> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.topify.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Understanding competitors

> How a competitor is defined in AI search, how auto-detection vs manual addition work, and the suggested / active / inactive lifecycle.

Competitors are brands that appear alongside yours in AI-generated responses. Tracking them helps you understand your market position in AI search and identify who you're competing against for visibility.

## What is a competitor?

In the context of AI search, a competitor is any brand that AI providers mention in response to the same prompts as your brand. These may differ from your traditional business competitors -- they are the brands that AI models associate with the same topics and questions.

For example, if you're a CRM company and you track the prompt "What are the best CRM tools?", any brand mentioned in the AI response (Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoho) is a competitor in this context.

## How competitors are discovered

Topify.ai uses two methods to identify competitors:

<Steps>
  <Step title="Automatic detection">
    During bootstrapping and daily analysis, Topify.ai extracts brand names from every AI response. Brands that appear frequently across your tracked prompts are flagged as potential competitors.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Manual addition">
    You can add competitors manually if you know specific brands you want to track that haven't been auto-detected yet.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## Competitor lifecycle

Every competitor goes through a defined lifecycle:

| State         | Description                                                                                         |
| ------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Suggested** | Newly discovered by Topify.ai. Waiting for you to accept or reject.                                 |
| **Active**    | You confirmed this competitor. Daily metrics are collected and it appears on your dashboard charts. |
| **Inactive**  | You rejected or removed this competitor. It no longer appears in tracking.                          |

<Note>
  Only **active** competitors appear on your overview dashboard and count toward your plan's competitor limit. Historical data is preserved when you deactivate a competitor.
</Note>

## What is tracked for each competitor

Every active competitor gets the same four metrics as your own brand — **visibility**, **sentiment**, **position**, and **total mentions in the selected window** — collected daily across all monitored AI providers. See [Brand metrics](/concepts/brand-metrics) for definitions and formulas. Trends appear on the overview dashboard so you can track how your position moves relative to each competitor.

## Why competitor tracking matters

Competitor data answers critical questions about your AI visibility strategy:

* **Who are you competing against?** AI search may surface different competitors than traditional search.
* **Are you gaining or losing ground?** Trend data shows whether your visibility is improving relative to competitors.
* **Which competitors appear for which prompts?** Prompt-level competitor data reveals where competition is strongest.
* **How does sentiment compare?** Understanding whether competitors are portrayed more positively helps you identify areas for content improvement.

<Tip>
  For instructions on managing your competitor list, see [Tracking competitors](/guides/tracking-competitors).
</Tip>

## FAQ

### Why is a known competitor not showing up in my list?

Two common reasons: (1) the competitor wasn't mentioned in any responses to your tracked prompts during the time window — AI search competition is prompt-dependent, so a major business competitor may not appear if buyers ask about a different category in AI; (2) the competitor was mentioned but our brand-extraction missed an unusual spelling or alias. Add the brand manually from **Preferences > Competitors > Add competitor** to start tracking it explicitly.