First mention
First mention is the share of AI answers naming your brand in which your brand is the first one named.
First mention is the share of AI answers that name your brand in which yours is the first brand named. The formula is runs where you are named first divided by runs that name you. Runs that leave you out count in neither number, so read first mention next to AI visibility, which does count them.
Why it matters
When an answer lists several brands, the first is the one the buyer reads first. A brand can have high visibility and a first mention near zero: answers include it but lead with someone else. When that happens, note which use case the answers credit the first-named brand with, then check whether your own pages, and the pages engines cite, say the same about you.
How to read it
Order changes even more than inclusion. In a 2026 SparkToro study, AI tools returned the same list of brands in the same order less than once in 1,000 runs. One answer's order is close to noise, so read first mention as a rate across many runs, and watch it most closely on prompts with buying intent, such as "best tool for" and "alternatives to" prompts.
Example
In a month, 20 runs name your brand and 6 of them name it first, so first mention is 6 divided by 20, or 30%. If visibility holds and first mention rises, answers are moving you up the list. If first mention rises while visibility falls, check whether you dropped out of answers where you were named lower down, which lifts the rate without any real gain.
Our methodology defines first mention alongside average position, your average place among the brands named in the answers that name you.