Auto Refinance Loans: AI Market Discovery Index

Tracking how AI platforms recommend auto refinance loans. This public AI Market Discovery Index is updated monthly since July 2026.

By Mark Huntley, J.D.Growth Strategist & AI Discovery Analyst

6 minutes read

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On this page

01Benchmark Summary
02Current Benchmark at a Glance
03Research Scope and Qualification
04Current Brand Standings
05How to Read the Standings
06Recommendation Coverage Movement
07Largest Increase: Caribou
08Largest Decline: LendingClub
09Category Leader: myAutoloan
10Recommendation Placement Snapshot
11Buyer-Intent Distribution
12Historical Measurement Record

Benchmark Summary

myAutoloan leads the Auto Refinance Loans benchmark in September 2026 with valid recommendation coverage of 46.9%, ahead of LightStream at 42.9%, a gap of 4.0 points. Across the full July–September 2026 series, Caribou posted the largest cumulative gain in valid recommendation coverage, rising from 21.8% in July 2026 to 33.4% in September 2026, a gain of 11.6 points. LendingClub recorded the largest cumulative decline, falling from 17.4% in July 2026 to 5.9% in September 2026, a drop of 11.5 points.

The August-to-September interval was mixed rather than uniformly stable. Auto Approve reversed its prior decline with a significant month-over-month gain, moving from 10.5% in August 2026 to 16.9% in September 2026, though the brand's coverage remains below its July 2026 starting point of 21.8%. RateGenius extended a two-month rising streak, moving from 10.7% in August 2026 to 17.0% in September 2026. Capital One Auto Finance, LightStream, myAutoloan, and OpenRoad Lending held stable month over month, with movement inside normal variation for the series.

AI recommendation trend

valid recommendation coverage, Jul 2026 to Sep 2026

myAutoloan46.9%
LightStream42.9%
Capital One Auto Finance37.2%
Caribou33.4%
Gravity Lending31.3%
RefiJet18.3%
RateGenius17.0%
Auto Approve16.9%
OpenRoad Lending7.5%
LendingClub5.9%

Current Benchmark at a Glance

Measure	Jul 2026	Sep 2026	Movement
Qualified benchmark observations	587	623	Up 36
Tracked brands	10	10	No change
Qualified surface breadth	6	6	No change
Recommendation-shaped answer share	46.8%	50.9%	Up 4.1 points
Valid recommendation shortlist share	77.2%	80.9%	Up 3.7 points
Leader by valid recommendation coverage	LightStream	myAutoloan	Changed

Qualified surface breadth counts the number of canonical AI/search surface families with at least one qualified observation across ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews, and AI Mode. All six families registered qualified observations in both months. August 2026, the intermediate month, saw 420 qualified observations before the series returned to 623 in September 2026.

For the strategic interpretation of this benchmark, read CiteWorks Studio's analysis of How AI Search Is Recommending Auto Refinance Loans

Research Scope and Qualification

The public benchmark is narrower than the raw collection universe by design. The following table shows how observations progressed through the research pipeline.

Research stage	Jul 2026	Sep 2026	What it represents
Source prompt-surface observations	800	800	Total prompts collected across AI/search surfaces
Unique questions	565	547	Distinct questions after deduplication
Brand / competitor mentions	800	800	Prompts mentioning at least one tracked brand
Relevant observations	643	681	On-topic responses retained for review
Irrelevant observations	157	119	Off-topic responses excluded
Qualified benchmark observations	587	623	Public denominator for brand metrics

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

Current Brand Standings

The primary current-month benchmark view, sorted by valid recommendation coverage.

Brand	Presence rate	Valid recommendation coverage	Top-three rate	Rank-one rate	Net sentiment
myAutoloan	53.9%	46.9%	23.4%	5.8%	0.94
LightStream	53.9%	42.9%	24.6%	4.3%	0.87
Capital One Auto Finance	49.4%	37.2%	20.5%	5.0%	0.80
Caribou	42.2%	33.4%	13.8%	3.2%	0.84
Gravity Lending	36.6%	31.3%	17.8%	3.4%	0.90
RefiJet	24.9%	18.3%	7.9%	0.8%	0.85
RateGenius	22.8%	17.0%	5.9%	0.8%	0.78
Auto Approve	21.0%	16.9%	7.2%	1.8%	0.86
OpenRoad Lending	9.5%	7.5%	1.9%	0.8%	0.85
LendingClub	8.3%	5.9%	1.6%	0.2%	0.81

How to Read the Standings

Presence rate: Share of qualified observations where the brand is mentioned at all.
Valid recommendation coverage: Share of qualified observations where the brand appears in a valid recommendation context.
Top-three rate: Share of qualified observations where the brand appears among the top three recommendations.
Rank-one rate: Share of qualified observations where the brand is the first recommendation.
Net sentiment: Positive minus negative sentiment among mentions, scaled to a 0 to 1 range.

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

Recommendation Coverage Movement

Brand	Jul 2026	Sep 2026	Movement since baseline
Auto Approve	21.8%	16.9%	Down 4.9 points
Capital One Auto Finance	41.2%	37.2%	Down 4.0 points
Caribou	21.8%	33.4%	Up 11.6 points
Gravity Lending	36.8%	31.3%	Down 5.5 points
LendingClub	17.4%	5.9%	Down 11.5 points
LightStream	45.5%	42.9%	Down 2.6 points
myAutoloan	41.9%	46.9%	Up 5.0 points
OpenRoad Lending	5.8%	7.5%	Up 1.7 points
RateGenius	10.1%	17.0%	Up 6.9 points
RefiJet	12.1%	18.3%	Up 6.2 points

Largest Increase: Caribou

Caribou rose from 21.8% valid recommendation coverage in July 2026 to 33.4% in September 2026, a cumulative gain of 11.6 points. Presence climbed from 29.0% to 42.2% over the same period. Top-three placement improved from 8.5% to 13.8%. Most of the increase came in August 2026, when coverage rose from 21.8% to 33.6%.

Largest Decline: LendingClub

LendingClub fell from 17.4% valid recommendation coverage in July 2026 to 5.9% in September 2026, a drop of 11.5 points spread across both intervening months. Presence declined from 24.2% to 8.3%, and top-three placement fell from 10.6% to 1.6%. The brand declined in each of the two months since July 2026.

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Category Leader: myAutoloan

myAutoloan held the category lead with 46.9% valid recommendation coverage in September 2026, up from 41.9% in July 2026, though it peaked at 52.6% in August 2026 before easing. The brand also recorded the highest presence rate at 53.9%, tied with LightStream, and the highest rank-one rate at 5.8%.

Additional movers: Gravity Lending declined from 36.8% in July 2026 to 31.3% in September 2026, with the full drop occurring in August. Auto Approve declined from 21.8% to 16.9% over the full series after falling to 10.5% in August and recovering to 16.9% in September. RateGenius increased from 10.1% in July 2026 to 17.0% in September 2026, rising in both months. RefiJet increased from 12.1% to 18.3%, with the full gain arriving in August.

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Coverage alone does not show how prominently a brand is recommended. Placement rates reveal where brands sit within recommendation lists.

Brand	Sep 2026 top-three rate	Sep 2026 rank-one rate	Jul 2026 top-three rate	Jul 2026 rank-one rate
myAutoloan	23.4%	5.8%	19.1%	4.1%
LightStream	24.6%	4.3%	21.8%	5.3%
Capital One Auto Finance	20.5%	5.0%	22.3%	7.0%

Close coverage can still hide different first-position rates. LightStream and myAutoloan posted similar presence rates in September 2026, yet myAutoloan held a 5.8% rank-one rate versus LightStream's 4.3%, and Capital One Auto Finance's 5.0% rank-one rate exceeded LightStream's despite lower overall coverage.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

All qualified observations in both months fell into the Brand Recommendation class.

Buyer-intent class	Jul 2026	Sep 2026
Brand Recommendation	587	623
Pricing & Value	0	0
Multi-Brand Comparison	0	0
Total qualified observations	587	623

The current public series measures Brand Recommendation discovery and does not yet contain qualified observations in the Pricing & Value or Multi-Brand Comparison classes.

Historical Measurement Record

New measurements are added to the same report.

Measurement	Qualified observations	Coverage leader	Leader coverage	Largest coverage movement
Jul 2026	587	LightStream	45.5%	Caribou up 11.8 points (Aug)
Aug 2026	420	myAutoloan	52.6%	Caribou up 11.8 points
Sep 2026	623	myAutoloan	46.9%	Caribou up 11.6 points

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, attributable sales, every possible AI response, organic-search ranking, social mention volume, or private and sponsored channels. A metric movement alone does not establish causality.

About This Benchmark

The LLM Authority Index AI Market Discovery Index tracks how AI and search surfaces discover and recommend brands across industry verticals. It measures presence, recommendation coverage, placement, and sentiment as distinct signals.

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