Microsoft Clarity Now Shows Whether AI Cites You for Your Brand or Your Content

Microsoft Clarity's AI Citations dashboard — free, no traffic cap — now separates branded from non-branded grounding queries as of August 3, 2026. That is the third citation-side release in 25 days. The split answers the question every other measurement dashboard dodges: are AI engines citing you because they found your content, or because someone typed your name?

What Microsoft Clarity's Citations Dashboard Actually Measures

Clarity's Citations dashboard went generally available on May 13, 2026. It tracks five metrics: page citations (how often your pages are referenced in AI answers), Share of Authority (your citation share versus competitors on the same query set), AI referral traffic (sessions arriving from AI assistants), grounding queries (the internal searches AI systems run before composing an answer), and cited pages (which specific URLs get pulled).

Setup takes one of three routes: install the Clarity tracking code, connect Google Search Console, or connect Bing Webmaster Tools. Domain verification is required. Microsoft states that the dashboard does not measure rankings, impressions, or click-through rates — it measures influence inside the AI experience, before a user ever visits your site (Microsoft Learn).

If you are only measuring AI traffic through GA4 referral channels, you are missing the citations that happen before the click. Clarity fills that gap at zero cost.

Why the Branded vs. Non-Branded Split Changes the Measurement

The August 3 update adds branded query segmentation to the Citations dashboard. Share of Authority now breaks out by query type. Individual grounding queries carry branded labels. The entire dashboard can be filtered by branded or non-branded to compare both worlds.

Here is why that matters: a brand with 40% Share of Authority that drops to 8% when filtered to non-branded has a recognition advantage, not a content advantage. AI engines are citing that brand when users ask about it by name. They are not citing it when users ask about the category.

Microsoft framed it this way: "Not all AI visibility comes from the same kind of query. Some citations are driven by queries that reference your brand directly, while others come from broader, generic queries the AI system uses to help answer a user's prompt" (Microsoft Clarity Blog).

The non-branded number is your real discovery surface. If it is thin, your content is not earning citations — AI just knows your name.

Grounding Queries Show What AI Actually Searches For

Grounding queries are the most valuable metric in the dashboard. They are not what users typed. They are what AI systems searched internally to retrieve supporting content before generating an answer.

Google Search Console's generative AI report does not surface this data. Most SEO tools do not track it. If you want to understand what AI retrieval engines actually associate with your domain, the grounding queries feed is the closest signal available for free.

With the July updates — Topic Insights on July 9 and Query Topics on July 22 — Microsoft Clarity now groups these grounding queries by topic. You can see which subjects AI systems associate with your brand, how frequently those topics appear, and where coverage gaps remain (Search Engine Journal).

Microsoft Advertising explicitly recommends comparing grounding queries against existing paid search terms and using competitive citation data to adjust landing pages. The free measurement data is already feeding paid-media practice.

What to Set Up This Week

This takes under ten minutes.

1. Verify your domain in Microsoft Clarity. Install the Clarity tracking code, connect Google Search Console, or connect Bing Webmaster Tools. Pick one. If your project covers multiple domains, select the right domain at the start — Microsoft currently does not allow you to change this after configuration.

2. Navigate to Dashboards → AI Visibility → Citations. Set the filter to non-branded.

3. Check your non-branded Share of Authority. This is your discovery citation rate — how often AI cites you when no one asked about you by name. Compare it against your branded Share of Authority. The gap between those two numbers tells you whether you are earning visibility or coasting on recognition.

4. Review grounding queries filtered to non-branded. These show the exact internal searches AI used to find your content. If the topics do not match what you sell, your citation architecture has a targeting problem.

5. Check Topic Insights groupings. Identify which topic clusters AI engines associate with your brand. If a cluster is missing that should be there, you have a content gap that AI has already measured for you.

Two Caveats When Reading the Numbers

First, Share of Authority can read higher than reality. Microsoft states this directly: the calculation applies at a daily level, includes only queries where your domain was cited that day, and excludes days without citations (Microsoft Learn). When using this number in board reports or external presentations, state the calculation method alongside it.

Second, Microsoft does not disclose which AI platforms are covered. The documentation says Clarity spans "Microsoft and multiple AI platforms," but no specific list is published. The measurement is real, but the coverage boundary is opaque. You may be measuring a subset of your actual AI citation footprint.

Where Free Measurement Ends and Citation Intelligence Starts

Microsoft Clarity, Google Search Console's generative AI report, and Bing Webmaster Tools together form a free measurement stack that did not exist six months ago. They tell you where you were cited, how often, and by which grounding queries.

What they do not tell you: why you are not being cited in segments where you should be, which source types AI engines prefer in your category, what citation rate you hold against specific competitors per engine, or whether your coverage is improving with statistical confidence.

That is the gap between measurement and intelligence. At AuthorityTech, I track both through the Machine Relations Index, which measures source-segment citation rates across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Google AI Mode, Google AI Overviews, and Perplexity with confidence tiers grading how much evidence stands behind each rate. The MRI is the premium layer. Clarity is the free floor.

Start with the free floor. Set up Clarity, check your non-branded share, and read your grounding queries. If you want to see where you stand across all six engines before deciding what the gaps cost you, run a visibility audit. But either way, running Clarity first gives you the baseline that makes every paid measurement dollar smarter.

FAQ

What is Microsoft Clarity's AI Citations dashboard?

Microsoft Clarity's AI Citations dashboard is a free tool that shows how often your pages are referenced in AI-generated answers, your share of citations versus competitors, the grounding queries AI systems used to find your content, and which specific pages were cited. It went generally available on May 13, 2026, with branded vs. non-branded segmentation added on August 3, 2026.

How is Share of Authority calculated in Microsoft Clarity?

Share of Authority is your domain's citations divided by total citations from all domains within the same query set where your domain appeared. Microsoft states the calculation applies at a daily level and excludes days without citations, which can produce higher values than broader approaches. When reporting this metric externally, state the calculation method.

What are grounding queries in Microsoft Clarity?

Grounding queries are the internal searches AI systems run to retrieve and evaluate content before generating an answer. They differ from what users typed — they reflect what the AI searched. This data shows which topics and phrasings AI engines associate with your domain, and is available for free through Clarity's Citations dashboard.

Is Microsoft Clarity's AI citation data free?

Yes. Microsoft Clarity is entirely free with no traffic cap. The AI Citations dashboard — including page citations, Share of Authority, AI referral traffic, grounding queries, Topic Insights, and branded vs. non-branded segmentation — requires no paid plan. Domain verification is the only setup requirement.

How does Microsoft Clarity's citation measurement compare to the Machine Relations Index?

Clarity measures where you are cited and by which grounding queries — the free measurement floor. The Machine Relations Index measures source-segment citation rates across six AI engines with confidence tiers (A/B/C/collecting) and evidence floors, producing competitive intelligence at the category and buyer-question level. Clarity tells you that you were cited. The MRI tells you your citation rate relative to every competitor in your segment.

Who is Christian Lehman?

Christian Lehman is Chief Growth Officer at AuthorityTech, where he leads Machine Relations execution across AI visibility, campaign measurement, and earned media strategy for brands building citation authority across AI search engines.