Gold IRAs and Precious Metals Dealers: AI Visibility Market Discovery Index

Benchmark Summary

Questions This Section Answers

• Which precious metals dealer leads the category in the October 2026 benchmark, and by how much?
• How much did the leading brands improve their recommendation coverage since the May 2026 baseline?
• Which brands moved the most month over month in October 2026?

JM Bullion leads the category in October 2026 with valid recommendation coverage of 50.0%, up from 19.4% in May 2026. APMEX is second at 48.9%, a gap of 1.1 points to the leader. The largest coverage increase since baseline belongs to JM Bullion, which rose from 19.4% in May 2026 to 50.0% in October 2026, a gain of 30.6 points. APMEX recorded a comparable baseline-to-current gain, rising from 18.9% in May 2026 to 48.9% in October 2026. No brand recorded a significant coverage decline from May 2026 to October 2026. Month over month, JM Bullion recorded the largest increase, rising from 44.3% in September 2026 to 50.0% in October 2026, a gain of 5.7 points. American Hartford Gold recorded the largest month-over-month decline, falling from 44.5% in September 2026 to 38.9% in October 2026, a decline of 5.6 points beyond normal month-to-month variation. Both month-over-month movements were beyond normal month-to-month variation.

Between May 2026 and October 2026, nine of ten tracked brands recorded coverage gains beyond normal month-to-month variation. The category leader has changed hands several times since May 2026: JM Bullion led at baseline in May 2026, American Hartford Gold took the lead in July 2026, JM Bullion regained the lead in August 2026, American Hartford Gold led again in September 2026, and JM Bullion has led since October 2026. American Hartford Gold declined in each of the three months through October 2026, while APMEX recorded its third consecutive month of coverage at or above 43.9%. Thor Metals Group remained near 0.0% throughout the series, recording a brief 0.3% in July 2026 before returning to 0.0% for the remainder of the period.

The benchmark began with 800 prompt-surface observations in October 2026 and produced 648 qualified observations after qualification.

Current Benchmark at a Glance

Qualified surface breadth refers to the number of canonical AI surface families with at least one qualified observation: ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews, and AI Mode. Both months recorded observations across all six families. August 2026 recorded a qualified observation count of 629, the lowest in the series, with recovery to 654 in September 2026 and 648 in October 2026.

For the strategic interpretation of this benchmark, read CiteWorks Studio's analysis of How AI Search Is Recommending Gold IRAs and Precious Metals Dealers

Research Scope and Qualification

Questions This Section Answers

• How does the raw prompt-surface collection narrow down to the qualified observations used in the benchmark?
• Why is the public benchmark narrower than the total collection universe?

The public benchmark is narrower than the raw collection universe by design. The table below shows the progression from source prompt-surface observations to the qualified observations used as the public denominator.

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

Current Brand Standings

Questions This Section Answers

• Which precious metals dealers lead on presence rate, valid recommendation coverage, and top-three placement?
• How do the leading brands differ on rank-one rate and net sentiment?

How to Read the Standings

• Presence rate: the share of qualified observations in which the brand was mentioned.
• Valid recommendation coverage: the share of qualified observations in which the brand received a valid recommendation.
• Top-three rate: the share of qualified observations in which the brand appeared among the top three recommendations.
• Rank-one rate: the share of qualified observations in which the brand was the first recommendation given.
• Net sentiment: the share of positive mentions minus the share of negative mentions.

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

Recommendation Coverage Movement

Questions This Section Answers

• Which gold IRA dealers recorded the largest coverage gains since the May 2026 baseline?
• Which brand moved most month over month in October 2026, and in which direction?

Month over month, JM Bullion rose from 44.3% in September 2026 to 50.0% in October 2026, a gain of 5.7 points beyond normal variation. American Hartford Gold fell from 44.5% to 38.9%, a decline of 5.6 points beyond normal variation, its third consecutive monthly decline.

Largest Increase: JM Bullion

JM Bullion recorded the largest baseline-to-current coverage increase in the category, rising from 19.4% in May 2026 to 50.0% in October 2026, a gain of 30.6 points. Presence rate climbed from 39.6% to 79.6% over the same period, top-three rate rose from 13.9% to 44.9%, and rank-one rate rose from 7.9% to 14.0%. The largest single month-to-month gain in this series was 29.4 points, occurring between May 2026 and July 2026.

Largest Decline: American Hartford Gold

American Hartford Gold recorded the largest baseline-to-current decline relative to its peak, though it remains a significant riser against the May 2026 baseline. The brand rose from 12.9% in May 2026 to 38.9% in October 2026, a net gain of 26.0 points. Its coverage peaked at 49.6% in July 2026 and has declined in each of the three months since. Month over month, the brand fell from 44.5% in September 2026 to 38.9% in October 2026, a decline of 5.6 points beyond normal variation.

Category Leader: JM Bullion

JM Bullion leads the category with 50.0% valid recommendation coverage in October 2026, up from 19.4% in May 2026. The brand's lead over APMEX, the next-closest brand at 48.9%, is 1.1 points. JM Bullion's presence rate was 79.6% in October 2026, and its rank-one rate was 14.0%.

Broader Category Movements

Nine of ten tracked brands recorded coverage gains beyond normal month-to-month variation between May 2026 and October 2026. APMEX rose from 18.9% in May 2026 to 48.9% in October 2026, and Augusta Precious Metals rose from 12.0% to 38.4% over the same period. Goldco rose from 11.9% to 31.3%, Birch Gold Group rose from 4.9% to 17.9%, Noble Gold Investments rose from 4.0% to 14.2%, Orion Metal Exchange rose from 0.7% to 3.4%, and Advantage Gold rose from 0.3% to 1.8%. Thor Metals Group remained at 0.0% in both months, recording no movement across the series.

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Questions This Section Answers

• How do top-three and rank-one rates compare between the leading precious metals dealers?
• Can two brands with nearly identical recommendation coverage have very different first-position rates?

Coverage alone does not show how prominently a brand is recommended. The following table shows how often the leading brands appeared in the top three positions and in the first position.

Close coverage can still hide very different first-position rates. JM Bullion and APMEX ended October 2026 within 1.1 points of each other on coverage, but APMEX recorded a 28.1% rank-one rate, double JM Bullion's 14.0%.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

In October 2026, all qualified observations fell into the Brand Recommendation class.

The current public series measures brand recommendation discovery and does not yet contain qualified observations in the pricing or comparison classes.

Historical Measurement Record

Questions This Section Answers

• Which gold IRA dealer led the category in each measurement period, and has the leader changed over time?
• What was the largest coverage movement recorded in each benchmark period?

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

Evidence and Source Layer

Questions This Section Answers

• What source-level evidence does the benchmark retain for each prompt observation?
• Does a cited source prove that it caused a brand 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 sales attribution
• Every possible AI response to a given query
• Organic-search ranking positions
• Social media mention volume or engagement
• Private or sponsored channel performance (such as paid placements or brand-controlled surfaces)
• Causality from a metric movement alone

Top 10 Cited Domains

Questions This Section Answers

• Which domains are cited most often in AI platform responses about gold IRAs and precious metals dealers?
• How broadly are citations distributed across domains, and which brand domains appear in the top 10?

Across all AI platform responses in October 2026, the benchmark observed 6,285 citations across 822 unique domains.

Citations are broadly distributed: the top 10 domains account for 33.7% of all citations, with the remaining 66.3% spread across 812 additional domains. Two tracked brand domains appear in the top 10: jmbullion.com at rank 1 and apmex.com at rank 2. News and financial media outlets dominate the remainder of the list, with cnbc.com, money.com, finance.yahoo.com, cbsnews.com, and usatoday.com together accounting for 12.6% of citations.

About This Benchmark

The LLM Authority Index AI Visibility Market Discovery Index is a neutral, recurring measurement of how major AI and search surfaces discuss brands in response to real market questions. It tracks presence, recommendation coverage, placement, sentiment, and buyer-intent class across six canonical surface families.

• 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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