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Selection Rate measures the gap between being found and being chosen. It answers: when an AI engine retrieves your domain as a candidate source, how often does it end up in the final response?

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How it’s calculated

Of the responses where an engine retrieved your domain as a candidate source, Selection Rate is the share that ended up actually citing it:
  • Sources — the responses where your domain appeared in the engine’s retrieval pool (the pages it considered)
  • Citations — of those, the responses where your domain was actually cited in the answer
Because it’s measured per response rather than by counting raw mentions, Selection Rate always stays between 0 and 100%.

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What it tells you

A low Selection Rate means AI engines are finding your content but choosing competitor content instead. The most common cause is a low Alignment Score — your content is present but not structured well enough for the engine to cite confidently.

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How it differs from Citation Share

Citation Share measures your citation share across all citations. Selection Rate is scoped to your own retrieval appearances — it isolates the question of why you’re not being cited when you do show up.
Selection Rate is a secondary metric. Use it alongside Alignment Score to diagnose why citations are lower than expected.