversation.
- SOV = your appearances ÷ all tracked-brand appearances, on a fixed prompt set.
- A rising mention rate can hide a falling SOV when competitors grow faster.
- SOV differs by platform — measure each engine separately before averaging.
- PilotCite computes SOV from stored answers, so every number traces to real answer text.
Related reading
AI visibility for the umbrella concept; competitor analysis for how PilotCite tracks who fills the answers you don't.