Learn · Measurement
What is answer share (AI share of voice)?
By Cloute · Published October 1, 2026
The short answer
Answer share is the percentage of relevant AI answers that name your business: answers naming you, divided by all answers to the questions you are measured on. AI share of voice is a related measure: your mentions as a share of all business mentions in those answers. On a first measurement, the businesses in Cloute's data had an answer share of 30%, across 18,613 answers.
How do you calculate answer share?
- Choose the questions customers actually ask about your kind of business and your area.
- Ask each question on each engine, from the places customers ask from, several times.
- Read every answer and mark whether it names your business.
- Answer share = answers that name you ÷ all answers, as a percentage.
Worked example: if 200 answers are collected and 60 name the business, its answer share is 30%. If 25 of those 60 name it first, its first-pick rate is 25 ÷ 60, about 42% of its mentions.
How is it different from AI share of voice?
| Measure | Formula | What it answers |
|---|---|---|
| Answer share | Answers naming you ÷ all answers | How often is a customer who asks told about you? |
| AI share of voice | Your mentions ÷ all business mentions in the same answers | How much of the conversation do you hold against everyone named? |
| First-pick rate | Answers naming you first ÷ answers naming you | When you are named, are you the recommendation? |
| Versus strongest rival | Your mentions ÷ your top competitor's mentions on the same answers | Are you ahead of the business customers compare you with? |
Share of voice depends on how many businesses each engine lists. An engine that names five businesses per answer spreads share of voice thinner than one that names two, even if it names you every time. Answer share does not have that problem, which is why it is the better headline number.
What are the common pitfalls?
- Too few answers. AI answers vary between runs, so a small sample can swing widely by chance.
- Mixing question sets. If the questions change, the answer share changes, even if nothing else did.
- Averaging engines together. A strong engine can hide a weak one. Report each engine separately as well as combined.
- Counting a broken engine. If an engine returned nothing for a period, its recovery looks like growth.
- Questions that name the business. Asking about you by name inflates the number; ask the way customers ask.
- Ignoring location. Local answers change with where the question is asked from.
What is a good answer share?
It depends on the market and how many strong rivals there are, which is why the strongest rival is the better reference. In Cloute's data, businesses on a first measurement were named in 30% of answers, and 70% of answers named a competitor or nobody. On their latest measurement, the businesses Cloute works with were named 36% more often than their strongest local rival, and 49% of their mentions were the first recommendation.
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Is answer share the same as AI share of voice?
Not quite. Answer share is the share of answers that name you. Share of voice is your share of all business mentions in those answers, so it also depends on how many businesses each answer lists.
How many answers do I need to measure answer share?
Enough that repeating the measurement gives a similar number. Because answers vary from run to run, each question should be asked several times on each engine.
Should answer share be measured per engine?
Yes. Customers use different engines, and a business can be named often on one and rarely on another. A combined number alone hides that.
About Cloute. Cloute is an AI visibility company for local businesses. It measures how often ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews recommend a business against its local competitors, and works every month to move it to the top.