What Is an AI Citation (AI Mention)?
An AI citation, also called an AI mention, is when a tool like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, or Perplexity names your brand, product, or website while answering someone's question. Some models also add a clickable source link, similar to a footnote, though many mentions happen with no link at all.
Cited versus mentioned
The two terms get used loosely, but there is a small difference worth knowing. A mention is any time your brand name shows up in the answer text. A citation usually implies the model also credited a specific source, often with a link. Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews tend to show visible citations. ChatGPT often mentions brands by name with no link attached at all, which makes it harder to track just by watching your referral traffic.
Why mentions without links still matter
Even an uncited mention can influence a decision. If someone asks an AI model to compare three tools and it recommends yours by name, that recommendation carries weight regardless of whether it came with a clickable link. This is part of why AI mention tracking has to involve actually running the questions and reading the answers, not just watching analytics for AI referral traffic.
How to see your own AI mentions
Since most mentions do not show up in your website analytics, the only reliable way to see them is to ask the models the questions your customers would ask and read what comes back. QueryTrace runs this as a free check for any domain.
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