Grocery Delivery Services: AI Visibility Market Discovery Index

Benchmark Summary

Questions This Section Answers

• Who leads the grocery delivery category in AI recommendation coverage, and how large is the gap?
• How much did the top brands move against the prior month and the July 2026 baseline?

Amazon leads the category with 77.2% valid recommendation coverage in October 2026, holding a 0.6-point edge over Instacart at 76.6%. Both leaders rose beyond normal variation from the July 2026 baseline, when Amazon stood at 67.3% and Instacart at 65.7%.

Against September 2026, Amazon rose 14.3 points (62.9% to 77.2%) and Instacart rose 14.6 points (62.0% to 76.6%), extending the rise both brands have shown since the baseline rather than reversing it. Gopuff and Shipt also posted significant gains against September, while Walmart Pet Care fell 10.1 points against September, continuing its baseline-to-current decline rather than breaking from it.

The largest coverage increase came from Amazon, up from 67.3% in July 2026 to 77.2% in October 2026, and Instacart recorded the second-largest gain over the same span, rising from 65.7% to 76.6%. The largest coverage decline belonged to FreshDirect, falling from 31.9% in July 2026 to 15.2% in October 2026, beyond normal variation across the series.

The month was mixed rather than quiet: two brands rose beyond normal variation against the baseline, four declined beyond normal variation, and four held within normal variation. The benchmark began with 800 prompt-surface observations in each month and produced 479 qualified observations in October 2026 after qualification.

Current Benchmark at a Glance

Qualified surface breadth counts the canonical AI surface families with at least one qualified observation: ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews, and AI Mode. August 2026 and September 2026 each also recorded six qualified surface families.

For the strategic interpretation of this benchmark, read CiteWorks Studio's analysis of How AI Search Is Recommending Grocery Delivery Services

Research Scope and Qualification

Questions This Section Answers

• How many raw prompt-surface observations became qualified benchmark observations?
• Why do brand-level percentages use the qualified observations rather than the full collection?

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 grocery delivery brands have the strongest presence rate and valid recommendation coverage?
• Which brands convert their presence into top-three or rank-one recommendations most often?

How to Read the Standings

• Presence rate: share of qualified observations where the brand is mentioned at all
• Valid recommendation coverage: share of qualified observations where the brand appears in a valid recommendation shortlist
• Top-three rate: share of qualified observations where the brand appears in the top 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 grocery delivery brands gained or lost the most recommendation coverage since the July 2026 baseline?
• Which brands moved beyond normal variation in October 2026?

Amazon, Instacart, Gopuff, and Shipt all posted significant prior-to-current moves in October 2026. Amazon rose 14.3 points from September 2026, Instacart rose 14.6 points, Gopuff rose 5.3 points, and Shipt rose 10.5 points, while Walmart Pet Care fell 10.1 points against September 2026. FreshDirect, Imperfect Foods, and Kroger Delivery held within normal variation against the prior month but remain beyond normal variation against the July baseline.

Largest Increase: Amazon

Amazon recorded the largest coverage increase against the baseline, from 67.3% in July 2026 to 77.2% in October 2026, beyond normal variation across the series. The brand rose in each of the two months since September 2026, moving to 77.2% in October 2026 from 62.9% in September 2026. Presence moved from 92.3% in July 2026 to 94.4% in October 2026, the top-three rate from 53.7% to 64.3%, and the rank-one rate moved from 7.1% to 4.6%.

Instacart also rose beyond normal variation, from 65.7% in July 2026 to 76.6% in October 2026, with its top-three rate up from 56.3% to 70.6% and its rank-one rate up from 35.8% to 41.8%.

Largest Decline: FreshDirect

FreshDirect recorded the largest coverage decline, from 31.9% in July 2026 to 15.2% in October 2026, beyond normal variation across the series. The brand declined in each of the three months since the baseline, falling to 22.9% in August 2026, 16.1% in September 2026, and 15.2% in October 2026. Presence fell from 36.6% in July 2026 to 20.9% in October 2026, the top-three rate from 10.5% to 5.4%, and the rank-one rate from 5.2% to 1.7%.

Imperfect Foods, Kroger Delivery, and Walmart Pet Care also declined beyond normal variation against the July 2026 baseline, each at lower absolute levels.

Category Leader: Amazon

Amazon leads the category with 77.2% valid recommendation coverage in October 2026, ahead of Instacart at 76.6%. Amazon's coverage rose beyond normal variation from 67.3% in July 2026, and it moved up in each of the two months since September 2026. The top-three rate rose from 53.7% in July 2026 to 64.3% in October 2026, while the rank-one rate moved from 7.1% to 4.6%. Presence rose from 92.3% to 94.4% over the series.

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Questions This Section Answers

• How do Instacart and Amazon differ in rank-one recommendations despite similar coverage?
• What does placement data add beyond valid recommendation coverage?

Coverage alone does not show how prominently a brand is recommended. Amazon and Instacart both cleared 76% coverage in October 2026, but their placement profiles differed sharply. Instacart was ranked first in 41.8% of qualified observations in October 2026, while Amazon was ranked first in 4.6%.

Comparable coverage can still hide materially different first-position rates across the category.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

All qualified observations in each month fell into 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
• It does not measure attributable sales
• It does not measure every possible AI response
• It does not measure organic-search ranking
• It does not measure social mention volume
• It does not measure private or sponsored channels
• It does not establish causality from a metric movement alone

Top 10 Cited Domains

Questions This Section Answers

• Which domains do AI platforms cite most often for grocery delivery recommendations?
• How much of the citation base comes from brand-owned sites versus third-party and community sources?

Across all AI platform responses in this measurement period, 6,339 citations were observed pointing to 1,418 unique domains.

Citations are broadly distributed: the top 10 domains account for a combined 29.3% share of all cited sources, and no single domain exceeds 4.6%. Three tracked brands' own domains appear in the top 10 (instacart.com at rank 3, amazon.com at rank 4, and walmart.com at rank 9, joined by shipt.com at rank 10, all four being brand-owned properties). Community forums, search portals, and general-interest news and lifestyle outlets also carry weight, which suggests AI recommendations in this vertical draw on both first-party brand sources and third-party editorial and community material.

About This Benchmark

The LLM Authority Index AI Visibility Market Discovery Index tracks how often and how prominently brands are recommended across major AI chat and search surfaces. The index is built from a structured, repeatable research protocol designed for comparability across months and categories.

• 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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