Counting how often AI names your brand feels like progress. But AI answers name your rivals too, and buyers only remember the brands that keep coming up. AI share of voice tells you how much of that attention is yours. This guide gives you the questions to ask, the formula, and a simple monthly tracker. You need a spreadsheet's worth of patience and about 45 minutes.
All numbers on this page are a worked example with made-up brands. The formula is the classic advertising share-of-voice formula, applied to AI answers.
Where to start
Ask 20 buying questions in 3 assistants
Share of voice is only as good as the questions behind it. Use the questions a real buyer types before choosing, not questions with your brand name in them (those always mention you and inflate the score). Ask each question once in ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity, in a fresh chat or logged-out window, and save every answer. Twenty questions in three assistants gives you 60 answers.
Good buying questions mix three kinds: best-of questions ("best running shoes for beginners"), comparison questions ("compare the top brands") and problem questions ("which shoes last the longest"). Add your location or budget when buyers would. Keep the list fixed once you start, because changing questions changes the score more than anything you do.
Buying question builder Example numbers
Runs in your browser. Nothing is sent anywhere. Describe your category and buyer, then copy the 20 questions.
Count each brand once per answer, then divide
Go through your answers and count, for each brand you track, how many answers name it. Count a brand once per answer, even if that answer repeats it three times. Then add up all the mentions. Your share of voice is your mentions ÷ all tracked brands' mentions × 100. All the shares add up to 100%. Your visibility is different: it's the share of answers that name you at all. Watch both. Visibility can stay flat while your share drops, because a rival is getting picked more often.
AI share of voice calculator Example numbers
Runs in your browser. Nothing is sent anywhere. Put your brand first. Leave a row empty to skip it.
Track it every month against your closest rival
One month is a snapshot. AI answers change from one run to the next, so with 60 answers your share can move a few points just by chance. What matters is the trend, and the gap to the rival you lose to most. Rerun the same 20 questions once a month, recalculate, and log the result here. Treat moves under about 5 points as noise until they repeat.
When your share drops, look at which rival gained and which pages the assistants cite for them: reviews, comparison articles, forums or their own product pages. That tells you where to show up next. When your share rises, write down what you changed that month, so you can do more of it.
Monthly share of voice tracker
Runs in your browser. Nothing is sent anywhere. Your log is saved on this device only.
What's the difference between visibility and share of voice?
Visibility is the share of answers that name you (18 of 60 answers = 30%). Share of voice is your share of all brand mentions (18 of 80 mentions = 22.5%). Share of voice moves when rivals gain or lose, even if your own visibility doesn't change.
What's a good share of voice?
Start with an even split: 100 divided by the number of brands you track. With 4 brands that's 25%. Above it, you're winning more than your share; below it, a rival is. Then compare against your closest rival and your own past months.
Why count a brand only once per answer?
Some answers repeat a name several times. Counting once per answer measures how often AI picks you, which is what a buyer sees, instead of how wordy one answer was.
How many questions do I need?
Twenty questions in three assistants (60 answers) is a workable start. Fewer answers means bigger random swings from month to month.
Method: share of voice = a brand's mentions ÷ all tracked brands' mentions × 100, counted once per answer. Example brands and numbers are made up. Written October 2026.