Detection rate
Detection rate is the share of AI answers where your brand shows up at all, either named in the text or cited as a source.
Detection rate is the share of AI answers where your brand shows up in any way: named in the text, or with your website used as a source, or both. It's the widest possible measure of presence. If an answer has no trace of you at all, you weren't detected.
It's useful as a floor. If your detection rate is low, the platforms barely know you exist for those questions, and finer numbers like position or sentiment have little to work with.
How it's worked out
Count the answers that name you, add the answers that use your website without naming you, and divide by all your answers.
For example, Fernhill gets 140 answers in a week. 49 name Fernhill. Of the 28 answers that used Fernhill's website, 7 didn't name it. So 49 + 7 = 56 answers show Fernhill in some way, and its detection rate is 56 out of 140, or 40%. Its visibility, which only counts answers that name it, is 35%.
What the gap tells you
The difference between detection rate and visibility is the answers that read your page and named someone else, or nobody. Those are near misses. The platform found you and still didn't recommend you, which usually means your page didn't make your case for that question.
Detection rate on branded prompts tells you something else. When the question names you, you should be detected in almost every answer. If you're not, the platforms may be confusing you with someone else, or may not know enough about you to answer.
In AnswerOrbit
We don't show detection rate as one number, but you can read it off the Named against cited chart on the Overview. It splits your answers four ways: named and cited, named only, cited only, and neither. Everything outside "neither" is your detection rate. Visibility and cited, not named give the two parts.