> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.get3rd.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Metrics at a glance

> Every 3RD metric explained in one place: what Visibility, Rank, Position, Sentiment, and Citation Share mean, how they are calculated, and how to act.

3RD measures your brand's presence in AI answers with five core metrics. Each one answers a different question, and together they tell the whole story: are you in the conversation, is AI learning from your pages, how are you described, where do you land in the answer, and how do you stack up against competitors.

## The five core metrics

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Visibility" icon="eye" href="/metrics/visibility">
    **Are you mentioned?** The share of AI answers that name your brand — your headline number.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Citation Share" icon="link" href="/metrics/citation-share">
    **Are you cited?** How often AI answers cite your own pages as sources — visibility you directly control.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Sentiment" icon="face-smile" href="/metrics/sentiment">
    **How are you described?** Whether AI portrays your brand positively, neutrally, or negatively.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Position" icon="list-ol" href="/metrics/position">
    **Where do you appear?** Where your mentions land inside the answer compared to your competitors — number 1 often means you're the model's preferred choice.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Rank" icon="trophy" href="/metrics/rank">
    **How do you compare?** Your standing against tracked competitors by visibility, expressed as "X of Y."
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## Quick reference

| Metric             | Answers                       | Calculation                                                                                                      |
| ------------------ | ----------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Visibility**     | Am I in the answer?           | (responses mentioning your brand ÷ total responses) × 100                                                        |
| **Citation Share** | Is AI learning from my pages? | (citations to your owned pages ÷ total citations) × 100                                                          |
| **Sentiment**      | How am I framed?              | Each mention classified as positive, neutral, or negative — shown as the split across responses that mention you |
| **Position**       | Where in this answer?         | Your place among competitors within the answer's list (or order of first mention) — lower is better              |
| **Rank**           | Where overall?                | All tracked brands sorted by visibility score; your place is your rank ("2 of 5")                                |

<Note>
  **Position vs. Rank** — the distinction people mix up most. They're two different comparisons against your competitors:

  * **Rank** is built on the *visibility score* — it measures **how often** you're mentioned compared to your competitors, across everything you track.
  * **Position** measures **where in the answer** you're mentioned compared to your competitors.

  You can be mentioned often (a strong rank) but consistently show up as the 3rd or 4th option (a weak position). Being number 1 in the answer often means you're the AI model's preferred choice.
</Note>

## Supporting measures

Beyond the core five, you'll see these throughout the platform:

| Term               | What it is                                                                                                                                                                                                               |
| ------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| **Mention**        | A detected occurrence of your brand in an AI response — robust to spelling variations, possessives, and suffixes, with an AI fallback for ambiguous cases.                                                               |
| **Volume**         | A 0–5 indicator of how commercially significant a question is likely to be — how many people are likely to ask something similar. Use it to weigh which prompts deserve attention first.                                 |
| **Prompt type**    | Each prompt's commercial value tier: **Must-Win** (direct commercial impact — where market share shifts), **Core** (shapes preferences and shortlists), **Foundational** (builds AI understanding and category clarity). |
| **Prompt targets** | Recommended visibility targets per tier: Must-Win 75%, Core 50%, Foundational 35%.                                                                                                                                       |

## Every metric is filterable

Every number in 3RD can be sliced by **model** (ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, and more), **market** (a geography + language pairing), **topic**, and **audience**. The same brand can be at 70% visibility for branded prompts and 8% for unbranded "best X" prompts — always check which filter you're looking at before drawing conclusions.

<Tip>
  For the full vocabulary — brands, prompts, topics, markets, audiences, runs, and more — see the [Glossary](/reference/glossary).
</Tip>