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

# Intent Type

> The category of purpose behind a user's query — informational, commercial, navigational, or transactional.

**Intent type** is the category of purpose behind a user's query to an AI platform. Cited uses a four-type taxonomy — informational, commercial, navigational, and transactional — to classify every tracked prompt. The same brand can have very different AI visibility across intent types, and the optimization work for each type is different.

## Why it matters

A brand with 40% [mention rate](/glossary/mention-rate) overall might have 60% on informational queries and 5% on commercial queries. Without intent segmentation, this critical gap is invisible. Intent type analysis reveals where a brand is strong and where it needs to invest — and the optimization strategies differ fundamentally: informational visibility requires reference content, commercial visibility requires comparison content and editorial coverage.

## How Cited uses it

Every query in a brand's prompt library is classified by intent type during [query generation](/methodology/query-generation). Dashboard metrics are filterable by intent type, and gap analysis surfaces competitors who dominate specific intent categories. See [Query intent taxonomy](/concepts/foundations/intent-taxonomy) for the full framework.

## Related concepts

* [Query intent taxonomy](/concepts/foundations/intent-taxonomy) — the conceptual framework
* [Query archetype](/glossary/query-archetype) — the 6-type production classification within intent types
* [Query intent](/glossary/query-intent) — the underlying purpose behind a query