Methodology
How MentionAudit measures AI-search visibility.
We run the same buyer-intent prompts across the major AI-search engines, keep the raw evidence, and score whether your brand was cited, merely mentioned, or skipped. That is the whole system.
What we test
MentionAudit runs a fixed set of buyer-intent prompts across 6 answer engines. Every answer engine gets the same question set, region, and prompt version so the results are comparable.
- ChatGPT OpenAI
- Claude Anthropic
- Gemini Google
- Perplexity Perplexity AI
- Grok xAI
- Copilot Microsoft
Where supported, we also capture Google AI Overviews and Google AI Mode as Google search-result signals. Those 2 signals are not answer engines; together with the 6 answer engines, they make the 8 AI-search surfaces described across the product.
What we store
We store the raw answer, exposed source URLs, model identifier, timestamp, region, and prompt version. We do not retry until an answer looks flattering; the first usable response to each request is the response we score.
Free samples and Pro audits ask each answer engine once per question. The paid diagnostic asks each question three times on every answer engine and reports how many of the 3 runs named you, because engines rarely answer the same way twice. Every answered run counts.
How we score
The score answers one buyer question: did the engine recommend your brand, cite it as a source, only mention it, or skip it?
- Citations count more than mentions because attribution is the durable visibility signal.
- Engines that skip the brand count as misses instead of disappearing from the average.
- Recommendations must trace back to captured answer text or source evidence.
What we do not cover
These are scope boundaries, not hidden fine print. We publish them so the score is clear about what it measures.
- Personalized or logged-in answer paths, including custom memories and private GPTs.
- Competitor-side crawler traffic unless the customer owns the measured property.
- Engines outside the current covered set, such as You.com and Brave Search.
- Minute-by-minute answer drift after the audit snapshot has been captured.
Request removal from public proof material
If your brand appears in public MentionAudit proof material and you want it removed, submit the form below. We respond within 5 business days and remove the brand from internal observational benchmarks within 30 calendar days.
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