Share of answer is the share of AI answers, for a fixed question set, in which your brand or a page you own appears — as a named mention, a cited URL, or both, depending on the rule you freeze. Share of voice usually counts citation or supporting-link slots across domains. Share of answer asks a slightly different question: of the answers that were actually shown, how often were you in the answer at all. Neither metric is clicks or revenue. Freeze the appearance rule in writing; blending 'mentioned' with 'cited' invents a third metric.
What do people mean by share of answer?
Teams use 'share of answer' for the fraction of AI answers that include you. The honest version names the appearance rule: cited with a URL, named without a link, or either. Those are different outcomes. A ghost citation (your URL, brand never named) is not the same as being recommended by name.
It is a natural thing to type because the unit the buyer sees is the answer, not a spreadsheet of domains. The risk is treating every appearance as a win. Named-only, cited-and-named, and cited-without-name should stay separate if you will act on the number.
There is no standards body behind the phrase. If a vendor will not show the rule, the percentage is not comparable to anyone else's.
How is that different from AI share of voice?
AI share of voice usually divides citation (or supporting-link) slots among the domains that appeared. If ten answers produce forty source links and four are yours, share of voice is 10% of those links. Share of answer would ask how many of the ten answers included you at all — which can be 40% even when your link share is 10%, or the reverse.
Use share of voice when you care about crowding: who else is filling the source list. Use share of answer when you care about presence: were you in the answer the buyer saw. Report both if you have the raw checks; do not average them.
The measurement how-to is the same spine as how to measure AI share of voice: freeze queries, query engines, label measured versus estimated, hold the method still. Only the numerator and denominator change.
- Share of voice: your slice of citation or supporting-link slots.
- Share of answer: your slice of answers that included you under a named rule.
- Mention without a URL is not a citation; keep those columns apart.
- Neither number is traffic.
How should you report it without spinning?
Write the appearance rule on the chart. 'Cited with URL' and 'named in the answer' can both be true on the same check; they still need two series if you will claim a brand win.
Engine mix matters. An answer on Perplexity with explicit sources is not the same observation as a ChatGPT paragraph with no links. If one engine does not expose sources, say so; do not fill the gap with a search proxy and call it share of answer.
Run a labelled scan when you want a snapshot. Treat it as directional for the set you typed, not as a census of every AI answer on the internet.
Frequently asked questions
Is share of answer a standard metric?+
No. It is practitioner language. Comparable numbers require a written appearance rule, a frozen query set, and named engines. Without those, two vendors can report different percentages for the same week.
Should I optimize for share of answer or share of voice?+
They answer different questions. Presence (were you in the answer) and crowding (how much of the source list is you) can move in opposite directions. Pick the one that matches the decision, or report both.
Does a higher share of answer mean more traffic?+
No. People can read an AI answer and never click. Measure referrals separately if you have analytics; do not infer them from this share.