Measuring AI visibility: how to see whether ChatGPT and Google's AI name you

In short: AI visibility is the share of relevant AI answers in which your company is named or linked. You measure it with four sources: Google Search Console shows impressions in AI Overviews and AI Mode, Bing Webmaster Tools shows citations in Copilot, your analytics shows visits from chatgpt.com or perplexity.ai, and regular prompt tests show who ChatGPT recommends for your customers' questions. No single source is complete. Together they show a trend you can act on.

Business owners ask us “Where do we rank in ChatGPT?” There is no answer to that, because there is no fixed list. This article shows what you can measure instead and how to do it in an hour a month.

Why does AI visibility work differently from rankings?

Google shows ten links in a fairly stable order. An AI writes a new answer every time. SparkToro and Gumshoe.ai had 600 volunteers run 12 prompts through ChatGPT, Claude and Google's AI features 2,961 times at the end of 2025. The chance of getting the same list of brands twice was under 1 in 100. The same list in the same order was under 1 in 1,000.

How often a brand appeared at all was much more stable. That is why the metric is a share: in how many of 50 answers to “web design agency Vienna” are you named? This figure can be measured, compared and improved.

What does Google Search Console show about AI Overviews and AI Mode?

Google announced its generative AI performance reports on 3 June 2026 and rolled them out to all websites worldwide on 31 August 2026. They show:

• Impressions in AI Overviews, AI Mode and the AI features in Discover.
• Breakdown by page, country and date, for Search also by device.
• Not included: clicks, click-through rate, position and search queries. Clicks from AI features stay in the normal web totals and cannot be separated.

Google shows the report only once a site has enough AI impressions. If it is missing, that is a finding in itself. In its May 2026 guide to generative AI features, Google names this report as the place to measure performance.

What does Bing Webmaster Tools show?

Since February 2026 Bing Webmaster Tools has an AI Performance report. It counts how often your pages are cited in Microsoft Copilot, Bing's AI summaries and partner integrations, and which queries led to the citation. Clicks are not shown here either. Bing is small in Austria, but the report is free, and it is the only one that shows the questions behind AI citations.

How do you see visits from ChatGPT in your analytics?

When someone clicks a link in an AI answer, the visit usually arrives with the AI service as referrer: chatgpt.com, perplexity.ai, gemini.google.com, copilot.microsoft.com or claude.ai.

These numbers are a lower limit. Apps often send no referrer, and the visit appears as direct traffic. ChatGPT has appended utm_source=chatgpt.com to links since mid-2025; reports from October 2026 suggest the parameter is currently missing at times. Clicks from Google AI Overviews look like normal organic visits.

How do you run a meaningful prompt test?

The prompt test is the most important measurement, because it shows the decision itself: who the AI recommends. Done properly:

1. Collect questions: 10 to 20 questions your customers really ask, such as “Which web design agency in Vienna builds websites for doctors?” Mix general, local and comparison questions.
2. Fix the conditions: always the same tools (at least ChatGPT with search and Google AI Mode), location Austria, logged out or in a fresh chat without memory.
3. Repeat: run each question at least three to five times, because answers vary.
4. Record: named yes or no, linked yes or no, which competitors, which sources the AI cites.
5. Calculate the share: named in 12 of 60 answers = 20 % visibility. Compare month by month.

The sources the AI cites are the most useful part. They show which directories, lists and articles you should appear in. Our free GEO report takes the first test off your hands: it asks ChatGPT with web search from Austria and shows whether you are named and who is recommended instead.

Which tools measure AI visibility?

A tool pays off from around 50 tracked questions or when you compare several competitors. Below that, a spreadsheet and an hour a month will do.

What does a monthly routine look like?

The last row is underrated. Ask every new enquiry how they found you. “ChatGPT recommended you” is the clearest result there is.

Written byChristoph SpeiserProject lead & sales

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