What is AI Citation?

An AI citation is a source an AI engine references when generating an answer — typically a link or attributed domain shown alongside, or embedded within, the response. Citations reveal which pages an engine trusted enough to draw from, which makes them one of the most actionable signals in AI visibility: they show you exactly where to focus content and outreach.

Citations are classified relative to a tracked brand: self (your own domain), a competitor's, or other — third-party sites like review platforms, forums, news outlets, or documentation that show up as trusted sources for a category even though they don't compete directly. The other bucket is often the most valuable to study, since those are the sites shaping the answer that a brand doesn't control and can't simply out-rank.

Because citation behavior varies a lot by engine — some cite heavily on nearly every answer, others rarely attach sources at all — citation rate is normally tracked per engine and read alongside mention rate rather than as a single blended number.