Antivirus Software: AI Visibility Market Discovery Index

Benchmark Summary

Questions This Section Answers

• Which antivirus brand leads the category in the October 2026 benchmark, and by how much?
• Which brands moved beyond normal month-to-month variation, and in which direction?

Bitdefender GravityZone leads the Antivirus Software category in October 2026 with valid recommendation coverage of 69.9%, up from 64.2% in July 2026. The gap to the next brand is 4.2 points, with Norton in second place at 65.7% in October 2026, down from 68.4% in July 2026.

The largest coverage increase from the prior month was Bitdefender GravityZone, rising to 69.9% in October 2026 from 48.8% in September 2026, a movement beyond normal month-to-month variation. The largest coverage decline from the prior month was ESET, falling to 48.3% in October 2026 from 51.3% in September 2026, within normal month-to-month variation.

The month was mixed. Three brands recorded significant declines across the full July-to-October series: Kaspersky fell 6.6 points from 30.5% to 23.9%, McAfee fell 12.3 points from 44.8% to 32.5%, and Webroot fell 4.1 points from 11.5% to 7.4%. Bitdefender GravityZone was the only significant riser, up 5.7 points across the series. Avast declined in each of the three months since July 2026, though the cumulative movement remains within normal month-to-month variation.

The benchmark began with 800 prompt-surface observations and produced 644 qualified observations in October 2026 after qualification.

Current Benchmark at a Glance

Qualified surface breadth counts the six canonical AI/search surface families with at least one qualified observation: ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews, and AI Mode.

For the strategic interpretation of this benchmark, read CiteWorks Studio's analysis of How AI Search Is Recommending Antivirus Software

Research Scope and Qualification

The public benchmark is narrower than the raw collection universe by design. The qualification funnel shows how the public denominator is derived from the full collection.

Brand-level percentages use the qualified observations as the public denominator, not the raw collection. See the AI Visibility Market Discovery Methodology.

Current Brand Standings

Questions This Section Answers

• How do the antivirus brands rank on valid recommendation coverage in October 2026?
• Which brand has the strongest rank-one rate versus the strongest overall presence?

This table is the current-month benchmark view for October 2026, sorted by valid recommendation coverage.

How to Read the Standings

• Presence rate is the share of qualified observations where the brand is mentioned at all.
• Valid recommendation coverage is the share of qualified observations where the brand appears in a valid recommendation context.
• Top-three rate is the share of qualified observations where the brand is recommended in the top three positions.
• Rank-one rate is the share of qualified observations where the brand is recommended first.
• Net sentiment is the positive minus negative mention balance, on a scale from 0 to 1.

For formulas and denominator rules, see AI Visibility Market Discovery Metric Definitions.

Recommendation Coverage Movement

Questions This Section Answers

• Which antivirus brand recorded the largest coverage gain or decline since the July 2026 baseline?
• Why did Bitdefender GravityZone overtake Norton as the coverage leader?

Largest Increase: Bitdefender GravityZone

Bitdefender GravityZone recorded the largest increase in valid recommendation coverage, rising 21.1 points from 48.8% in September 2026 to 69.9% in October 2026, a movement beyond normal month-to-month variation. Across the full series, coverage is up 5.7 points from 64.2% in July 2026. Supporting signals moved in the same direction: raw mention presence rose from 72.5% to 77.6%, rank-one rate rose from 43.4% to 49.7%, and top-three rate rose from 58.0% to 62.4%. The brand holds the highest rank-one rate in the category at 49.7% in October 2026.

Largest Decline: McAfee

McAfee recorded the largest decline in valid recommendation coverage across the series, falling 12.3 points from 44.8% in July 2026 to 32.5% in October 2026, a movement beyond normal month-to-month variation. The brand declined in each of the three months since July 2026. Raw mention presence fell from 62.5% to 55.0%, and net sentiment fell from 0.76 to 0.58. Top-three rate rose from 10.4% to 11.8%.

Category Leader: Bitdefender GravityZone

Bitdefender GravityZone became the coverage leader in October 2026 at 69.9%, up from 64.2% in July 2026. In September 2026, the brand ranked fifth on coverage at 48.8%; Norton led that month at 62.3%. October 2026 marks the first month in the series in which Bitdefender GravityZone holds the top position on valid recommendation coverage. Norton declined 2.7 points across the series from 68.4% to 65.7%, within normal variation. Norton rose 3.4 points from September 2026 to October 2026.

Watch Item: Avast

Avast declined in each of the three months since July 2026, falling 4.3 points from 56.8% to 52.5%. The cumulative movement remains within normal month-to-month variation and is not yet a trend. Top-three rate rose from 18.4% to 22.2% across the series.

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Questions This Section Answers

• How does Norton's rank-one rate compare with its overall coverage next to Bitdefender GravityZone?
• What does the placement data show about how prominently each brand is recommended?

Coverage alone does not show how prominently a brand is recommended. Bitdefender GravityZone holds both the highest coverage and the highest rank-one rate in October 2026.

Norton's coverage of 65.7% sits close to the leader's 69.9%, but its rank-one rate of 9.9% is far below Bitdefender GravityZone's 49.7%. Close coverage can still hide very different first-position rates.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

All qualified observations in each month fell into the Brand Recommendation class.

The current public series measures brand recommendation discovery and does not yet contain qualified observations in the pricing and value or multi-brand comparison classes.

Historical Measurement Record

Questions This Section Answers

• How has the coverage leader changed across the four measurement months?
• Does the available history support a trend or only a single-period movement?

Evidence and Source Layer

The benchmark is built from prompt-level observations that retain the query, AI/search surface, answer, brand outcome, recommendation placement, sentiment, and, where exposed, citations or attributable evidence sources. Source presence is evidence about the information environment. It is not automatically proof that the source caused the recommendation.

Scope Boundaries

This public benchmark does not measure:

• Market share or sales attribution
• Every possible AI response a model could generate
• Organic-search ranking positions
• Social media mention volume
• Private or sponsored channels
• Causality from a metric movement alone

Top 10 Cited Domains

Questions This Section Answers

• Which domains are cited most across AI platform responses in October 2026?
• How concentrated are citations among the top 10 domains versus the full set of sources?
• Which cited source is the only tracked antivirus brand domain in the top 10?

Across all AI platform responses in October 2026, the benchmark recorded 7,055 citations across 858 unique domains.

Citations are broadly distributed: the top 10 domains account for 3,555 of 7,055 citations, or roughly half, across 858 unique domains. Review and editorial outlets such as PCMag, CNET, TechRadar, and Security.org feature prominently, alongside community platforms like YouTube and Reddit. One tracked brand's own domain appears in the top 10: avast.com ranks ninth at 179 citations and a 2.5% share, cited across all six AI surface families.

About This Benchmark

The LLM Authority Index AI Visibility Market Discovery Index tracks how AI and search surfaces mention, recommend, and position brands in response to real buyer questions. This benchmark is built from audited monthly measurement across six canonical AI/search surface families.

Research links:

• AI Visibility Market Discovery Methodology
• AI Visibility Market Discovery Metric Definitions
• AI Visibility Market Discovery Research Standards
• Modeled AI Visibility Authority Value

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