Essential Oil: AI Market Discovery Index

Benchmark Summary

Plant Therapy led the Essential Oil benchmark in August 2026 with valid recommendation coverage of 80.0%, up from 76.9% in July 2026. The gap to the next brand, Edens Garden at 60.5%, stood at 19.5 percentage points in August 2026.

The largest coverage increase among tracked brands was Plant Therapy, rising from 76.9% in July 2026 to 80.0% in August 2026. The largest coverage decline was doTERRA, falling from 30.7% in July 2026 to 24.5% in August 2026.

This was a month of significant movement, with two brands moving beyond normal month-to-month variation. doTERRA declined 6.2 percentage points and Vitruvi declined 3.2 percentage points from July to August 2026. The majority of tracked brands were stable within normal variation, including Edens Garden, which moved down 2.4 percentage points, and Revive Essential Oils, down 2.2 percentage points.

The benchmark produced 506 qualified observations in August 2026, up from 485 in July 2026.

Current Benchmark at a Glance

Qualified surface breadth counts the number of canonical AI/search surface families with at least one qualified observation: 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 Essential Oil

Current Brand Standings

The table below shows the current-month benchmark view for August 2026, sorted by valid recommendation coverage.

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 receives a valid recommendation.
• Top-three rate is the share of qualified observations where the brand appears among the top three recommendations.
• Rank-one rate is the share of qualified observations where the brand is the first recommendation.
• Net sentiment measures the balance of positive versus negative mentions, scaled from -1 to 1.

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

Recommendation Coverage Movement

Largest Decline: doTERRA

doTERRA's valid recommendation coverage fell from 30.7% in July 2026 to 24.5% in August 2026, a decline of 6.2 percentage points that moved beyond normal month-to-month variation. Presence rate eased from 67.8% to 64.8% over the same period. Net sentiment declined from 0.4 to 0.3.

Largest Decline: Vitruvi

Vitruvi's valid recommendation coverage fell from 8.5% in July 2026 to 5.3% in August 2026, a decline of 3.2 percentage points that moved beyond normal month-to-month variation. Presence rate dropped from 10.5% to 7.3% over the same period. Net sentiment held steady at 0.8.

Category Leader: Plant Therapy

Plant Therapy remained the category leader with valid recommendation coverage of 80.0% in August 2026, up from 76.9% in July 2026. The brand's rank-one rate rose from 48.2% to 55.9%, moving beyond normal variation. Presence rate increased from 88.2% to 90.3%.

In stable movement, Rocky Mountain Oils rose from 46.0% to 47.2%, Aura Cacia rose from 32.2% to 33.0%, and NOW Foods rose from 33.4% to 34.0% in valid recommendation coverage. Edens Garden declined from 62.9% to 60.5%, Revive Essential Oils declined from 9.7% to 7.5%, and Young Living declined from 16.7% to 15.8%.

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Coverage alone does not show how prominently a brand is recommended. The table below compares top-three and rank-one placement rates for the leading brands.

Similar coverage can still hide very different first-position rates: Plant Therapy and Edens Garden were separated by 19.5 points in coverage, but by 54.1 points in rank-one rate in August 2026.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

All qualified observations in both months fell into the Brand Recommendation class, which covers discovery and consideration of essential oil brands.

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

This is an evergreen benchmark URL. New measurements are added to the same report.

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 sales attribution
• Every possible AI response across all surfaces and models
• Organic-search ranking positions
• Social media mention volume or sentiment
• Private or sponsored channels
• Causality from metric movement alone

About This Benchmark

The LLM Authority Index AI Market Discovery Index tracks how often brands are present and recommended across six major AI/search surface families, using a consistent qualification methodology applied to prompt-level observations each month.

• 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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