Mortgage Refinance Lenders: AI Market Discovery Index

Benchmark Summary

Rocket Mortgage led the Mortgage Refinance Lenders index in September 2026 with 63.7% valid recommendation coverage, extending its lead from the July 2026 baseline. The next closest brand, loanDepot at 36.5%, trails by a 27.2-point gap. Bank of America Corp. recorded the largest significant increase in valid recommendation coverage, rising to 27.9% in September 2026 from 0.0% in July 2026. Bank of America recorded the largest significant decline, falling to 0.0% in September 2026 from 55.4% in July 2026, a drop of 55.4 points. The month showed significant movement across multiple brands, continuing a mixed pattern relative to the July 2026 baseline.

Several brands are tracked under new entity names beginning in September 2026, which drives much of the measured movement. Bank of America Corp., Chase Credit Journey, and Wells Fargo & Co. registered new coverage in September 2026 after their similarly named predecessor entities — Bank of America, Chase, and Wells Fargo — recorded no qualified coverage under those names in the same month. Guaranteed Rate, tracked under the same name across the series, declined to 0.0% valid recommendation coverage in September 2026 from 15.2% in July 2026. Rocket Mortgage's decline from 71.2% in July 2026 to 63.7% in September 2026 extends the downward pattern established since the baseline month, though the move between August 2026 and September 2026 alone was modest.

The benchmark began with 800 prompt-surface observations in July 2026 and 800 prompt-surface observations in September 2026, producing 607 and 570 qualified observations, respectively, 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. Both months registered all six families. The intermediate August 2026 measurement registered 381 qualified observations and six surface families as well.

For the strategic interpretation of this benchmark, read CiteWorks Studio's analysis of How AI Search Is Recommending Mortgage Refinance Lenders

Research Scope and Qualification

The public benchmark applies a qualification step to the raw prompt-surface collection before brand-level metrics are calculated.

Brand-level percentages use the qualified observations as the public denominator, not the raw collection.

AI Market Discovery Methodology

Current Brand Standings

How to Read the Standings

• Presence rate: the share of qualified observations where the brand is mentioned or appears in the AI response.
• Valid recommendation coverage: the share of qualified observations where the brand appears in a valid recommendation shortlist.
• Top-three rate: the share of observations where the brand appears among the top three recommended options.
• Rank-one rate: the share of observations where the brand is the first or primary recommendation.
• Net sentiment: the balance of positive over negative mention sentiment, scored from -1.0 to 1.0.

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

Recommendation Coverage Movement

The tracked brand list changed in September 2026 to include new entity names replacing several prior names, while the total number of tracked brands remained at ten in both months. Bank of America, Chase, and Wells Fargo recorded no qualified coverage in September 2026 under those names, while the similarly named entities Bank of America Corp., Chase Credit Journey, and Wells Fargo & Co. registered new coverage in the same month. Guaranteed Rate declined to 0.0% valid recommendation coverage in September 2026 from 15.2% in July 2026. Several brands also moved beyond normal month-to-month variation between August 2026 and September 2026. loanDepot rose 8.2 points month over month to 36.5% in September 2026, while Wells Fargo fell 24.7 points month over month to 0.0% in September 2026 from 24.7% in August 2026.

Largest Increase: Bank of America Corp.

Bank of America Corp. rose to 27.9% valid recommendation coverage in September 2026 from 0.0% in July 2026, an increase of 27.9 points beyond normal month-to-month variation. Presence rate was 44.9% in September 2026, top-three rate was 11.2%, and rank-one rate was 0.9%.

Largest Increase: Wells Fargo & Co.

Wells Fargo & Co. rose to 7.2% valid recommendation coverage in September 2026 from 0.0% in July 2026, an increase of 7.2 points beyond normal variation. Presence rate was 18.6% in September 2026 and top-three rate was 0.2%.

Largest Increase: Rate

Rate rose to 5.6% valid recommendation coverage in September 2026 from 0.0% in July 2026, an increase of 5.6 points beyond normal variation. Presence rate was 7.7% in September 2026, top-three rate was 1.6%, and rank-one rate was 0.2%.

Largest Increase: Chase Credit Journey

Chase Credit Journey rose to 0.9% valid recommendation coverage in September 2026 from 0.0% in July 2026, an increase of 0.9 points beyond normal variation. Presence rate was 1.4% in September 2026.

Largest Decline: Bank of America

Bank of America declined to 0.0% valid recommendation coverage in September 2026 from 55.4% in July 2026, a drop of 55.4 points beyond normal variation. Coverage moved down in each of the two months since July 2026. Presence rate fell to 0.0% in September 2026 from 83.4% in July 2026.

Largest Decline: Chase

Chase declined to 0.0% valid recommendation coverage in September 2026 from 54.5% in July 2026, a drop of 54.5 points beyond normal variation. Coverage moved down in each of the two months since July 2026. Presence rate fell to 0.0% in September 2026 from 86.2% in July 2026.

Largest Decline: Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo declined to 0.0% valid recommendation coverage in September 2026 from 20.8% in July 2026, a drop of 20.8 points beyond normal variation. The move from August 2026 to September 2026 alone was a decline of 24.7 points, beyond normal single-month variation. Presence rate fell to 0.0% in September 2026 from 46.5% in July 2026.

Largest Decline: Guaranteed Rate

Guaranteed Rate declined to 0.0% valid recommendation coverage in September 2026 from 15.2% in July 2026, a drop of 15.2 points beyond normal variation. Coverage moved down in each of the two months since July 2026. Presence rate fell to 0.0% in September 2026 from 17.6% in July 2026.

Largest Decline: PennyMac

PennyMac declined to 20.0% valid recommendation coverage in September 2026 from 27.7% in July 2026, a drop of 7.7 points beyond normal variation. Presence rate rose slightly to 41.2%, but net sentiment declined to 0.5 from 0.7.

Largest Decline: Rocket Mortgage

Rocket Mortgage, the category leader, declined to 63.7% valid recommendation coverage in September 2026 from 71.2% in July 2026 — a 7.5-point drop beyond normal month-to-month variation. Coverage moved down in each of the two months since July 2026. Top-three rate fell to 44.2% in September 2026 from 55.4% in July 2026, and rank-one rate fell to 30.5% in September 2026 from 38.1% in July 2026. Presence rate remained high at 98.2% in September 2026, up from 97.7% in July 2026.

Largest Decline: Better.com

Better.com declined to 27.2% valid recommendation coverage in September 2026 from 33.8% in July 2026, a drop of 6.6 points beyond normal variation. Coverage moved down in each of the two months since July 2026. Presence rate fell to 31.6% in September 2026 from 41.3% in July 2026, and top-three rate fell to 11.4% from 16.5%.

Largest Decline: United Wholesale Mortgage

United Wholesale Mortgage declined to 8.4% valid recommendation coverage in September 2026 from 13.3% in July 2026, a drop of 4.9 points beyond normal variation. Coverage moved down in each of the two months since July 2026. Top-three rate fell to 4.0% in September 2026 from 9.1% in July 2026.

Stable Brands

loanDepot and New American Funding each moved within normal month-to-month variation across the full series. loanDepot rose to 36.5% in September 2026 from 33.9% in July 2026, up 2.6 points, though its 8.2-point increase between August 2026 and September 2026 moved beyond normal variation for a single month. New American Funding fell to 16.0% in September 2026 from 19.9% in July 2026, down 3.9 points.

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Coverage alone does not show how prominently a brand is recommended. Among the leading brands, placement patterns vary notably.

Rocket Mortgage's 30.5% rank-one rate means it was the first or primary recommendation in nearly one of every three observations, even as its top-three rate declined to 44.2% from 55.4% in July 2026. loanDepot held a top-three rate of 13.3% in both July 2026 and September 2026 while its rank-one rate fell to 1.8% from 2.1%. Similar coverage can still hide very different first-position rates.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

All qualified observations in both months fell into the brand recommendation class.

The current public series measures brand recommendation discovery only and contains no qualified observations for pricing, value, or multi-brand comparison questions.

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 sales attribution
• Every possible AI response, only the sampled prompt set
• Organic-search ranking performance
• Social media mention volume
• Private or sponsored AI channels
• Causality from a metric movement alone

About This Benchmark

The LLM Authority Index AI Market Discovery Index tracks how often and how prominently brands appear in AI-generated recommendations across major AI surfaces. It is a neutral, industry-level measurement of AI discovery presence.

• AI Market Discovery Methodology
• AI Market Discovery Metric Definitions
• AI Market Discovery Research Standards
• Modeled AI Authority Value

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