Mention Rate: Definition, Calculation, and Limitations

Mention rate measures, within a fixed question set, the share of questions whose AI answer names the brand or the person. A name appearance counts whether or not a link is present, so mention rate is usually higher than citation rate.

Definition and calculation standard

The denominator is the total number of questions included in the statistics, and the numerator is the number of questions where the target name appears at least once. Multiple appearances within one question still count once in the numerator.

Collection and judgment

1. Define the name scope. Write brand names, aliases, person names, and organization names into a list to avoid missed or duplicate counts.
2. Separate names from ambiguous matches. Do not count unrelated subjects with the same name, and note them in the record.
3. Mark sentiment direction. Use three levels, positive, neutral, and negative, for observation only; do not merge them into the numerator.
4. Record the name spelling. When the spelling differs from the entity page, count it separately under the wording accuracy rate.
5. Review aliases regularly. New aliases must be added to the list to prevent standard drift.

Data sources and record fields

Records come from the question log, with fields including question number, model, time, mentioned or not, link present or not, sentiment direction, name spelling, and screenshot path.

Only when the same questions and the same period are shared with the citation rate can combined analysis be done. This site's question set is 30 questions, calculated per model across 6 models and then aggregated; results from different models are never simply added together.

Limitations and misreadings

• A mention is not endorsement. Being mentioned may come with negative evaluation, so read it together with sentiment direction.
• Generative answers are stochastic; a single result cannot represent the state, so repeat the same question and record the count.
• When aliases and abbreviations are not fully covered, mention rate is underestimated.
• Mention rate cannot reflect position; appearing at the end and appearing in the conclusion paragraph mean different things.

Relationship to other metrics

Subtracting citation rate from mention rate approximates the portion that is only mentioned without a link, which helps judge whether clickable sources need strengthening.

Whether the wording is accurate is measured separately by the wording accuracy rate; the two must not be merged.

Related sections: metric index, method index, glossary index, research index, checklist index.