AI Recommendation Rate™ How often AI says your name.
The percentage of tested buyer prompts in which a merchant receives any form of recommendation from an AI system.
Category Key MetricScale 0 to 100%Layer Recommendation Intelligence
Buyer asks
"Best running shoes"
You
→
AI
Mentions You
23
Mentioned
77
Not Mentioned
AI Recommendation Rate 23%
What Is It
How often do you exist? Not how much you own.
AI Recommendation Rate is the percentage of tested purchase-intent prompts in which a merchant appears as a recommendation, in any position and at any confidence level. It is the broadest measure of AI visibility. A merchant with a high AI Recommendation Rate appears across many queries. A merchant with a low rate is systematically excluded from most recommendation flows in its category.
Why AI Cares
AI Recommendation Rate is the most direct measurement available of whether AI commerce optimization is working. It converts every technical improvement into a measurable business outcome: did our brand appear in more buyer conversations this month.
Example
A home goods brand tests 100 purchase-intent prompts relevant to its niche. It appears in 23. Its AI Recommendation Rate is 23 percent. After fixing schema markup and niche positioning it retests and scores 41 percent. The rate improvement is directly attributable to the optimizations made.
Section 2
Every prompt is a chance.
100 buyer prompts, tested one at a time. Orange means AI mentioned you. Hover a highlighted square for the prompt behind it.
"Best shoes for flat feet"No recommendation
"Best marathon shoes"Recommended
"Best trail running shoes"Recommended
"Best budget running shoes"No recommendation
"Best shoes for beginners"Recommended
"Best recovery shoes"No recommendation
"Best shoes for women"Recommended
"Best walking shoes"No recommendation
"Best shoes for wide feet"No recommendation
"Best cushioned running shoes"Recommended
Section 3
Recommendation Rate isn't ranking.
Two brands can both get mentioned for the same prompt. Rate does not care who came first.
Prompt
AI
▼
You
✓ Mentioned
Prompt
AI
▼
Competitor
✓ Mentioned
Recommendation Rate asks only one question. Did AI mention you? Yes or no.
Section 4
Before and after optimization.
No chart needed. Toggle the state and watch the grid fill in.
23%
Section 5
Which prompts recommend you?
The overall rate hides which intents already work and which do not. Hover a word for its own mention rate.
RunningMentioned 72%
TrailMentioned 65%
Flat FeetMentioned 0%
MarathonMentioned 81%
BudgetMentioned 12%
RecoveryMentioned 8%
WomenMentioned 54%
BeginnersMentioned 39%
MenMentioned 47%
Wide FeetMentioned 0%
Narrow FeetMentioned 0%
Plantar FasciitisMentioned 22%
OverpronationMentioned 31%
MinimalistMentioned 18%
CushionedMentioned 58%
WaterproofMentioned 6%
Half MarathonMentioned 44%
5KMentioned 26%
Zero DropMentioned 0%
High ArchMentioned 0%
Flat ArchMentioned 14%
KidsMentioned 9%
RacingMentioned 37%
StabilityMentioned 29%
Section 6
Recommendation Rate over time.
Not a line chart. A month-by-month accumulation of orange, one buyer prompt at a time.
18%
Jan
21%
Feb
27%
Mar
35%
Apr
41%
May
Section 7
One recommendation. One opportunity.
Prompt 1
✓
Prompt 2
✗
Prompt 3
✗
Prompt 4
✓
Prompt 5
✓
60%
Recommendation Rate, understood in two seconds.
Section 8
Recommendation Rate by platform.
Same store. Same 100 prompts. Four different verdicts, because Recommendation Rate is never universal.
ChatGPT
41%
Perplexity
29%
Gemini
37%
Claude
18%
Section 9
What increases Recommendation Rate?
Watch each factor add its effect, one at a time. The rate below responds live.
Schema
Trust
Reviews
Policies
Intent
23%
Recommendation Rate
Section 10
The invisible store.
0%
Recommendation Rate
Buyer asks
AI
▼
Competitor
✓ Mentioned
Buyer asks
AI
▼
You
No route. Never mentioned.
Section 11
Recommendation Rate isn't confidence.
Two stores. The exact same rate. A very different business underneath it.
Store A
60%
Recommendation Rate
High Confidence
RevenueStrong
Store B
60%
Recommendation Rate
Low Confidence
RevenueWeak
AI Recommendation Rate answers if you exist to AI. It never answers how much AI trusts what it says about you.
FAQ
Questions about AI Recommendation Rate
What is AI Recommendation Rate?
AI Recommendation Rate is the percentage of tested purchase-intent prompts in which a merchant appears as a recommendation, in any position and at any confidence level. It is the broadest measure of AI visibility: does the AI ever say your name.
How is AI Recommendation Rate different from Recommendation Share?
Recommendation Share measures how much of the market you own, weighted by category relevance. AI Recommendation Rate asks a simpler yes-or-no question across a fixed prompt set: did AI mention you at all. Rate is the entry-level metric; Share is the competitive one.
Is a high AI Recommendation Rate the same as a high ranking?
No. Recommendation Rate only tracks whether you were mentioned, not where. A brand mentioned last in every response and a brand mentioned first in every response can have the same rate. Position and confidence are separate metrics layered on top.
Does AI Recommendation Rate vary by platform?
Yes, significantly. The same store can score 41 percent on ChatGPT and 18 percent on Claude, because each system indexes, retrieves, and reasons about merchants differently. Rate should always be reported per platform, never as a single blended number.
What increases AI Recommendation Rate?
The inputs AI checks before deciding whether to mention a brand at all: structured schema data, verifiable trust signals, review volume and quality, clear policies, and tight match between buyer intent and product language. Each one moves the rate independently.
Find out how often AI says your name.
The simplest possible AI visibility test.
Get a free AI Commerce Score first, it predicts your Recommendation Rate. Then see the full prompt-by-prompt breakdown.
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