Credit Cards: AI Visibility Market Discovery Index

Benchmark Summary

Questions This Section Answers

• Which brand leads the Credit Cards index for valid recommendation coverage in October 2026?
• Which brand posted the largest coverage increase and which posted the largest decline?
• How did the qualified benchmark observation count change between July and October 2026?

American Express leads the Credit Cards index for valid recommendation coverage in October 2026 at 58.8%, up from 50.4% in July 2026. Capital One follows at 54.2% in October 2026, a gap of 4.6 points behind the leader, after registering no valid recommendation coverage under its current name in July 2026 or August 2026. The largest coverage increase belonged to Capital One, which rose to 54.2% in October 2026 from 0.0% in July 2026. The largest coverage decline belonged to Chase, which fell to 0.0% in October 2026 from 52.6% in July 2026. The benchmark produced 354 qualified observations in October 2026, down from 667 in July 2026.

Current Benchmark at a Glance

Qualified surface breadth refers to the number of canonical AI/search surface families, namely ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews, and AI Mode, that produced at least one qualified observation.

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

Research Scope and Qualification

Questions This Section Answers

• What observation count is used as the denominator for brand-level percentages in this report?

Brand-level percentages in this report use the qualified benchmark observation count as the denominator for each month, not a larger raw collection. The qualified observation count was 667 in July 2026 and 354 in October 2026, matching the number of unique questions evaluated in each period.

For methodology details, see AI Visibility Market Discovery Methodology.

Current Brand Standings

Questions This Section Answers

• How do American Express, Capital One, Citi, and Wells Fargo & Co. compare on valid recommendation coverage?
• Which brands show the highest presence rates versus the highest top-three and rank-one rates?
• What does net sentiment look like across the tracked card brands?

How to Read the Standings

• Presence rate: the share of qualified observations where the brand is mentioned, regardless of recommendation status.
• Valid recommendation coverage: the share of qualified observations where the brand appears in a recommendation-shaped answer with a clear rank, shortlist, or comparison context.
• Top-three rate: the share of qualified observations where the brand appears among the top three recommended options.
• Rank-one rate: the share of qualified observations where the brand is the single top recommendation.
• Net sentiment: positive minus negative mention tone, divided by total mentions.

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

Recommendation Coverage Movement

Questions This Section Answers

• Which brand recorded the largest valid recommendation coverage increase since the July 2026 baseline?
• Which brand recorded the largest decline, and how did entity relabeling affect the movement figures?
• How did American Express's coverage move across July, August, September, and October 2026?

Largest Increase: Capital One

Capital One posted the largest coverage increase, rising to 54.2% valid recommendation coverage in October 2026 from 0.0% in July 2026, a move beyond normal month-to-month variation. Capital One also increased from 48.1% in September 2026, a move within normal month-to-month variation, and has now risen in each of the two months since September 2026. This increase was accompanied by a presence rate of 99.4% in October 2026. The prior series tracked this entity as Capital One Auto Finance, which registered 31.6% in July 2026 and 0.0% in October 2026.

Largest Decline: Discover Home Loans

Discover Home Loans posted the largest coverage decline in the current series, falling to 0.0% valid recommendation coverage in October 2026 from 22.8% in July 2026. Discover Home Loans declined in each of the three months since July 2026, with its presence rate falling to 0.3% in October 2026 from 46.3% in July 2026. Entity relabeling complicates attribution of movement: Chase also declined to 0.0% in October 2026 from 52.6% in July 2026; the entity previously tracked as Chase now appears under the Chase Credit Journey label, which registered 0.0% valid recommendation coverage in October 2026.

Category Leader: American Express

American Express led the category with 58.8% valid recommendation coverage in October 2026, up from its July 2026 baseline of 50.4% after dipping to 47.1% in August 2026 and recovering to 50.4% in September 2026. American Express has now increased in each of the two months since September 2026. American Express also held the highest top-three rate at 33.6% in October 2026, up from 18.0% in July 2026.

Wells Fargo & Co. held the highest rank-one rate at 13.6% in October 2026. Citi was stable across the period, moving from 49.9% in July 2026 to 49.4% in October 2026, a change within normal month-to-month variation, though it rose from 42.4% in September 2026. Barclays was also stable, moving from 2.9% in July 2026 to 4.0% in October 2026.

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Questions This Section Answers

• Why can similar valid recommendation coverage hide very different rank-one rates?
• How did Wells Fargo & Co.'s rank-one rate compare with Capital One's relative to their overall coverage?

Coverage alone does not show how prominently a brand is recommended. Among the leading brands by valid recommendation coverage, placement rates varied meaningfully. Wells Fargo & Co. converted a substantial share of its coverage into first-place appearances, while Capital One showed a lower first-position frequency relative to its overall coverage.

Close overall coverage can still hide very different first-position rates: Wells Fargo & Co.'s 33.3% coverage produced a 13.6% rank-one rate, while Capital One's higher 54.2% coverage yielded a 6.2% rank-one rate. Capital One and Wells Fargo & Co. did not have a comparable tracked presence under their current names in July 2026, so their baseline placement rates are not available. American Express and Citi both carry July baselines: American Express's top-three rate rose to 33.6% from 18.0% while Citi's rose to 22.0% from 18.0%.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

Questions This Section Answers

• Which buyer-intent class captured all qualified observations in July and October 2026?
• Which intent classes—such as pricing and value or multi-brand comparison—are not yet measured in the current series?

All qualified observations in both months fell into the Brand Recommendation class, reflecting consumers actively seeking card recommendations.

All qualified observations sit in one 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 did the coverage leader and qualified observation count change across July, August, September, and October 2026?
• Which month recorded the largest coverage movement, and what drove it?

The coverage leader changed between July and September 2026, and the qualified observation count fell by nearly half across the same period.

Evidence and Source Layer

Questions This Section Answers

• What prompt-level fields does the benchmark retain for each observation?
• Does a cited source count as proof that the source caused a recommendation?

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 attributable sales
• Every possible AI response
• Organic-search ranking
• Social 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 often across AI platform responses in October 2026?
• How concentrated are citations among the top 10 domains versus the rest?
• Do any tracked card brands' own domains appear among the top-cited sources?

Across all AI platform responses in October 2026, 5,916 citations were observed across 623 unique domains. The top 10 most-cited domains are listed below.

Citations are moderately concentrated: the top 10 domains account for 45.3% of all citations, while the remaining 613 domains share the rest. Review and comparison sites, including NerdWallet, Bankrate, WalletHub, The Points Guy, and CreditCards.com, dominate the top of the list. No tracked brand's own domain appears in the top 10.

About This Benchmark

The LLM Authority Index AI Visibility Market Discovery Index tracks how major AI and search surfaces mention and recommend brands in response to consumer discovery prompts. It is a neutral, industry-level benchmark that records change without attributing cause.

• 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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