Free tool
Share of voice calculator, with AI share of voice
Convertica's free share of voice calculator turns your count and your competitors' counts into each brand's share, rank and gap to the leader, for mentions, impressions, ad spend or clicks. A second calculator works out AI share of voice from a set of answers you checked yourself, with a margin of error. You bring the counts: this page does not query any AI assistant, track mentions or fetch data.
Short answer
A share of voice calculator divides one brand's count by the total for every brand compared, then multiplies by 100. Enter mentions, impressions, ad spend or clicks for your brand and each competitor to get every share, rank and gap. For AI answers it reports two numbers: your share of brand mentions and your mention rate.
- Share of voice = your count / the total count of all the brands you compare × 100. The metric, the source and the period must be the same for every brand.
- In the example, 1,480 of 5,000 mentions is a 29.6% share of voice, 7.4 points behind the leader.
- AI share of voice has two denominators. Share of mentions divides by all brand mentions. Mention rate divides by the answers you checked. They are different numbers.
- A prompt set is a sample. A mention rate of 42.0% from 100 answers has a margin of error of about ±9.7 points at 95% confidence.
- There is no universal good share of voice. Judge yours against your market share, your last reading and the brand above you.
Share of voice calculator: your brand against competitors
Free, no sign-up. The result updates as you type. The calculation runs in your browser: nothing you type here is sent anywhere. The brands and counts shown are a made-up example, so replace them with your own.
Share of voice by mentions
29.6%
- 1 Competitor A 37.0%
- 2 Your brand You 29.6%
- 3 Competitor B 22.4%
- 4 Competitor C 11.0%
1,480 of 5,000 mentions, across 4 brands.
2nd of 4: Competitor A leads with 37.0%, 7.4 points of share ahead, or 370 in mentions.
Formula
share of voice = your count / (your count + every competitor's count) * 100
count for a target = target * competitors' total / (1 - target) target as a fraction
excess share of voice = share of voice - market share in percentage pointsHow to use the share of voice calculator
Pick the calculator that matches what you counted. Both work the same way: one row for your brand, one for each competitor, and a result that updates as you type.
| You have | Use | Enter |
|---|---|---|
| One total per brand: mentions, impressions, ad spend, clicks | Share of voice from counts | The metric's name and each brand's total for the same period |
| A set of AI answers you read, with the brands each one names | AI share of voice | The number of answers checked, and for each brand the number that mention it and, if you noted it, the number that link to it |
- Name what you are counting. One metric, from one source, over one period, for every brand.
- Enter your brand first, then each competitor. Add or remove rows as needed.
- Read your share, then the list under it: every brand's share, largest first, with yours marked.
- Read the gap. Under the list, the calculator says where you rank and how far the leader is ahead, in points of share and in the metric itself.
- Optional: add your market share to see excess share of voice, or a target share to see the count it would take.
What is share of voice?
Share of voice (SOV) is the part of a market's attention that one brand holds, as a percentage of the total for all the brands compared. The attention can be advertising, mentions, search visibility or answers from AI assistants. It is always relative: your own numbers can rise while your share of voice falls, if competitors rise faster.
The term comes from advertising, where it means a brand's share of the ad spend or ad exposure in its category. The same division is now applied to social and press mentions, to search results and to AI answers. Each of those is a different measurement with a different count, so a share of voice figure means little until it says what was counted, where and when.
What is the share of voice formula?
The share of voice formula is your brand's count divided by the total count for all the brands in the comparison, times 100. The total includes your own count. The answer runs from 0%, when your brand has none of the count, to 100%, when it has all of it.
share of voice = your count / total count for all brands * 100Worked example: 4 brands, counted by mentions
A monitoring tool reports these mentions for last month. They are the default values in the calculator, made up to show the arithmetic. They are not a benchmark.
| Brand | Mentions | Share of voice | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your brand | 1,480 | 29.6% | 2 |
| Competitor A | 1,850 | 37.0% | 1 |
| Competitor B | 1,120 | 22.4% | 3 |
| Competitor C | 550 | 11.0% | 4 |
- Total: 1,480 + 1,850 + 1,120 + 550 = 5,000.
- Your share: 1,480 / 5,000 = 0.296, or 29.6%.
- The leader, Competitor A, has 1,850 / 5,000 = 37.0%.
- Gap to the leader: 37.0% - 29.6% = 7.4 points of share, or 370 mentions.
The shares add up to 100% because every brand's count is part of the same total. That is also the limit of the number: it describes these 4 brands and nothing outside them. Leave a competitor out and every share on the list goes up.
How many more mentions do you need for a target share of voice?
To reach a target share of voice while competitors stay where they are, your count has to equal the target times the competitors' combined count, divided by 1 minus the target. In the example, a 35% share against 3,520 competitor mentions takes 1,896, which is 416 more than now.
count needed = target * competitors' total / (1 - target)- Competitors' total: 5,000 - 1,480 = 3,520.
- Count needed: 0.35 × 3,520 / 0.65 = 1,895.38, so 1,896 whole mentions.
- More than now: 1,896 - 1,480 = 416.
- Check: 1,896 / (1,896 + 3,520) = 35.01%.
The extra count is larger than it looks at first, because your own additions also raise the total. And it holds only while the other brands stand still, which they rarely do. Use it to size a goal, not to promise one.
What can you measure share of voice with?
Share of voice can be measured with any count that exists for every brand in the comparison: ad spend, impressions, mentions, clicks from search, or AI answers that name the brand. The formula does not change. What changes is the count, who can supply it for your competitors, and how far it can be trusted.
| Channel | Count for each brand | Where the counts come from | On this page |
|---|---|---|---|
| Advertising | Ad spend or ad impressions in the category | Your own figures, plus an estimate for each competitor | First calculator |
| Social and press | Mentions of the brand in the period | A social listening or media monitoring tool, or a count by hand | First calculator |
| Organic search | Estimated clicks, or visibility, for one set of keywords | An SEO tool, the same one for every domain | First calculator |
| Paid search | Impression share, already a percentage | Google Ads reports it for your own campaigns | Read it as reported |
| AI answers | Answers that mention the brand, out of a set of answers | A prompt set you run and read yourself, or a tracker's export | Second calculator |
Two of these rows need a note, because the platforms define the number themselves.
- Paid search. Google Ads does not report a share among named competitors. It reports impression share: the impressions your ads received, divided by the impressions Google estimates they were eligible for. In the auction insights report each advertiser's impression share has its own denominator, so the figures are not slices of one total and do not have to add up to 100%. Use impression share as Google reports it, and do not enter it in the calculator as a count.
- Organic search. SEO tools each have their own method. Ahrefs, for one, says its Rank Tracker calculates share of voice from clicks: the clicks your site gets from the tracked keywords, against the clicks going to all results for those keywords. A figure from one tool is not comparable with a figure from another.
If the count you have is impressions and what you care about is clicks, the CTR calculator covers the step between them, and the CPM calculator covers what a thousand of those impressions cost.
What is AI share of voice?
AI share of voice is your brand's share of the brand mentions in a set of answers from AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity. Count the answers that mention you, divide by the mentions of every brand you track, and multiply by 100. It describes the answers you sampled, not every answer anyone receives.
The name is used for two different calculations, and they give different numbers from the same answers. This page names them apart and works out both.
| Name on this page | Formula | Divided by | Adds up to 100% across brands? | Changes when you track one more competitor? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mention rate | Answers that mention the brand / answers checked | The answers you read | No. One answer can name several brands | No |
| Share of mentions (AI share of voice) | Answers that mention the brand / mentions of all brands | The mentions of every brand you entered | Yes | Yes, it falls |
Semrush's guide to measuring AI share of voice gives the second formula: your AI mentions over the total AI mentions for all brands in your category. Other published guides divide by the number of answers and call that share of voice as well. The same guide notes that Semrush's own reports also take into account how high a brand appears in the answer, so a figure from a tracking tool will not always match a plain count. When you compare two numbers, check which division produced each.
Worked example: 100 answers, 4 brands
You write 25 prompts a buyer might ask, and run each one 2 times in 2 assistants: 25 × 2 × 2 = 100 answers. You read them and note which brands each one names and links to. These are the default values in the second calculator, made up to show the arithmetic.
| Brand | Answers that mention it | Mention rate | Share of mentions | Answers that cite it | Citation rate | Share of citations |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Your brand | 42 | 42.0% | 30.0% | 15 | 15.0% | 25.0% |
| Competitor A | 53 | 53.0% | 37.9% | 30 | 30.0% | 50.0% |
| Competitor B | 31 | 31.0% | 22.1% | 9 | 9.0% | 15.0% |
| Competitor C | 14 | 14.0% | 10.0% | 6 | 6.0% | 10.0% |
- Mention rate: 42 / 100 = 42.0%. Your brand is named in 42 of the 100 answers.
- All brand mentions: 42 + 53 + 31 + 14 = 140. That is more than 100 because many answers name more than one brand.
- Share of mentions: 42 / 140 = 30.0%. This is the AI share of voice.
- Citations, the same two ways: 15 / 100 = 15.0% of answers link to your site, and 15 / 60 = 25.0% of the citations counted.
The mention rates in the table add up to 140%, not 100%. That is the quickest way to tell which number you are looking at: shares of mentions always total 100%, and mention rates almost never do.
Why the competitor list changes your share of voice
Take the same 100 answers and track one more brand, Competitor D, which turns out to be named in 20 of them. Nothing about your own visibility has changed.
| Brands tracked besides yours | All brand mentions | Your mention rate | Your share of mentions |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 competitors | 140 | 42.0% | 30.0% |
| 4 competitors: Competitor D added, named in 20 answers | 160 | 42.0% | 26.3% |
The share of voice drops from 30.0% to 26.3% and the mention rate stays at 42.0%. So keep the competitor list fixed from one period to the next, and state it next to the number. To follow your own visibility over time, the mention rate is the steadier of the two.
How do you measure AI share of voice by hand?
To measure AI share of voice by hand, fix a list of prompts, run each one in the assistants your buyers use, read every answer, and count the answers that name each brand. It takes no special tool, only patience and a spreadsheet. The counts then go into the second calculator on this page.
- Write the prompt list. Use questions a buyer would ask before knowing your name, such as a request for the best options in your category for a stated need. A prompt that contains your brand name measures nothing.
- Choose the assistants and note the settings you used, such as whether web search was on.
- Run each prompt in a new conversation, so earlier turns do not steer the answer. Run it more than once if you can.
- Record each answer on one row: the prompt, the assistant, the brands it names, and the brands whose sites it links to.
- Count per brand. An answer counts once for a brand however many times it repeats the name.
- Enter the totals and keep the prompt list. Next time, run the same list the same way.
How precise is a mention rate from a set of prompts?
A mention rate from a set of prompts is an estimate, with a margin of error that depends on how many answers you read. At 95% confidence a rate of 42.0% from 100 answers is good to about ±9.7 points. The same rate from 20 answers could be almost anywhere.
The reason is that an assistant does not give one fixed answer to a prompt. Anthropic's documentation, for example, says that identical inputs can produce different outputs from one call to the next, even at the most deterministic setting. Your 100 answers are one draw from all the answers those prompts could have produced, and another draw would give different counts.
standard error = sqrt(p * (1 - p) / n) p = mention rate as a fraction, n = answers
margin of error = z * standard error * 100 z = 1.96 at 95% confidenceWorked example: the margin of error on 42 of 100
- p = 42 / 100 = 0.42, so 1 - p = 0.58.
- p × (1 - p) / n = 0.42 × 0.58 / 100 = 0.002436.
- Standard error: √0.002436 = 0.0494.
- Margin of error: 1.96 × 0.0494 × 100 = ±9.7 points.
The calculator prints a Wilson score interval beside that figure: 32.8% to 51.8% here. It is the better of the two when counts are small, because it never runs below 0% or above 100%. With fewer than 10 answers that mention the brand, or fewer than 10 that do not, the calculator shows the interval alone, since the simple ± formula is too rough there. The confidence interval calculator explains the Wilson method, and the margin of error calculator covers the same question for surveys.
| Answers checked | Answers that mention the brand | 95% interval | Width in points | Margin of error |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 | 8 | 21.9% to 61.3% | 39.5 | Not shown: fewer than 10 mentions |
| 50 | 20 | 27.6% to 53.8% | 26.2 | ±13.6 points |
| 100 | 40 | 30.9% to 49.8% | 18.9 | ±9.6 points |
| 200 | 80 | 33.5% to 46.9% | 13.5 | ±6.8 points |
| 500 | 200 | 35.8% to 44.4% | 8.6 | ±4.3 points |
| 1,000 | 400 | 37.0% to 43.1% | 6.1 | ±3.0 points |
With 20 answers, a 40% mention rate is consistent with anything from 21.9% to 61.3%. It takes 1,000 answers to bring that down to 37.0% to 43.1%. In the worked example, Competitor A is at 53.0% (43.3% to 62.5%) and your brand at 42.0% (32.8% to 51.8%). The two intervals overlap, so 100 answers are not enough to be sure of the order.
| Margin of error | Answers needed |
|---|---|
| ±10 points | 97 |
| ±5 points | 385 |
| ±3 points | 1,068 |
| ±2 points | 2,401 |
Halving the margin of error takes four times the answers. And the interval is the least uncertainty there can be, not all of it. It leaves out three things:
- Repeated runs are not independent. Five runs of one prompt resemble each other more than five different prompts do. The formula treats every answer as a separate draw, so a set built from a few prompts run many times is less precise than its interval says.
- Your prompts are your choice. The result describes the prompts you wrote. If buyers ask different questions, no sample size corrects for that.
- Brands share the same answers. Your mentions and a competitor's come from the same 100 answers, so the two rates are not independent samples. Overlapping intervals are a rough warning, not a formal test of the gap.
What is a good share of voice?
A good share of voice is one that is higher than your own market share and rising against your own last reading, measured the same way. There is no universal figure, and this page does not print one. The number depends on how many brands are in the comparison, which metric was counted and over what period.
A share among 4 brands cannot be set beside a share among ten, and a share of press mentions says nothing about a share of search clicks. A table of typical shares by industry would hide all of that. These three comparisons are your own and do not:
- Your market share. If you hold a quarter of the sales and a tenth of the attention, that gap is the finding, whatever anyone else's share is.
- Your last reading. The same metric, source, period length and competitor list. For a sampled number such as an AI mention rate, a change only counts when it is larger than the margin of error.
- The brand above you. The calculator gives the gap in points of share and in the metric itself, which is the form a plan needs.
What is the difference between share of voice and market share?
Share of voice measures attention and market share measures sales. Share of voice is your part of the mentions, impressions, spend or answers in a comparison. Market share is your part of the revenue or units sold in a market. The first is counted before anyone buys, the second after.
Excess share of voice
Excess share of voice (ESOV) is share of voice minus market share, in percentage points. Nielsen's analysis Budgeting for the Upturn: Does Share of Voice Matter? (Nikki Clarke, 2009) defines it that way and reports that, other things being equal, a brand whose share of voice is above its share of market is more likely to gain share.
excess share of voice = share of voice - market shareIn the example, a 29.6% share of voice against a 25% market share is +4.6 points. Against a 40% market share the same share of voice is -10.4 points.
Read the result with the study's own limits in mind. It analyzed advertising for 123 brands in 30 categories, it found large differences between categories and between brands, and it names brand size, new products and the quality of the campaign as things that changed the outcome. Its share of voice is a share of advertising, not of social mentions or AI answers. So the calculator shows the difference and stops there: it does not turn excess share of voice into a growth forecast.
How to calculate share of voice in Excel or Google Sheets
To calculate share of voice in Excel or Google Sheets, put each brand's count in a column and divide each one by the column's sum. With brand names in A2 to A5, counts in B2 to B5 and your brand in row 2, these formulas work in both. Format the results as percentages.
| You want | Formula |
|---|---|
| Share of voice, filled down the column | =B2/SUM($B$2:$B$5) |
| Rank | =RANK.EQ(B2,$B$2:$B$5) |
| Gap to the leader, in share | =(MAX($B$2:$B$5)-B2)/SUM($B$2:$B$5) |
| Count needed for a target share in E1 (0.35 for 35%) | =$E$1*(SUM($B$2:$B$5)-B2)/(1-$E$1) |
| Mention rate | =C2/$F$1 |
| Margin of error of the mention rate at 95% | =NORM.S.INV(0.975)*SQRT(C2/$F$1*(1-C2/$F$1)/$F$1) |
The dollar signs keep the range fixed when you fill the formula down. For 90% confidence replace 0.975 with 0.95, and for 99% use 0.995. The spreadsheet margin is the simple formula, so with small counts use the interval the calculator gives.
What does share of voice have to do with conversion rate?
Share of voice counts attention, and conversion rate counts what that attention turns into. A mention, an impression or a line in an AI answer is not a visit, and a visit is not a sale. A brand can lead on share of voice and still lose the customer on the page the visitor lands on.
- From attention to visits. For AI assistants, a mention with no link sends nobody. The AI traffic tracking tool builds the Google Analytics filter that shows the visits assistants really send, which is the number to set beside a mention rate.
- From visits to customers. Work out what share of those visitors buy or sign up with the conversion rate calculator. If the rate is low, more share of voice buys more visits that leave.
- The site side of AI answers. An assistant can only use what it can read. The AI visibility checker reads your page and site files: the robots.txt rules for AI crawlers, llms.txt, structured data, and what the HTML says without JavaScript. It does not ask any assistant a question, so it complements a prompt set and does not replace it. The AI agent readiness checklist lists what to fix.
Convertica's free CRO audit looks at the page the visit arrives on: eight checks, each scored out of 100, and three fixes to make first.
Related tools
Share of voice is the top of the path. These tools cover the steps after it.
See all free tools and how they fit together.
Share of voice calculator FAQ
What does a share of voice calculator do?
A share of voice calculator divides one brand's count by the combined count of every brand compared and shows the result as a percentage. This one takes your count and each competitor's for one metric, returns every brand's share, rank and gap to the leader, and has a second calculator for AI answers. It does not collect the counts for you.
How do I calculate share of voice?
Divide your brand's count by the total count of all the brands you are comparing, then multiply by 100. With 1,480 mentions for your brand and 5,000 across 4 brands, that is 1,480 / 5,000 × 100 = 29.6%. Use the same metric, the same source and the same period for every brand.
What is the share of voice formula?
Share of voice = your brand's count / the total count for all brands × 100. The count can be mentions, impressions, ad spend, clicks or AI answers that name the brand. The total is your count plus every competitor's, so the result depends on which competitors you include.
What is a good share of voice percentage?
There is no universal good share of voice, and this page does not give one. The figure depends on how many brands you compare, the metric and the period. Judge it against three things of your own: your market share, your last reading taken the same way, and the gap to the brand above you.
What does 100% share of voice mean?
A 100% share of voice means your brand has the whole count and every other brand you entered has none. It usually says more about the comparison than about the market: a competitor is missing from the list, the source does not cover them, or the metric is one only you can score on, such as your own branded searches.
What does 50% share of voice mean?
A 50% share of voice means your count equals the combined count of all the other brands in the comparison. Against one competitor that is a tie. Against three it means you have as much as the other three put together.
What is AI share of voice?
AI share of voice is your brand's share of the brand mentions in a set of AI answers: the answers that mention you, divided by the mentions of every brand you track. In the example, 42 of 140 brand mentions is 30.0%. It is not the same as the percentage of answers that mention you, which is 42.0% there.
Is AI share of voice the same as the percentage of answers that mention my brand?
No. The percentage of answers that mention you is a mention rate: mentions divided by answers checked. Share of voice divides the same mentions by all brand mentions. In the example the mention rate is 42.0% and the share of voice is 30.0%. Adding a competitor to the list lowers the share and leaves the mention rate where it was.
How many prompts do I need to measure AI share of voice?
It depends on the margin of error you can accept, and what counts is answers, not prompts. For a mention rate, about 97 answers give ±10 points at 95% confidence and about 385 give ±5 points, in the widest case. Each answer needs a different prompt or a separate run, and repeated runs of one prompt usually add less than new prompts do.
What is excess share of voice?
Excess share of voice (ESOV) is share of voice minus market share, in percentage points. A 29.6% share of voice against a 25% market share is +4.6 points. The term comes from advertising research, where share of voice means share of ad spend, so treat it with care for mentions or AI answers.
What is the difference between share of voice and market share?
Share of voice measures attention: your share of the mentions, impressions, spend or answers in a comparison. Market share measures sales: your share of the revenue or units in a market. One is counted before the sale and the other after it, and a visit still has to convert in between.
Is share of voice the same as impression share?
Not quite. Impression share in Google Ads is your impressions divided by the impressions Google estimates you were eligible for. Each advertiser's figure has its own denominator, so the impression shares in an auction insights report are not parts of one total. Use the figure as Google reports it. Do not enter it here as a count.
What is share of model?
Share of model is a newer name for how a brand shows up in what AI models say, the idea AI share of voice also covers. It is also the name of a commercial platform, Share of Model, which this page has no connection with. The calculator here uses the plain terms: mention rate and share of mentions.
Does this calculator check ChatGPT or track mentions for me?
No. It does not query any AI assistant, track mentions or fetch data from anywhere. You run the prompts or pull the counts yourself, and the calculator does the arithmetic in your browser. Nothing you type is sent to a server.