What is Share of Model?
Share of model is a metric that measures how often a brand is mentioned or cited by AI language models compared to its competitors — the AI equivalent of share of voice in traditional marketing.
Why It Matters
In traditional marketing, share of voice tells you how visible your brand is compared to competitors across advertising, media, and search. Share of model does the same thing for AI.
When someone asks ChatGPT "what's the best SEO audit tool?", the model generates an answer that mentions specific brands. If your competitor appears and you don't, they're winning a channel you can't see in Google Analytics. Share of model makes that visible — and measurable.
How It Works
Measuring share of model requires querying AI platforms with the same questions your target audience asks, then counting:
- Mention frequency — How often does each brand appear across a set of industry-relevant queries?
- Citation position — When mentioned, is the brand first, second, or buried at the end?
- Context quality — Is the brand mentioned positively, neutrally, or as a comparison?
- Platform coverage — Does the brand appear in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews — or just one?
The result is a percentage: "Brand X has 35% share of model for 'SEO automation' queries across ChatGPT and Perplexity." This gives you a concrete number to track over time and benchmark against competitors.
Common Mistakes
Measuring share of model once and treating it as static. LLMs update their knowledge regularly. A brand that appears today might not appear next month if a competitor publishes better content. Track it monthly, just like you'd track search rankings.
The other mistake is only checking one platform. ChatGPT might mention you while Perplexity doesn't. Each model has different training data and different retrieval mechanisms. A proper share of model measurement covers all major AI platforms.
How I Use This
Share of model is a core metric in my AI visibility assessment. I query ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and Gemini with your industry's key questions, then calculate your share versus competitors. The AI search optimisation service then works to increase it.
Related Services
How BrightIQ uses Share of Model
This concept is central to the following services:
Related Terms
AI Overview
AI Overviews are AI-generated summary answers displayed at the top of Google search results — synthesising information from multiple web sources to provide direct answers to queries, fundamentally changing how users interact with search and how websites earn traffic.
AI Visibility Assessment
An AI visibility assessment measures where and how often your brand appears in AI-powered search results — across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and Gemini — and identifies what to fix so you show up more.
Generative Engine Optimisation
Generative engine optimisation (GEO) is the practice of structuring your website content so that AI-powered search engines — like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews — cite your brand when answering questions in your industry.