ED Treatment Pills: AI Visibility Market Discovery Index

Benchmark Summary

In October 2026, Hims leads the ED Treatment Pills benchmark with 60.8% valid recommendation coverage, ahead of Ro by 5.7 percentage points.

September-to-October movement was mixed, with several brands recording moves beyond normal month-to-month variation. GoodRx Care rose from 39.0% to 51.0% (up 12.0 points), Hims rose from 46.6% to 60.8% (up 14.2 points), Ro rose from 45.9% to 55.1% (up 9.2 points), and Lemonaid Health rose from 21.3% to 30.4% (up 9.1 points). PlushCare fell from 20.0% to 0.0% (down 20.0 points), and a separate brand entity, plushcare, entered the tracked set in October 2026 at 23.0% coverage, up from 0.0% in each of the three prior months.

Measured against the July 2026 baseline, most of October's rebound sits within normal variation rather than marking a change in cumulative standing. Hims (65.5% in July versus 60.8% in October), Ro (62.5% versus 55.1%), GoodRx Care (44.0% versus 51.0%), and Lemonaid Health (25.5% versus 30.4%) all remain within normal variation of their baseline figures, and Hims holds the category lead across the full period.

Three brands show movement beyond normal variation across the full July-to-October window. The largest riser is plushcare, a new entrant at 23.0% coverage versus 0.0% at baseline. The largest decliner is PlushCare, down from 25.9% to 0.0%; Rex MD (15.1% to 8.8%) and Optum (3.1% to 0.7%) are also significant decliners over the period, though Optum's October reading itself was flat versus September. Blink Health is a watch item after three consecutive monthly declines that remain within normal variation overall.

The benchmark began with 800 prompt-surface observations in each month and produced 296 qualified observations in October 2026 after qualification.

Current Benchmark at a Glance

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. All six families registered observations in each month.

For the strategic interpretation of this benchmark, read CiteWorks Studio's analysis of How AI Search Is Recommending ED Treatment Pills

Research Scope and Qualification

Questions This Section Answers

• How many of the collected prompt-surface observations qualified for the October 2026 ED Treatment Pills benchmark?
• What is the difference between the source prompt-surface observations and the qualified benchmark observations?

The public benchmark reports on qualified observations after excluding irrelevant, off-topic, and reserved prompts from the raw collection universe. Brand-level percentages use the qualified observation count for each month as the public denominator, not the raw collection.

For the full qualification rules, see AI Visibility Market Discovery Methodology.

Current Brand Standings

Questions This Section Answers

• Which ED treatment brands lead the October 2026 standings by valid recommendation coverage?
• How do presence rate and valid recommendation coverage differ across brands like Hims, Ro, and GoodRx Care?
• Which brands appear in the top three or rank first most often?

This table shows the primary current-month benchmark view for October 2026, sorted by valid recommendation coverage:

How to Read the Standings

• Presence rate is the share of qualified observations in which the brand is mentioned at all, regardless of recommendation status.
• Valid recommendation coverage is the share of qualified observations in which the brand appears in a valid recommendation, the primary metric for this benchmark.
• Top-three rate is the share of qualified observations in which the brand appears among the first three recommended options.
• Rank-one rate is the share of qualified observations in which the brand is the single first recommended option.
• Net sentiment is the balance of positive versus negative mentions, on a scale from 0 to 1.

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

Recommendation Coverage Movement

Questions This Section Answers

• Which ED treatment brands recorded coverage changes beyond normal variation between July and October 2026?
• What explains the rise of plushcare and the simultaneous fall of PlushCare in the tracked set?

Coverage movement from July 2026 to October 2026:

Largest Increase: plushcare

plushcare entered the tracked set in October 2026 at 23.0% valid recommendation coverage, up from 0.0% in July 2026, a 23.0 point increase beyond normal variation. The brand also recorded 30.7% presence, 9.8% top-three rate, 1.7% rank-one rate, and 0.8 net sentiment in October 2026. This is the first month plushcare has appeared in the series. The parallel PlushCare entity fell to 0.0% coverage in the same month, described below.

Largest Decline: PlushCare

PlushCare declined from 25.9% in July 2026 to 0.0% in October 2026, a 25.9 point drop beyond normal variation. The decline was concentrated in the final month: coverage stood at 19.8% in August 2026 and 20.0% in September 2026 before falling to 0.0% in October 2026, a 20.0 point month-over-month drop. PlushCare's presence rate, top-three rate, rank-one rate, and net sentiment are not present in the October 2026 data.

Category Leader: Hims

Hims retains the category lead with 60.8% valid recommendation coverage in October 2026, up from 46.6% in September 2026, a 14.2 point increase beyond normal variation, and ahead of Ro at 55.1% by 5.7 percentage points. Hims also leads on presence at 92.6%, top-three rate at 48.6%, and rank-one rate at 28.4%. Its rank-one rate in October 2026 is more than double Ro's 9.8%.

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Questions This Section Answers

• Why can two brands with similar coverage have very different rank-one rates?
• How do Hims, Ro, and GoodRx Care differ in top-three and first-position recommendation rates?

Coverage alone does not show how prominently a brand is recommended. The leading brands show distinctly different placement profiles in October 2026:

Hims and Ro hold relatively close coverage in October 2026, yet Hims is the first-position recommendation in 28.4% of observations versus 9.8% for Ro. Close coverage can still hide substantially different first-position rates.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

Questions This Section Answers

• What kinds of buyer-intent prompts made up the qualified observations in the ED Treatment Pills benchmark?
• Are pricing and multi-brand comparison questions currently measured in this benchmark?

All qualified observations in each month of the public series fell into the brand recommendation class, which captures discovery and consideration prompts where a specific treatment provider is sought.

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

• Has Hims held the coverage lead across every monthly measurement in the series?
• Which month recorded the largest single coverage movement in the benchmark so far?

New measurements are added to the same evergreen benchmark report.

Evidence and Source Layer

Questions This Section Answers

• What information is captured for each prompt-level observation, including citations and evidence sources?
• Does the presence of a source in AI responses prove that it caused the 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, sales, or revenue attribution from AI recommendations
• Every possible AI response a user might receive
• Organic-search ranking performance
• Social media mention volume or sentiment
• Private, sponsored, or gated channels
• Causality from a metric movement alone; the benchmark records change, it does not establish why change occurred

Top 10 Cited Domains

Questions This Section Answers

• Which domains received the most citations across AI platform responses in October 2026?
• How prominent are general health publishers versus brand-owned domains in the citation environment?

Across all AI platform responses in October 2026, 6,535 citations were observed across 1,052 unique domains.

Citations are moderately concentrated in the leading domains, with the top 10 accounting for roughly 41% of all citations. Several tracked brands' own domains appear in the top 10, including hims.com, ro.co, bluechew.com, and lemonaidhealth.com. General health publishers and brand-owned properties together shape the source environment for this vertical.

About This Benchmark

The LLM Authority Index AI Visibility Market Discovery Index is a neutral industry benchmark measuring how brands appear, are recommended, and are placed across six canonical AI/search surface families: ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews, and AI Mode. Each monthly measurement captures presence, valid recommendation coverage, recommendation placement, and sentiment from qualified 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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