Metrics

Recommendation Rate

Also known as: Recommendation Frequency

Recommendation rate is the percentage of tracked prompts where an AI answer actively recommends your brand, not merely names it. It sits above mention rate because it requires a positive, endorsing context. A brand can be mentioned in passing or as a runner-up without ever being the answer the assistant tells the reader to choose.

Recommendation rate measures how often AI answers actively tell the reader to choose you, across the prompts you track. It is a stricter bar than mention rate: appearing in the answer is not the same as being the answer. An assistant might list you as one of five options, or mention you only to note a limitation. Neither counts as a recommendation.

This gap is the whole reason the metric exists. A brand can rack up mentions while rarely being the one the model endorses, and that pattern is easy to miss if you only track presence. Recommendation rate exposes it. It blends prominence, where you land in the answer, with sentiment, how the answer frames you. When both are strong, you move from being listed to being chosen. The dynamic is unpacked in mentioned is not recommended.

Why it is the metric that maps to revenue

Recommendations are what actually redirect buyers. A high recommendation rate on buyer-intent prompts means the assistant is steering demand toward you at the moment of decision. To lift it, focus on the reputation signals models weigh when they pick a favorite, covered in how LLMs choose which brands to recommend.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between mention rate and recommendation rate?

Mention rate counts any appearance of your brand. Recommendation rate counts only the answers where you are actively endorsed as a good choice. Every recommendation is a mention, but most mentions are not recommendations.

How do you measure whether something is a recommendation?

It combines position and sentiment. A recommendation usually means the brand is named favorably and presented as a suggested option, often first or with an explicit endorsement, rather than listed neutrally among alternatives or noted with a caveat.

How do I raise my recommendation rate?

Improve the signals models trust: positive third-party reviews, clear category authority, and citations from respected sources. Assistants recommend the brand they can defend, so corroborated reputation moves the needle more than self-published claims.

See where you stand in AI answers

Rankry tracks how ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude and Grok mention and recommend your brand, then tells you what to fix.

Try Rankry
← Back to the glossary · Updated July 2, 2026