Debt Relief & Consolidation: AI Visibility Market Discovery Index

Benchmark Summary

Questions This Section Answers

• Which debt relief brand leads the benchmark in October 2026, and by how much?
• Which brand recorded the largest coverage increase across the full series?
• What changed in qualified observations and recommendation shortlist share since May 2026?

DebtBlue leads the Debt Relief & Consolidation benchmark in October 2026 with 34.5% valid recommendation coverage, ahead of Beyond Finance at 13.8% coverage, a gap of 20.7 percentage points.

Beyond Finance recorded the largest coverage increase across the full series, rising from 0.0% in May 2026 to 13.8% in October 2026. No brand recorded a decline beyond normal month-to-month variation over that same span. Beyond Finance's coverage climbed 15.4 points between August 2026 and September 2026, then eased 1.6 points to 13.8% in October 2026, a change within normal month-to-month variation. DebtBlue recorded the largest month-over-month increase from September 2026 to October 2026, rising 16.6 points from 17.9% to 34.5%, which exceeded normal variation and marked a second consecutive monthly gain.

The benchmark drew from 614 prompt-surface observations in October 2026, producing 58 qualified observations after qualification.

Current Benchmark at a Glance

The qualified observation count peaked at 78 in September 2026 before settling to 58 in October 2026.

Qualified surface breadth counts the canonical AI surface families with at least one qualified observation. The six canonical families are 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 Debt Relief & Consolidation

Research Scope and Qualification

Questions This Section Answers

• How many observations qualified for public reporting in October 2026 versus the raw collection?
• Why is the public benchmark denominator narrower than the raw prompt-surface observations?

The public benchmark is narrower than the raw collection universe by design. The funnel below shows how observations were qualified, using the baseline and current months as table columns.

In July 2026, the benchmark drew from 540 prompt-surface observations across 334 unique questions, with 347 relevant and 193 irrelevant observations, qualifying 58 for public reporting. In August 2026, the benchmark drew from 598 prompt-surface observations across 377 unique questions, with 401 relevant and 197 irrelevant observations, qualifying 63 for public reporting. In September 2026, the benchmark drew from 639 prompt-surface observations across 388 unique questions, with 461 relevant and 178 irrelevant observations, qualifying 78 for public reporting.

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

• Which brands hold valid recommendation coverage, and which brands sit at 0.0%?
• How do presence rate and valid recommendation coverage differ for the tracked brands?
• Which brands earned top-three or rank-one placement in October 2026?

How to Read the Standings

• Presence rate: share of qualified observations where the brand is mentioned, regardless of sentiment.
• Valid recommendation coverage: share of qualified observations where the brand receives a recommendation that meets validity criteria.
• Top-three rate: share of qualified observations where the brand appears in the first three recommended positions.
• Rank-one rate: share of qualified observations where the brand is the first recommendation.
• Net sentiment: positive mentions minus negative mentions, 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 coverage increase, and which recorded the largest decline?
• What path did Beyond Finance's recommendation coverage follow from May to October 2026?
• How much did the gap between DebtBlue and Beyond Finance narrow since the baseline?

Largest Increase: Beyond Finance

Beyond Finance rose from 0.0% valid recommendation coverage in May 2026 to 13.8% in October 2026, an increase beyond normal month-to-month variation. The brand's series moved through 6.9% in July 2026, 0.0% in August 2026, and 15.4% in September 2026 before reaching 13.8% in October 2026, a single-month dip of 1.6 points that sits within normal variation. Presence rate rose from 15.8% in May 2026 to 36.2% in October 2026, and top-three rate moved from 0.0% to 12.1% over the same period. Net sentiment improved from -0.3 in May 2026 to 0.4 in October 2026.

Largest Decline: DebtBlue

DebtBlue's valid recommendation coverage declined from 47.4% in May 2026 to 34.5% in October 2026, a drop of 12.9 percentage points that is within normal month-to-month variation across the full series. The path was uneven: coverage was 25.9% in July 2026, 0.0% in August 2026, 17.9% in September 2026, then 34.5% in October 2026, which is a second consecutive monthly increase and a rise of 16.6 points from the prior month, beyond normal variation. Presence rate fell from 57.9% in May 2026 to 34.5% in October 2026.

Category Leader: DebtBlue

DebtBlue leads all tracked brands in October 2026 with 34.5% valid recommendation coverage, followed by Beyond Finance at 13.8%. The gap between the two narrowed from 47.4 points in May 2026 to 20.7 points in October 2026. Ten brands held 0.0% coverage in October 2026.

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Questions This Section Answers

• How do top-three and rank-one rates differ between DebtBlue and Beyond Finance?
• Which brand held the only rank-one placements in October 2026?

Coverage alone does not show how prominently a brand is recommended. DebtBlue held the highest coverage at 34.5% and recorded an 8.6% top-three rate and a 1.7% rank-one rate. Beyond Finance reached a 12.1% top-three rate with 13.8% coverage, meaning it appeared in the first three positions in a slightly larger share of observations than DebtBlue despite lower overall coverage.

Close coverage can still hide different first-position rates: DebtBlue recorded the only rank-one placements in October 2026 at 1.7%, while Beyond Finance reached a higher top-three rate without appearing first in any observation.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

In October 2026, all 58 qualified observations fell into the Brand Recommendation class. This was also true in May 2026, where all 19 qualified observations were in the Brand Recommendation class.

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

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 attributable sales
• Every possible AI response, as the benchmark samples a defined set of prompts and surfaces
• 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 were cited most often across AI platform responses?
• How concentrated are citations among the top 10 domains, and which platforms cite them?
• Which third-party review and ratings sites appear alongside brand-owned domains?

Across all AI platform responses in this measurement period, 3,694 citations were observed across 772 unique domains.

Citations are broadly distributed: the top 10 domains together account for under 36% of all citations, and no single domain exceeds 5.6% share. Two tracked brands' own domains appear in the top 10, with beyondfinance.com at rank 1 and alleviatefinancial.com at rank 6. Third-party review and ratings sites carry substantial weight, with bbb.org, trustpilot.com, and consumeraffairs.com all placing, alongside general platforms such as google.com, reddit.com, and youtube.com.

About This Benchmark

The LLM Authority Index AI Visibility Market Discovery Index is a neutral, industry-level benchmark tracking how AI and search surfaces present brands in response to category-relevant prompts. This report is updated monthly from audited prompt-level observations.

• 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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