Attribufi

Benchmark · Q1 2026

The AI Visibility Benchmark, Q1 2026

How B2B brands actually show up in ChatGPT, Claude, and Google AI answers — based on real Grader runs.

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Sample
312 B2B domains, ~4,900 prompt runs
Engines
ChatGPT · Claude · Google AI
Published
2026-07-08

TL;DR

What we found.

  • The median B2B brand appears in fewer than 1 in 5 relevant AI answers on any given engine.
  • Claude cites the widest source diversity; ChatGPT concentrates citations on 8-12 dominant domains per category.
  • Week-over-week mention volatility is 20-35% — a single answer template change can move a brand's share of voice by double digits.
  • Brands running structured category and comparison pages appear in 2-3x more citations than brands relying on blog posts alone.

Methodology

How the data was collected.

  1. 01Sample: 312 B2B domains across SaaS, professional services, agencies, and DTC-adjacent categories that ran the Attribufi Grader between January and March 2026.
  2. 02Each domain contributes 10-20 buyer-intent prompts scored across ChatGPT, Claude, and Google AI.
  3. 03A 'mention' is any explicit brand-name reference in the answer body; a 'citation' is a linked source in the answer's references or inline attributions.
  4. 04All metrics are reported as observed ranges rather than single-point estimates — this is a naturalistic Grader sample, not a controlled panel.

Findings

Mention and citation rates by engine.

Observed ranges across the sample. Bars show low-high range as a percent of relevant AI answers.

ChatGPT

Mention 10-22% · Citation 8-18%

Mention rate

Citation share

Claude

Mention 14-28% · Citation 12-26%

Mention rate

Citation share

Google AI

Mention 8-20% · Citation 10-22%

Mention rate

Citation share

Findings

What stood out.

Most B2B brands are not in the answer

Median mention rate across engines was 12-18% for B2B brands in their own category, with the top decile clearing 55%. The gap is dominated by whether the brand owns dedicated category and comparison pages that mirror the prompts buyers use.

Claude is the most citation-diverse engine

Claude cited 3-4x more unique domains per category than ChatGPT on the same prompts. ChatGPT tends to cluster on a small set of 'answer-shaped' sources — G2, Reddit, category leader blogs.

Google AI leans on domain authority

Google AI overwhelmingly cited domains that also rank in the top 3 organic SERP positions. Winning Google AI is largely a downstream effect of classical SEO plus schema and structured answers.

Structured comparison content outperforms blog content 2-3x

Domains with dedicated /compare or /vs pages appeared in 2-3x more citations for competitive-intent prompts than domains relying on blog posts. Pages with clear feature tables and FAQ schema were disproportionately cited.

Volatility is real and directional

Week-over-week mention volatility ranged 20-35% for the median brand and up to 60% for brands in categories with rapidly changing SERPs. Weekly monitoring is table stakes; monthly is already stale.

Categories

Where the differences show up.

B2B SaaS · DevTools

Category leaders held 30-45% share of voice; challenger brands broke in via detailed comparison pages and Reddit-cited threads.

Marketing analytics

Fragmented — no single brand held more than 20% share. Structured buyer's guides and G2-adjacent pages drove most citations.

Professional services

Answers heavily biased toward directories and review sites. Firm websites accounted for less than 15% of citations.

Agencies

Agencies with published case studies were cited 2-4x more than those without. Named case studies were the single strongest signal.

Volatility

Weekly, not monthly.

Volatility is measured as the average absolute week-over-week change in a domain's mention count across its tracked prompts. Categories with rapidly changing product landscapes or news cycles saw the highest swings.

Implications

What this means for revenue teams.

  • Audit the 10-20 prompts that matter most for your ICP — not a broad keyword list. AI answers cluster on buyer-intent phrasing.
  • Ship structured comparison and category pages. Blog content alone underperforms in AI citations.
  • Treat AI visibility as a weekly workflow, not a monthly report. Volatility is high enough that monthly numbers are already stale.
  • Tie AI-referral sessions to CRM opportunities. Share of voice is only useful if you can trace it to pipeline.

Try it

See where your brand lands in this benchmark.

Run the free Grader across ChatGPT, Claude, and Google AI on your own prompts. The scoring uses the same methodology described in this report.

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A downloadable PDF of this report is coming soon. In the meantime, contact us for the raw category tables.