The short answer
Citation rate is the share of tracked answers in which one of your pages is cited as a source. It measures whether your content is trusted enough to be used, apart from whether your brand is named.
Updated Oct 18 2026
Why Citation Rate matters
A brand can be named without a citation and cited without being named. The two numbers tell you different things.
How to measure or use it
Divide the answers that cite one of your pages by the answers tested, per assistant and per page.
How I handle it
Bing’s AI Performance report counts citations and cited pages across Copilot and Bing AI answers, and shows a sample of grounding queries. It is a count, not a rate, so I use it as a cross check on my own panel.
Related terms
- CitationsThe sources an AI answer names, links or relies on to support what it says.Read
- Answer ShareThe portion of tracked answers in which your brand appears as part of the response.Read
- Prompt TrackingRunning a fixed set of questions through AI assistants on a schedule and logging the answers.Read
Citation Rate questions
Is a cited page the same as a named brand?
No. An answer can use your page without saying your name, or say your name without linking to you.
Which pages usually get cited?
On my own site, Copilot cites comparison and how to pages most. Yours may differ, which is why I measure rather than assume.