Grocery Delivery Services AI Visibility Ranking Trends - November 2026

Answer capsule

The November 2026 Grocery Delivery Services benchmark compares 10 companies across 474 AI answers that met its inclusion rules. Amazon, Walmart share the lead with 400 recommendations each (84.39% of answers). At least one tracked company was recommended in 421 answers; some answers recommended several companies.

The rankings distinguish being mentioned from receiving an affirmative recommendation, then examine placement and the wording used about each company. Earlier monthly results show how counts and rates changed, with each month using its own answer total. These results describe the answers reviewed, not product quality or customer satisfaction. Differences between monthly samples limit comparisons and do not establish why a result changed.

For the strategic interpretation of this benchmark, read CiteWorks Studio's analysis of How AI Search Is Recommending Grocery Delivery Services

Industry leaderboard

Questions This Section Answers

• How do Grocery Delivery Services rank by recorded AI recommendations in November 2026?

The leaderboard orders companies by how many answers recorded an affirmative recommendation. Amazon and Walmart share the top count, so the tie is a tie rather than a unique winner. Instacart sits just behind them.

Mentions, recommendations and placements answer different questions. A mention is appearance in an answer; a recommendation is affirmative endorsement. Top-three and first-place placements are nested within recommendations, so they should be read as position within endorsements, not as extra wins.

Key findings

Tracked-company answer coverage

Questions This Section Answers

• How often did the November 2026 Grocery Delivery Services answer sample recommend any tracked company?

421 distinct answers recommended at least one tracked company. Counting each company recommendation separately gives 2097, because an answer can recommend several companies. Answers with no tracked recommendation may still have recommended companies outside this comparison.

Every qualified answer mentioned at least one tracked company, and most recommended at least one. Multiple tracked companies frequently appear in the same answer, which is why company-level totals exceed the number of distinct answers.

This overlap means coverage is not market dominance. An answer can endorse several services at once, and answers without a tracked recommendation may still have named companies outside this comparison.

Reach and affirmative recommendation

Amazon ranks 1 by recommendation count. Mentions: 465 (98.10%); recommendations: 400 (84.39%). Top 3 placements: 341 (71.94%); first-place placements: 50 (10.55%).

Wording about the company: 406 positive, 59 neutral, 0 negative mentions. The proportion of mentions that also included a recommendation was 86.0%. The net framing score was 0.87 (defined in Methodology).

65 mentions had no recorded recommendation. Of recorded recommendations, 85.25% were Top 3 and 12.50% were first-place.

Walmart ranks 1 by recommendation count. Mentions: 456 (96.20%); recommendations: 400 (84.39%). Top 3 placements: 353 (74.47%); first-place placements: 166 (35.02%).

Wording about the company: 404 positive, 52 neutral, 0 negative mentions. The proportion of mentions that also included a recommendation was 87.7%. The net framing score was 0.89 (defined in Methodology).

56 mentions had no recorded recommendation. Of recorded recommendations, 88.25% were Top 3 and 41.50% were first-place.

Amazon and Walmart tie at the top by recommendation count, each appearing in nearly every answer and endorsed in most. Their mention totals differ slightly, so reach and endorsement are not interchangeable readings.

A mention records presence; a recommendation requires affirmative endorsement with positive wording. The gap between the two shows that being named and being endorsed are separate measured events in these answers.

Recommendation order and placement

Placement describes where an endorsed company sits in an answer's ordering. Top-three and first-place counts are subsets of recommendations, not additions to them, so they should not be summed with recommendation totals.

Recommendation-to-mention ratios vary widely across companies. A high ratio means mentions were usually accompanied by endorsement in the recorded answers; it does not describe customers, sales or conversion.

Classified framing in context

Framing classifies the wording used about a company in the selected answers. Most mentions here are positive, with neutral wording common for some companies and negative wording rare overall.

Framing is not customer sentiment or company quality, and positive wording does not explain why a recommendation was or was not recorded. These are classifications of answer text, not evidence about the companies themselves.

Company results in detail

Amazon

Questions This Section Answers

• What do the November 2026 AI answer results show about Amazon mentions, recommendations and placement?

Amazon ranks 1 by recommendation count. Mentions: 465 (98.10%); recommendations: 400 (84.39%). Top 3 placements: 341 (71.94%); first-place placements: 50 (10.55%).

Wording about the company: 406 positive, 59 neutral, 0 negative mentions. The proportion of mentions that also included a recommendation was 86.0%. The net framing score was 0.87 (defined in Methodology).

65 mentions had no recorded recommendation. Of recorded recommendations, 85.25% were Top 3 and 12.50% were first-place.

There are insufficient usable monthly observations for a prior-period comparison.

Amazon shares the top recommendation count and appears in nearly every qualified answer. Its mentions usually carry an endorsement, and positive wording dominates its recorded framing.

First-place placements are a small subset of its recommendations, so its strength reads as broad presence and endorsement rather than frequent top positioning. No prior-period comparison is available.

Walmart

Questions This Section Answers

• What do the November 2026 AI answer results show about Walmart mentions, recommendations and placement?

Walmart ranks 1 by recommendation count. Mentions: 456 (96.20%); recommendations: 400 (84.39%). Top 3 placements: 353 (74.47%); first-place placements: 166 (35.02%).

Wording about the company: 404 positive, 52 neutral, 0 negative mentions. The proportion of mentions that also included a recommendation was 87.7%. The net framing score was 0.89 (defined in Methodology).

56 mentions had no recorded recommendation. Of recorded recommendations, 88.25% were Top 3 and 41.50% were first-place.

There are insufficient usable monthly observations for a prior-period comparison.

Walmart ties for the top recommendation count with a mention base close to Amazon's. Its endorsements convert into top-three and first-place placements more often than Amazon's, giving it a distinct placement profile.

Framing is overwhelmingly positive with no negative wording recorded. The tie at the top means neither company is a unique leader on recommendation count.

Instacart

Questions This Section Answers

• What do the November 2026 AI answer results show about Instacart mentions, recommendations and placement?

Instacart ranks 3 by recommendation count. Mentions: 474 (100.00%); recommendations: 390 (82.28%). Top 3 placements: 364 (76.79%); first-place placements: 175 (36.92%).

Wording about the company: 395 positive, 61 neutral, 18 negative mentions. The proportion of mentions that also included a recommendation was 82.3%. The net framing score was 0.80 (defined in Methodology).

84 mentions had no recorded recommendation. Of recorded recommendations, 93.33% were Top 3 and 44.87% were first-place.

There are insufficient usable monthly observations for a prior-period comparison.

Instacart appears in every qualified answer, the broadest reach in this set, while its recommendation count sits just below the tied leaders. Its endorsements frequently land in top-three and first-place positions.

It is also the only company with a notable count of negative mentions, so its framing profile is more mixed than the leaders'. Reach, endorsement and placement diverge here.

Shipt

Questions This Section Answers

• What do the November 2026 AI answer results show about Shipt mentions, recommendations and placement?

Shipt ranks 4 by recommendation count. Mentions: 323 (68.14%); recommendations: 241 (50.84%). Top 3 placements: 71 (14.98%); first-place placements: 1 (0.21%).

Wording about the company: 242 positive, 75 neutral, 6 negative mentions. The proportion of mentions that also included a recommendation was 74.6%. The net framing score was 0.73 (defined in Methodology).

82 mentions had no recorded recommendation. Of recorded recommendations, 29.46% were Top 3 and 0.41% were first-place.

There are insufficient usable monthly observations for a prior-period comparison.

Shipt holds a mid-table recommendation count on a smaller mention base than the leaders. Its endorsements rarely reach top-three positions and almost never first place, so its profile is endorsement without strong ordering.

Framing is mostly positive with some neutral and a few negative mentions. The sparse first-place count warrants caution about reading much into that placement.

Thrive Market

Questions This Section Answers

• What do the November 2026 AI answer results show about Thrive Market mentions, recommendations and placement?

Thrive Market ranks 5 by recommendation count. Mentions: 215 (45.36%); recommendations: 205 (43.25%). Top 3 placements: 16 (3.38%); first-place placements: 4 (0.84%).

Wording about the company: 205 positive, 10 neutral, 0 negative mentions. The proportion of mentions that also included a recommendation was 95.3%. The net framing score was 0.95 (defined in Methodology).

10 mentions had no recorded recommendation. Of recorded recommendations, 7.80% were Top 3 and 1.95% were first-place.

There are insufficient usable monthly observations for a prior-period comparison.

Thrive Market's mentions are almost always accompanied by a recommendation, giving it one of the highest recommendation-to-mention ratios in the set. Its overall reach is moderate.

Placements are rarely top-three or first, so endorsement is frequent but ordering is weak. Framing is nearly all positive. The strong ratio rests on a moderate base and should be read alongside that reach.

Misfits Market

Questions This Section Answers

• What do the November 2026 AI answer results show about Misfits Market mentions, recommendations and placement?

Misfits Market ranks 6 by recommendation count. Mentions: 176 (37.13%); recommendations: 168 (35.44%). Top 3 placements: 20 (4.22%); first-place placements: 2 (0.42%).

Wording about the company: 168 positive, 8 neutral, 0 negative mentions. The proportion of mentions that also included a recommendation was 95.5%. The net framing score was 0.95 (defined in Methodology).

8 mentions had no recorded recommendation. Of recorded recommendations, 11.90% were Top 3 and 1.19% were first-place.

There are insufficient usable monthly observations for a prior-period comparison.

Misfits Market shows a similar pattern to Thrive Market: a high proportion of its mentions carry endorsements, but placements seldom reach the top of an answer's ordering.

Its reach is modest, and framing is almost entirely positive with little neutral wording. The ratio describes answer wording on a limited base, not customer preference.

Gopuff

Questions This Section Answers

• What do the November 2026 AI answer results show about Gopuff mentions, recommendations and placement?

Gopuff ranks 7 by recommendation count. Mentions: 137 (28.90%); recommendations: 112 (23.63%). Top 3 placements: 18 (3.80%); first-place placements: 5 (1.05%).

Wording about the company: 113 positive, 24 neutral, 0 negative mentions. The proportion of mentions that also included a recommendation was 81.8%. The net framing score was 0.82 (defined in Methodology).

25 mentions had no recorded recommendation. Of recorded recommendations, 16.07% were Top 3 and 4.46% were first-place.

There are insufficient usable monthly observations for a prior-period comparison.

Gopuff appears in a substantial share of recorded answers and is recommended in most of those appearances, placing it seventh by recommendation count. Its wording is overwhelmingly positive with a notable neutral remainder and no negative mentions, so the framing recorded around it is favorable without being uniformly enthusiastic.

Shortlist and first-place placements are a small subset of its recommendations, and the proportion of mentions that also carried an endorsement is high. Because the placement counts are modest, their ordering should be read as indicative rather than firm. No prior-period comparison is available.

FreshDirect

Questions This Section Answers

• What do the November 2026 AI answer results show about FreshDirect mentions, recommendations and placement?

FreshDirect ranks 8 by recommendation count. Mentions: 115 (24.26%); recommendations: 101 (21.31%). Top 3 placements: 13 (2.74%); first-place placements: 4 (0.84%).

Wording about the company: 101 positive, 14 neutral, 0 negative mentions. The proportion of mentions that also included a recommendation was 87.8%. The net framing score was 0.88 (defined in Methodology).

14 mentions had no recorded recommendation. Of recorded recommendations, 12.87% were Top 3 and 3.96% were first-place.

There are insufficient usable monthly observations for a prior-period comparison.

FreshDirect pairs a modest mention base with a relatively high recommendation-to-mention ratio, though its placements rarely reach top-three or first.

Framing is largely positive with some neutral mentions and no negatives. Its profile is consistent endorsement on limited reach, and the small placement counts limit how much ordering can be inferred.

Kroger Delivery

Questions This Section Answers

• What do the November 2026 AI answer results show about Kroger Delivery mentions, recommendations and placement?

Kroger Delivery ranks 9 by recommendation count. Mentions: 159 (33.54%); recommendations: 56 (11.81%). Top 3 placements: 26 (5.49%); first-place placements: 2 (0.42%).

Wording about the company: 56 positive, 102 neutral, 1 negative mentions. The proportion of mentions that also included a recommendation was 35.2%. The net framing score was 0.35 (defined in Methodology).

103 mentions had no recorded recommendation. Of recorded recommendations, 46.43% were Top 3 and 3.57% were first-place.

There are insufficient usable monthly observations for a prior-period comparison.

Kroger Delivery stands out for a low recommendation-to-mention ratio: it is mentioned fairly often but endorsed in only about a third of those mentions. Neutral framing is unusually common for it.

Among its endorsements, top-three placements are relatively frequent. The contrast between frequent mention and limited endorsement is the defining feature of this profile.

Imperfect Foods

Questions This Section Answers

• What do the November 2026 AI answer results show about Imperfect Foods mentions, recommendations and placement?

Imperfect Foods ranks 10 by recommendation count. Mentions: 43 (9.07%); recommendations: 24 (5.06%). Top 3 placements: 6 (1.27%); first-place placements: 1 (0.21%).

Wording about the company: 24 positive, 19 neutral, 0 negative mentions. The proportion of mentions that also included a recommendation was 55.8%. The net framing score was 0.56 (defined in Methodology).

19 mentions had no recorded recommendation. Of recorded recommendations, 25.00% were Top 3 and 4.17% were first-place.

There are insufficient usable monthly observations for a prior-period comparison.

Imperfect Foods appears in a modest share of recorded answers and is recommended in roughly half of those appearances, ranking tenth by recommendation count. Wording around it is split between positive and neutral with no negative mentions, giving it a favorable but less emphatic framing profile than the leading companies.

Shortlist placements are a minority of its recommendations and first-place placements are rare. With such a small base, the endorsement ratio and placement readings carry wide uncertainty and should be treated cautiously. No prior-period comparison is available.

Earlier ranking snapshot context

Questions This Section Answers

• How do the available Grocery Delivery Services snapshots from July 2026 to November 2026 differ in recommendation coverage and measurement scope?

Only months with verified results are shown. Monthly sample coverage is listed in Methodology.

Only one reporting month has verified results, so no earlier ranking snapshot is available for comparison. The printed table shows the current month's counts and rates against the full answer total.

Counts and rates should be read together: a company can have a high rate on a small base or a lower rate on a large one. No change over time can be inferred from a single month.

What the November Rankings Show

The November results show that reach, endorsement, placement and framing answer different questions. A company can appear in nearly every answer yet be endorsed less consistently, or be endorsed often yet rarely placed first.

Recommendation counts rank companies on affirmative endorsement, with a tie at the top. Placement counts are nested within recommendations, and framing classifies wording rather than sentiment or quality. Reading these measures together gives a fuller picture than any single column.

None of these measures establishes why an answer endorsed a company, nor do they describe customers or sales. They describe the recorded AI answers in this sample.

Methodology

Questions This Section Answers

• How were the November 2026 Grocery Delivery Services AI visibility measures counted, and what do they not establish?

This benchmark has partial coverage: 2 of 3 planned question categories contributed usable observations; 1 contributed none. This describes question-category coverage, not demonstrated platform outages. Findings apply to the available answer set.

The month in the title is the reporting period. The exact dates when the original AI answers were collected have not been verified.

Each company is counted at most once in each answer that meets the benchmark rules. A recommendation requires both an affirmative endorsement and positive wording. Mention, recommendation, Top 3 and first-place rates use the full benchmark answer total. Top 3 and first-place results are included within recommendations, not added to them.

The recommendation-to-mention ratio divides recommendations by mentions. It describes AI answer wording, not customer conversion. Net framing is positive minus negative mentions, divided by all mentions, on a scale from -1 to +1. It does not measure customer satisfaction or company quality.

Market: US; 10 tracked companies. AI services represented: ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Google AI Mode, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity.

Research screening totals (answer observations can include repeated questions):

The source does not provide a reader-facing definition of “reserved”; that screening label is reported without inferring a reason for exclusion. Only the included benchmark answers form the rate denominator.

One answer can mention or recommend several companies. Adding company totals would therefore count some answers more than once. The results describe the AI answers reviewed, not independently verified facts about the companies or their products.

Monthly sample coverage:

July 2026 measured a different set of companies, so it is excluded from this comparison. August 2026 measured a different set of companies, so it is excluded from this comparison. September 2026 measured a different set of companies, so it is excluded from this comparison. October 2026 measured a different set of companies, so it is excluded from this comparison.

The answer samples differ between months. These comparisons show how the recorded results changed; they do not establish why they changed.

This benchmark covers a partial set of planned question categories, so findings apply to the available answers rather than the full intended scope. The reporting month is labeled, but exact collection dates were not verified.

Each company is counted at most once per answer, and all rates use the full benchmark answer total. Top-three and first-place results are included within recommendations, not added to them. One answer can mention several companies, so company totals overlap.

The recommendation-to-mention ratio and net framing describe answer wording, not customer conversion, satisfaction or company quality. Only one month has verified results, so no month-to-month change is inferred.