HubSpot AEO

AI Search Sensor BETA

Your free dashboard for AI answer data & trends.

AI Search Sensor is a free dashboard that tracks how answer engines like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity cite brands, surface content, and send traffic — so you can benchmark your AEO performance and adapt your strategy.

AI-Referred Traffic Trends

See how much traffic answer engines are sending to websites.

AI-referred traffic is based on anonymized HubSpot customer data and modeled to show aggregated page visit trends from ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity each week. Actual results may differ by region and language. Weekly data runs Monday-Sunday; it can take a few hours for all traffic data to populate.

A traffic dip isn't always your fault. This chart helps you find out.

The numbers here show what's happening across the industry, not for your brand specifically. The way to get the most out of this chart is to compare it to your own traffic data — once you know what the industry is doing, you can figure out what it means for you:

  • Industry traffic is up, but you're flat or declining: You may be losing traffic share compared to your competitors. That's a signal to audit your AEO coverage, specifically looking at which engines are sending traffic, and whether your content is showing up in their answers. A good next step is to check the Citation Share Trends chart to see which content types are earning the most citations right now. Compare that against what you're actually publishing.
  • Industry traffic is down, and so are you: Likely a market-wide shift rather than a strategy problem. Check the Answer Engine Volatility Tracker to see if conditions changed that week. If they did, that context is probably your answer.
  • Industry traffic is down, but you're holding steady or growing: Your strategy is outperforming the market average. Take note of what you've been doing differently, because it's working.

Review each answer engine to see whether one is driving the traffic trend more than the others. Sometimes the picture looks very different depending on which platform you're looking at.

AI traffic is up for grabs.

AI Search Sensor won’t show your brand’s traffic, but HubSpot AEO can.

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AI Visibility Benchmarks by Industry

See how often brands in your industry are appearing in AI search results, and whether that’s changing over time. Get insights into a company’s
visibility score

visibility score

A score from 0-100% estimating how often a brand is mentioned in AI answers relative to other tracked competitor brands.
and
citation share

citation share

The estimate of how frequently a specific brand’s domain appears in AI-cited sources out of all citations analyzed. Expressed as a percentage from 0-100%
across multiple weeks.

Benchmarks reflect estimated trends from representative brands within each industry. Weekly data runs Monday-Sunday for ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity data; each week appears once complete. Visibility score and citation share each utilize a 0-100% range, with graphs autoscaling for easier readability.

Use the brands you recognize to calibrate what's realistic in your industry. 

 

The companies shown aren't necessarily competitors — they're familiar names chosen to give you a meaningful benchmark. When you select your industry, you're not watching a race. You're getting a baseline for what typical AI visibility looks like and how wide is the spread between brands.

 

In some industries, the top performers sit well above 70% visibility while others cluster around 30%. In others, the field is much tighter. Once you know the range, use it as a comparison point for your own brand. Pick a company in your industry that you'd consider a household name and note where they're sitting. If your own visibility score is tracking close to theirs, you're in the conversation. If you're well below them, you have a clear sense of how much ground there is to make up. And, if you're above them, that's a meaningful signal that your AEO strategy is working.

 

Toggle between Visibility Score and Citation Share to see both sides of the picture. A brand can be frequently named in AI answers without being cited as a source, meaning they have a strong, reputable presence across the web but a weaker content strategy. Inversely, if a brand is cited heavily without being named, they have a significant catalog of well structured content, but they need to improve their authority — or why someone should choose to buy their products & services.

How does your brand stack up?

See how you perform vs. your competitors with HubSpot AEO.

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Citation Share Trends

See how different content types and source channels appear in AI search results over time.

Weekly citation data is based on anonymized results from HubSpot customers and modeled to show citation share by content type or source type. Data is based on responses from ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity Monday-Sunday; each week appears once complete.

Watch for what's shifting, not just what's dominant.

 

Content Type:

This view shows which formats of content — blogs, comparison pages, documentation, guides, and others — are being cited most in AI-generated answers each week.

 

The content types holding the largest share tell you what AI engines are currently treating as authoritative. But another actionable signal is movement. A content type steadily growing its share week over week is one the engines have started favoring more recently — and a format potentially worth investing in if you're not already publishing it regularly. Equally, a content type that's shrinking is one losing favor, which may mean deprioritizing it isn't as risky as it once seemed.

 

When you see a significant shift, cross-reference it with the Volatility Tracker. A sudden change in the mix during an Elevated or Extreme week usually means the engine updated how it weights certain content. That shift is likely affecting everyone, not just you.

 

Channel:

This view shows which types of sources AI engines are pulling citations from — owned content (your website), earned media, review sites, affiliates, UGC, and others.

 

The most important thing this chart communicates is that AEO isn't just about what's on your website. AI engines pull from the entire web when deciding what to cite. In many cases, third-party sources like review sites, affiliates, and others carry significant weight in what gets surfaced.

 

If you look at this chart and see review sites or affiliates holding a large or growing share vs. owned, that's a signal that AI engines in your space are trusting what others say about brands more than what brands say about themselves. If your current strategy is focused entirely on your own content, this chart is telling you there's a meaningful piece of the picture you're not influencing.

 

On the flip side, if owned content is consistently strong in your industry, that's validation that investing in your own site — your blog, your product pages, your documentation — is the right place to focus.

 

Use this view to pressure-test where your effort is going. If the channels gaining share are ones you're not active in, that's the gap worth closing first.

  • Affiliate: Affiliate sites, where you can pay to have your content published

  • Competitor: Competitor domains, from the competitors set up during onboarding

  • Earned: Earned media, including news or PR

  • Owned: Your own domain

  • Peer: Peer sites are product/service companies that are not your direct competitors

  • Review sites: Third-party platforms where users rate and review products, such as G2, Capterra, and Trustpilot.

  • UGC: User Generated Content sites such as Youtube / Reddit

See who’s winning citations — and take more share.

Spot where you're gaining ground, losing it, and where to win it back.

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Answer Engine Volatility Tracker

Track how AI answer engines are changing brand visibility. Get a daily snapshot based on mention, citation, and AI-referred traffic data to understand whether visibility shifts are market-wide — or a sign that your own AEO strategy needs attention.

*Daily volatility based on mention rate, citation rate, citation type, and AI-referred traffic compared to rolling averages from ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity.

This data represents directional trends of how brand visibility changes within AI responses. Daily volatility scores may fluctuate slightly for three days from the current day.

 

Your weather report for AI engines.

When something looks off in your own AEO metrics, check here for what the market is experiencing. A spike in volatility means the engines have changed. How many links they show, how often they name brands, what sites or content they reference most, and how much traffic they send can all be shifting.

Use the score alongside your own data to diagnose what's actually happening:

  • Score is Elevated or Extreme, and your metrics dropped: Likely a market-wide shift. Focus on understanding what changed before making any adjustments to your strategy — reacting too quickly to engine-level changes often creates more disruption than the change itself.
  • Score is Calm, but your metrics dropped: This is worth investigating. The market is stable, which means the shift is more likely specific to your brand or content. That's the moment to look at your citation share and visibility data more closely.
  • Score is Elevated or Extreme, but your metrics are holding: Your content is weathering the shift better than average. Take note of what you've been doing, because it's working.

Don't just watch the trends, track your own.

See how AI volatility is affecting you. AI Search Sensor won’t show your brand’s visibility, but HubSpot AEO can.

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Resources

Latest AEO Resources

The best playbooks, data, and tools to help you show up in AI answers.

AEO Grader scores

AEO Grader

Get a snapshot of how answer engines represent your brand. AEO Grader scores your sentiment, recognition, and competitive standing in one quick report. 
Grade your brand
AEO Guide

AEO Guide

Your quick-start guide to understanding AEO. Learn how a brand gets discovered on answer engines and how to think about AEO vs. SEO.
Read the guide
The State of AEO Report

State of AEO

Dive into data about how marketers are adapting to AEO, what's getting cited, and the tactics driving results.
Read the report
Yamini AI video still

Yamini Rangan Unveils HubSpot AEO

Learn how HubSpot's internal playbook turned into a powerful AEO tool for marketers optimizing for AI visibility.
How to rank on answer engines guide

How to Rank on Answer Engines

Get a playbook for ranking in AI answers with five strategies to keep your brand visible in answer engines.
Read the guide
SEO in the Age of AI

Get Certified in AEO

HubSpot Academy's free AEO Fundamentals certification teaches you the strategy behind the data – content structure, keyword research, and AEO measurement.
Get certified for free

Frequently Asked Questions

AI Search Sensor is a free public dashboard that shows how answer engine behavior is shifting in real time. It monitors daily answer engine volatility, weekly AI-referred traffic, and weekly visibility and citation data per industry from ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity.  

Answer engines constantly change who they cite, what content they surface, and how often brands appear. AI Search Sensor shows if the shifts are widespread across the industry. Marketers can use this data to better understand AEO trends.

No, AI Search Sensor won’t show your brand’s visibility, but HubSpot AEO can.

AI Search Sensor estimates visibility patterns across tracked industries. To analyze visibility for a specific brand, marketers can set up tracking with HubSpot AEO, plus get recommendations for immediately improving their visibility.

 

Answer engine optimization (AEO) is the practice of improving how a brand appears in responses generated by answer engines. Instead of ranking webpages in search results, answer engines generate direct responses using information from multiple sources.

AI-Referred Traffic Trends

Methodology: The AI-Referred Traffic Trends chart showcases the aggregate of ChatGPT-, Gemini-, and Perplexity-referred traffic to HubSpot customers by week. The data set is comprised of anonymized HubSpot customer data.  

Context: This chart allows marketers to compare their own traffic performance to the wider industry. For example, when a marketer sees a traffic dip, their reflex is to audit their strategy. But, traffic declines aren’t always within marketers’ control – sometimes they’re a factor of an answer engine model change or AI usage behaviors shifting. 

AI Visibility Benchmarks by Industry

Methodology: The AI Visibility Benchmarks by Industry chart shows visibility and citation share of four representative companies within ten industries from ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity. The data that powers these calculations are estimates based on publicly available information – like a company’s top products, competitors, and assumed customer profiles.

Context: AI visibility and citation share for companies will vary by industry. This snapshot provides a benchmark for how companies typically perform within an industry.

Citation Share Trends

Methodology: The Citation Share Trends chart calculates what citations (or links) in AI answers look like and how they change on a weekly basis. Anonymized HubSpot customer data based on responses from ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity power this chart. This chart tracks citations by Content Type, or the type of URL answer engines link to. Sixteen Content Types are monitored including: product pages, listicles, blog posts, PR, and more. This chart also tracks Channel, or which kind of websites answer engines link to. Nine channels are monitored including: affiliate, peer, earned, review sites, and more. 

Context: The Content Type portion of this chart helps users understand if the content they’re publishing or have live on their site is relevant to AEO. For example, answer engines often cite product pages, listicles, blog posts, and guides. You should evaluate if these content types align with the content your company is actually producing. The Channel portion of this chart helps users understand if their marketing strategy is optimized for AI Search. If your goal is to grow your AI visibility, this chart outlines how you need to be focusing on off-site efforts like affiliate mentions, earned media, partnerships, and reviews on review sites, not just optimizations to your own website.

Answer Engine Volatility Tracker

Methodology: The Answer Engine Volatility Tracker chart calculates daily volatility in answer engine results based on mention rate, citation rate, citation type, and AI-referred traffic vs. rolling averages. The data set is comprised of anonymized HubSpot customer data and evaluates ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity. Daily volatility scores may fluctuate slightly for three days from the current day as final data rolls in.

Context: Model changes and behind the scenes updates from ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity will alter the contents of AI results. For example, with one model you may see a lot of links to businesses (also known as citations), but once a new model update rolls out, you may see only one or two links. Changes like this within answer engine results is what the Answer Engine Volatility Tracker monitors. 

The AI Search Sensor runs on a daily refresh cadence. A "Last Updated" timestamp on each chart indicates the most recent data pull. Refresh timing may differ per chart depending on answer engine volatility and upstream processing delays.

Each product helps you understand AI visibility at a different level:

  • AI Search Sensor (free) gives you a high-level view of the AEO landscape, tracking shifts in citation and mention frequency, trends in AI-referred traffic, and estimated benchmarks by industry to show how AI answers are changing over time. It’s designed to help you spot patterns in the landscape, not measure a specific business.
  • AEO Grader (free) gives you a scored snapshot of how ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini represent your brand today – covering sentiment, share of voice, brand recognition, and competitive positioning. It shows you how answer engines represent your brand and where your presence may need strengthening.
  • HubSpot AEO ($50/month) is an AEO tool that allows you to track how your brand shows up across answer engines, analyze competitors, and get prioritized, plain-language recommendations to increase your visibility.
  • AEO (included in Marketing Hub Pro and Enterprise) uses customer data to give you smarter recommendations from day one, tracks how your brand shows up across answer engines, compares you to competitors, and turns those insights into a prioritized list of actions you can take immediately using HubSpot’s marketing and content tools — all in one system.

Be found where search happens.

Discovery is happening in answer engines — is your brand the answer? Use HubSpot AEO to see how your brand shows up, where competitors are winning, and how to maximize your visibility.

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