Bad Credit Loans: AI Market Discovery Index
Tracking how AI platforms recommend bad credit loans. This public AI Market Discovery Index is updated monthly since July 2026.
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 Decline: Achieve
- 08Category Leader: Upstart
- 09Recommendation Placement Snapshot
- 10Buyer-Intent Distribution
- 11Historical Measurement Record
- 12Evidence and Source Layer
Benchmark Summary
Upstart leads the Bad Credit Loans benchmark with a valid recommendation coverage of 75.4% in September 2026. The gap to the next brand, Avant, is 9.4 percentage points, with Avant at 66.0% in September 2026. The largest coverage increase came from Prosper, rising to 15.8% in September 2026 from 13.4% in July 2026. The largest coverage decline was Achieve, falling to 7.1% in September 2026 from 10.3% in July 2026.
The benchmark moved meaningfully this month, with Achieve classified as a significant decliner. Achieve declined in each of the two months since July 2026, moving from 10.3% in July 2026 to 9.5% in August 2026 and then to 7.1% in September 2026. Most other tracked brands remained within normal month-to-month variation, though several recorded notable single-month swings that did not accumulate into a trend. These include Prosper, which rose 3.8 percentage points from 12.0% in August 2026 to 15.8% in September 2026, and Universal Credit, which dropped 5.6 percentage points from 22.0% in August 2026 to 16.4% in September 2026.
Across the full July to September 2026 series, several gaps widened consistently. The gap between Achieve and Upgrade widened every month, from 50.1 percentage points in July 2026 to 57.3 percentage points in September 2026. The gap between Universal Credit and Upgrade also widened monthly, from 41.1 to 48.0 percentage points. The gap between Avant and Upgrade narrowed steadily, from 8.1 percentage points in July 2026 to 1.6 percentage points in September 2026.
The benchmark began with 800 prompt-surface observations in each month and produced 707 qualified observations in September 2026 after qualification.
AI recommendation trend
valid recommendation coverage, Jul 2026 to Sep 2026
- Upstart75.4%
- Avant66.0%
- Upgrade64.4%
- OneMain Financial61.4%
- Universal Credit16.4%
- Prosper15.8%
- Best Egg13.0%
- Achieve7.1%
- National Debt Relief2.7%
- Freedom Debt Relief1.4%
Current Benchmark at a Glance
Measure | Jul 2026 | Sep 2026 | Movement |
|---|---|---|---|
Qualified benchmark observations | 689 | 707 | Up 18 |
Tracked brands | 10 | 10 | No change |
Qualified surface breadth | 6 | 6 | No change |
Recommendation-shaped answer share | 53.4% | 57.7% | Up 4.3 points |
Valid recommendation shortlist share | 75.8% | 75.1% | Down 0.7 points |
Leader by valid recommendation coverage | Upstart | Upstart | No change |
Qualified surface breadth counts the canonical AI/search surface families with at least one qualified observation: ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews, and AI Mode. Six families were present in both July 2026 and September 2026, representing the maximum possible breadth.
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For the strategic interpretation of this benchmark, read CiteWorks Studio's analysis of How AI Search Is Recommending Bad Credit Loans
Research Scope and Qualification
The public benchmark is narrower than the raw collection universe by design. Brand-level percentages use the qualified observations as the public denominator, not the raw collection.
Research stage | Jul 2026 | Sep 2026 | What it represents |
|---|---|---|---|
Source prompt-surface observations | 800 | 800 | Total prompts issued across AI/search surfaces |
Unique questions | 596 | 598 | Distinct questions after de-duplication |
Brand / competitor mentions | 800 | 800 | Prompts mentioning at least one tracked brand |
Relevant observations | 762 | 784 | On-topic for the Bad Credit Loans vertical |
Irrelevant observations | 38 | 16 | Off-topic or unusable responses |
Qualified benchmark observations | 689 | 707 | Public denominator for all brand metrics |
Learn more about how observations are collected and qualified in the AI Market Discovery Methodology.
Current Brand Standings
This table is the primary current-month benchmark view. Brands are sorted by valid recommendation coverage.
Brand | Presence rate | Valid recommendation coverage | Top-three rate | Rank-one rate | Net sentiment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Upstart | 95.0% | 75.4% | 60.1% | 40.9% | 0.9 |
Avant | 82.3% | 66.0% | 48.4% | 8.8% | 0.9 |
Upgrade | 79.3% | 64.4% | 35.1% | 12.3% | 0.9 |
OneMain Financial | 75.2% | 61.4% | 36.4% | 2.0% | 0.9 |
Universal Credit | 20.2% | 16.4% | 4.5% | 0.1% | 0.9 |
Prosper | 22.5% | 15.8% | 1.8% | 0.0% | 0.8 |
Best Egg | 18.4% | 13.0% | 5.1% | 0.6% | 0.8 |
Achieve | 9.6% | 7.1% | 1.8% | 0.1% | 0.8 |
National Debt Relief | 4.0% | 2.7% | 1.1% | 0.9% | 0.8 |
Freedom Debt Relief | 2.4% | 1.4% | 0.4% | 0.0% | 0.8 |
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 usable recommendation context. Top-three rate is the share of observations where the brand appears among the top three recommendations. Rank-one rate is the share where the brand is the first recommendation. Net sentiment is the balance of positive versus negative mentions. For formulas and denominator rules, see AI Market Discovery Metric Definitions.
Recommendation Coverage Movement
The table below shows how valid recommendation coverage moved from the July 2026 baseline to the current month.
Brand | Jul 2026 | Sep 2026 | Movement since baseline |
|---|---|---|---|
Achieve | 10.3% | 7.1% | Down 3.2 points |
Avant | 68.5% | 66.0% | Down 2.5 points |
Best Egg | 14.5% | 13.0% | Down 1.5 points |
Freedom Debt Relief | 1.9% | 1.4% | Down 0.5 points |
National Debt Relief | 2.5% | 2.7% | Up 0.2 points |
OneMain Financial | 60.5% | 61.4% | Up 0.9 points |
Prosper | 13.4% | 15.8% | Up 2.4 points |
Universal Credit | 19.3% | 16.4% | Down 2.9 points |
Upgrade | 60.4% | 64.4% | Up 4.0 points |
Upstart | 75.0% | 75.4% | Up 0.4 points |
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Beyond the baseline comparison, several brands showed significant single-month movements between August 2026 and September 2026. Prosper gained 3.8 percentage points, rising from 12.0% in August 2026 to 15.8% in September 2026. Universal Credit dropped 5.6 percentage points from 22.0% in August 2026 to 16.4% in September 2026. Upstart declined 4.4 percentage points from 79.8% in August 2026 to 75.4% in September 2026. None of these single-month moves accumulated into a sustained trend.
Largest Decline: Achieve
Achieve's valid recommendation coverage fell 3.2 percentage points from 10.3% in July 2026 to 7.1% in September 2026, and the brand declined in each of the two months since July 2026. The September 2026 coverage figure represents 50 qualified observations within the 707-observation month. Achieve's presence rate also declined from 14.2% in July 2026 to 9.6% in September 2026.
Category Leader: Upstart
Upstart held the top position in every month from July 2026 through September 2026. Its valid recommendation coverage of 75.4% in September 2026 was slightly above its July 2026 baseline of 75.0%. Upstart also led on presence rate at 95.0% in September 2026 and held the highest top-three rate at 60.1%.
Recommendation Placement Snapshot
Coverage alone does not show how prominently a brand is recommended within an answer. The table below shows placement rates for the three brands with the highest valid recommendation coverage in September 2026.
Brand | Sep 2026 top-three rate | Sep 2026 rank-one rate | Jul 2026 top-three rate | Jul 2026 rank-one rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Upstart | 60.1% | 40.9% | 56.6% | 42.4% |
Avant | 48.4% | 8.8% | 47.2% | 7.5% |
Upgrade | 35.1% | 12.3% | 28.4% | 6.5% |
Upgrade gained ground in top-three placement, rising to 35.1% in September 2026 from 28.4% in July 2026, a move of 6.7 percentage points. Its rank-one rate also rose to 12.3% in September 2026 from 6.5% in July 2026. Upstart's rank-one rate held above 40% while its top-three rate improved slightly. Similar coverage can still hide different first-position rates, as the contrast between Upstart and Avant shows: Avant reached 48.4% top-three placement but only 8.8% rank-one placement in September 2026.
Buyer-Intent Distribution
All qualified observations in the current benchmark fell into the brand discovery class, meaning the queries were seeking direct recommendations or brand-level information rather than pricing details or side-by-side comparison.
Buyer-intent class | Jul 2026 | Sep 2026 |
|---|---|---|
Brand Recommendation | 689 | 707 |
Pricing & Value | 0 | 0 |
Multi-Brand Comparison | 0 | 0 |
Total qualified observations | 689 | 707 |
The current public series measures the brand-discovery class of intent and does not yet contain qualified observations in the pricing or comparison classes.
Historical Measurement Record
This is an evergreen benchmark URL. New measurements are added to the same report.
Measurement | Qualified observations | Coverage leader | Leader coverage | Largest coverage movement |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Jul 2026 | 689 | Upstart | 75.0% | Upgrade, Up 4.0 points (baseline to current) |
Aug 2026 | 708 | Upstart | 79.8% | Achieve, Down 2.4 points (vs prior) |
Sep 2026 | 707 | Upstart | 75.4% | Prosper, Up 3.8 points (vs prior) |
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 change in a single metric should not be read as proof of causation.
About This Benchmark
The LLM Authority Index AI Market Discovery Index tracks how often brands appear and are recommended across major AI and search surfaces, based on a defined set of prompts and qualification rules. For full details, see:
- AI Market Discovery Methodology
- AI Market Discovery Metric Definitions
- AI Market Discovery Research Standards
- Modeled AI Authority Value
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The public industry benchmark shows category-level standings. A company-level Authority Index can go deeper.
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