Credit Monitoring: AI Visibility Market Discovery Index

Benchmark Summary

Aura leads the Credit Monitoring index in October 2026 with valid recommendation coverage of 65.0%, holding the top position it has occupied across all four months of the series. The gap to the next brand, LifeLock at 51.0%, stands at 14.0-point lead.

Three brands recorded significant coverage increases since the July 2026 baseline. myFICO posted the largest rise, climbing to 31.0% in October 2026 from 20.0% in July 2026, an 11.0-point gain and its third consecutive monthly increase. Experian rose to 44.3% from 35.6%, up 8.7 points, and Credit Karma advanced to 34.8% from 28.9%, up 5.9 points. Five brands recorded significant declines. IDShield fell to 18.1% from 32.8% in July 2026, down 14.7 points, the steepest decline in the index and its third straight monthly drop. IdentityForce declined to 33.1% from 46.6%, down 13.5 points. LifeLock eased to 51.0% from 62.7%, down 11.7 points and lower in each month since baseline. Identity Guard dropped to 28.4% from 37.9%, down 9.5 points, and Aura slipped to 65.0% from 73.1%, down 8.1 points and also lower in each of the three months since baseline.

The benchmark began with 800 prompt-surface observations in each month and produced 535 qualified observations in October 2026 after qualification.

Current Benchmark at a Glance

Qualified surface breadth counts the canonical AI search surface families, ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews, and AI Mode, with at least one qualified observation. The qualified observation count moved from 494 in July 2026 to 511 in August 2026, 557 in September 2026, and 535 in October 2026.

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

Research Scope and Qualification

The public benchmark is narrower than the raw collection universe by design. The funnel below shows how the qualified set is derived.

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

Current Brand Standings

Questions This Section Answers

• Which credit monitoring brands lead on valid recommendation coverage versus presence rate?
• How do top-three and rank-one rates differ across the top brands?

How to Read the Standings

Presence rate measures the share of qualified observations where the brand is mentioned at all. Valid recommendation coverage measures the share where the brand appears in a clear recommendation. Top-three rate captures the share of observations where the brand is among the top three recommendations, and rank-one rate the share where it is the first recommendation. Net sentiment reflects the tone of mentions, on a scale where positive outweighs negative.

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

Recommendation Coverage Movement

Questions This Section Answers

• Which credit monitoring brands gained or lost the most recommendation coverage since July 2026?
• What happened to myFICO and IDShield, the index's largest riser and faller?

Largest Increase: myFICO

myFICO recorded the largest coverage increase in the index, rising 11.0 points from 20.0% in July 2026 to 31.0% in October 2026. Coverage increased in each of the three months since baseline. Its presence rate climbed from 23.7% to 36.8% over the same period, and its top-three rate rose from 9.5% to 18.7%.

Largest Decline: IDShield

IDShield recorded the largest coverage decline in the index, falling 14.7 points from 32.8% in July 2026 to 18.1% in October 2026. Coverage declined in each of the three months since baseline. The move from September 2026 was itself beyond normal month-to-month variation, with coverage easing from 23.3% to 18.1%. Its presence rate fell from 37.9% to 23.2% over the baseline-to-current period.

Category Leader: Aura

Aura has led the index across all four months, though its coverage declined to 65.0% in October 2026 from 73.1% in July 2026, a move beyond normal variation and lower in each of the three months since baseline. Its first-position rate eased from 52.8% to 38.1% across the same period, and its top-three rate from 66.4% to 58.9%.

Other Significant Movers

Experian rose 8.7 points from 35.6% in July 2026 to 44.3% in October 2026. Its presence rate climbed from 72.7% to 88.0%, the highest in the index, while its net sentiment rose slightly from 0.52 to 0.55.

Credit Karma advanced 5.9 points from 28.9% in July 2026 to 34.8% in October 2026, with the increase from September 2026 itself at the edge of normal variation. Its top-three rate rose from 16.2% to 28.4%, and its rank-one rate from 4.2% to 11.0%.

LifeLock declined 11.7 points from 62.7% in July 2026 to 51.0% in October 2026, falling in each month since baseline. Its presence rate eased from 81.2% to 68.0%, while its rank-one rate rose from 3.2% to 9.3%.

IdentityForce declined 13.5 points from 46.6% in July 2026 to 33.1% in October 2026. The move from September 2026 was a modest increase within normal variation. Its presence rate fell from 54.4% to 38.5%.

Identity Guard declined 9.5 points from 37.9% in July 2026 to 28.4% in October 2026. Its presence rate fell from 46.0% to 32.9%.

Chase Credit Journey and PrivacyGuard showed no significant movement from baseline. Chase Credit Journey was at 3.9% in October 2026, down 2.0 points from 5.9% in July 2026, within normal variation. PrivacyGuard held near its low base, at 4.1% in October 2026 against 4.0% in July 2026.

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Questions This Section Answers

• How does first-position rate vary among Aura, LifeLock, and Experian despite close coverage?
• What does the top-three versus rank-one gap reveal about recommendation prominence?

Coverage alone does not show how prominently a brand is recommended. The leading cluster shows how placement varies even among brands with close coverage.

Aura's first-position rate of 38.1% in October 2026 remains well above other brands, while LifeLock's coverage carries a rank-one rate of only 9.3% and Experian's net sentiment of 0.55 sits below the rest of the leading cluster. Close coverage can still hide materially 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 only and does not yet contain qualified observations in the Pricing & Value or Multi-Brand Comparison classes.

Historical Measurement Record

Questions This Section Answers

• Has any brand other than Aura led the index across the four measurements?
• What does the monthly record show about the leader's coverage trajectory?

New measurements are added to the same report.

Evidence and Source Layer

Questions This Section Answers

• Which domains are most frequently cited in AI answers about credit monitoring?
• What do the citation patterns suggest about the sources shaping these recommendations?

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.

Top 10 Cited Domains

Across all AI platform responses in October 2026, the benchmark recorded 6,702 citations drawn from 711 unique domains. The table below lists the ten most-cited domains, their citation counts and shares, and the AI platforms that cited each.

Citation activity is broadly distributed rather than concentrated in a handful of sources: the ten most-cited domains together account for roughly two-fifths of all citations, with the single largest domain, security.org, at 7.3%. Two tracked brands' own domains appear in the top ten, aura.com at rank three and experian.com at rank four. Independent review and comparison sites feature prominently alongside user-generated platforms, indicating that third-party evaluations and community discussion both shape the source layer for credit monitoring recommendations.

Scope Boundaries

This public benchmark does not measure market share, attributable sales, every possible AI response, organic-search ranking, social mention volume, or private or sponsored channels. A metric movement alone does not establish causality.

About This Benchmark

The LLM Authority Index AI Visibility Market Discovery Index tracks how often and how prominently brands appear in AI-generated answers across major AI search surfaces, providing a neutral industry-level view of the recommendation environment.

• 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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