"Am I doing well or badly?" It's the first question everyone asks after they start tracking AI visibility. And it's almost impossible to answer without benchmarks.
If ChatGPT mentions you in 3 out of 20 tracked prompts, is that good? Terrible? Industry average? Without context, the number is meaningless. You're staring at a dashboard with no idea whether to celebrate or panic.
We've pulled together benchmarks across industries so you can actually contextualize your numbers. These are based on aggregated data from relevant prompts across ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, and Grok.
The overall picture
Across all industries and business sizes, the average AI visibility rate for a brand on relevant relevant prompts is around 12 to 15%. That means if you track 20 prompts where your business could reasonably be recommended, you'd typically appear in 2 to 3 of them.
That might sound low. It is. Most businesses are invisible on most prompts, even prompts where they'd be a legitimate recommendation. The bar for "good" isn't as high as you'd think, because most of your competitors aren't doing much better.
SaaS and software
SaaS is the most competitive vertical for AI visibility. There are more players, more comparison content, and more data for AI to draw from.
Average: 10-15% visibility rate. Being mentioned on 1 in 7 to 1 in 10 relevant prompts.
Good: 25-35%. You're showing up consistently for your core use cases.
Excellent: 40%+. You're a category leader that AI recognizes as a default recommendation.
The gap between average and good is stark. Brands in the "good" range typically have strong third-party validation, numerous reviews, mentions in comparison articles, and a clear niche focus. The "average" brands usually have decent products but generic positioning that doesn't help AI differentiate them.
One pattern worth noting: niche SaaS tools often outperform larger competitors on specific prompts. "Best invoicing tool for freelance designers" might consistently return a small specialized tool rather than QuickBooks. Specificity wins.
Consulting and professional services
This is where things get interesting for solopreneurs and independent consultants.
Average: 5-8% visibility rate. Most individual consultants barely register.
Good: 15-25%. You're appearing for queries specific to your expertise.
Excellent: 30%+. AI considers you a go-to recommendation in your niche.
The numbers are lower across the board, and the reason is simple: AI has less data about individual consultants than about software products. There are fewer reviews, fewer comparison articles, and fewer third-party mentions for a solo consultant than for a SaaS tool with thousands of users.
But this also means the opportunity is wide open. Most consultants haven't started thinking about AI visibility at all. Getting from 5% to 15% is achievable with focused effort, and it puts you ahead of nearly everyone in your space.
E-commerce and DTC brands
Average: 8-12% visibility rate.
Good: 20-30%.
Excellent: 35%+.
E-commerce is a mixed bag. Established DTC brands with strong review presence and press coverage do reasonably well. Newer brands or those selling commodity products struggle because AI defaults to well-known options.
The critical factor for e-commerce is product-level specificity. AI is much better at recommending "the best waterproof hiking boot for wide feet" than "a good shoe brand." If your product pages and content speak to specific use cases, you're more likely to surface.
Local businesses
Average: 3-6% visibility rate.
Good: 10-18%.
Excellent: 20%+.
Local businesses face a structural challenge: AI doesn't always know about them. While Google has mapped every dentist and plumber in every city, LLMs have much less local data to work with.
The good news is that this is changing fast, and local businesses that build online presence early (reviews, local press mentions, clear service-area content) are disproportionately rewarded because the competition is almost nonexistent.
What moves the needle
Across all industries, the brands with above-average visibility share common characteristics.
Clear positioning. AI can summarize what they do in one sentence. They're not trying to be everything to everyone. "We help B2B SaaS companies build content marketing programs" beats "We're a full-service digital agency."
Third-party presence. They appear on review sites, comparison articles, industry publications, and relevant directories. This matters because AI weighs external validation more than self-promotion.
Content depth. They have substantive content on their core topics, not thin marketing pages but actual useful resources that demonstrate expertise. This feeds AI's understanding of their topical authority.
Consistency across platforms. Their brand name, positioning, and key messages are consistent across their website, social profiles, and third-party mentions. Inconsistency confuses AI just like it confuses humans.
How to use these benchmarks
Start by identifying your category from the ranges above. Then measure your current visibility rate across your tracked prompts. The formula is simple: number of prompts where you're mentioned divided by total prompts tracked.
If you're below average, the priority is foundational. Clarify your positioning, get some third-party mentions, build out core content. The basics.
If you're at average, you have a base to build on. Focus on the specific prompts where you're not appearing but should be. What's missing? Usually it's either a content gap or a third-party validation gap.
If you're in the "good" range, the game shifts to maintaining and expanding. Track changes weekly, respond to drops quickly, and look for new prompt categories to cover.
If you're at "excellent," you're a market leader in AI visibility for your niche. The focus should be defensive, making sure competitors don't erode your position.
A word of caution
These benchmarks are directional, not definitive. The AI visibility space is young, the data is still accumulating, and different tracking methodologies can produce different numbers. Your mileage will vary based on niche, geography, and which specific prompts you're tracking.
Use these ranges as a starting point for context, not as gospel. The most valuable comparison is always against yourself over time. Are you improving? Declining? Flat? That trend matters more than whether you hit a specific percentage.
Getting started
If you haven't started measuring, you can't benchmark at all. The first step is tracking your visibility across the LLMs that matter for your audience. Even a manual check of your top 10 prompts gives you a baseline.
Once you have numbers, these benchmarks give you the context to make sense of them. "We're at 12% visibility in a space where average is 8%" feels very different from "we're at 12%" with no frame of reference.
The brands that measure first will improve first. The ones that guess will keep guessing while their competitors pull ahead with data.
