What is the difference between being mentioned, recommended and cited?

Most tools report a single visibility percentage. That number hides the distinction that decides whether the measurement is worth anything.

Mentioned

Your brand name appeared somewhere in the answer. That includes appearing in a sentence like “cheaper alternatives to yours include…”, which is a mention and a loss at the same time. A mention proves the assistant knows you exist. It proves nothing else.

Recommended

The assistant actively put you forward as an answer to what the buyer asked. This is the one that moves revenue, and it is much rarer than mentions. A brand mentioned in half of all answers and recommended in almost none has a positioning problem, not a visibility problem, and the two need completely different work.

Cited

The assistant linked to or drew from a specific page, and that page was yours. Citation is the most controllable of the three, because it points at a document you own or can influence. It is also the clearest evidence of why an answer said what it said.

Why we keep them apart

Because the actions are different. If you are mentioned but not recommended, the problem is what the web says about your product against its rivals. If you are recommended but never cited, other people's pages are winning your argument for you, and you are one editorial change away from losing it. If you are cited but not recommended, assistants trust your page as a reference and still choose somebody else.

One blended number cannot tell you which of those you have, and a recommendation built on the wrong one is worse than no recommendation.