Mortgage Refinance Lenders: AI Visibility Market Discovery Index

Benchmark Summary

Questions This Section Answers

• Who led the Mortgage Refinance Lenders index in October 2026, and by how wide a margin?
• Which brand posted the largest gain and which posted the largest decline?

Rocket Mortgage led the Mortgage Refinance Lenders index in October 2026 with 79.2% valid recommendation coverage, up from 71.2% in July 2026, a rise of 8.0 points beyond normal month-to-month variation. The next closest brand, loanDepot at 49.3%, trails by a 29.9-point gap. The largest coverage increase was recorded by loanDepot, which rose to 49.3% in October 2026 from 33.9% in July 2026, an increase of 15.4 points. The largest decline was recorded by Bank of America, which fell to 0.0% in October 2026 from 55.4% in July 2026, a drop of 55.4 points. The month showed significant movement across multiple brands, with the category summary described as mixed.

The benchmark began with 800 prompt-surface observations in July 2026 and 800 prompt-surface observations in October 2026, producing 607 and 529 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 the intermediate September 2026 measurement registered 570 qualified observations.

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 Visibility Market Discovery Methodology

Current Brand Standings

Questions This Section Answers

• Which refinance brands made the October 2026 standings, and how did they rank?
• How did leading brands differ on top-three and rank-one recommendation rates?

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 Visibility Market Discovery Metric Definitions

Recommendation Coverage Movement

Questions This Section Answers

• Which refinance brands moved most since the July 2026 baseline, and in which direction?
• How did Bank of America Corp. and Rocket Mortgage coverage change month over month?

Bank of America Corp. extended its increase from the prior month, rising 7.6 points to 35.5% in October 2026 from 27.9% in September 2026, beyond normal month-to-month variation. Rocket Mortgage rose 15.5 points month over month to 79.2% in October 2026 from 63.7% in September 2026. loanDepot rose 12.8 points month over month to 49.3% in October 2026 from 36.5% in September 2026. United Wholesale Mortgage rose 9.9 points month over month to 18.3% in October 2026 from 8.4% in September 2026. PennyMac rose 6.5 points month over month to 26.5% in October 2026 from 20.0% in September 2026.

Largest Increase: loanDepot

loanDepot rose to 49.3% valid recommendation coverage in October 2026 from 33.9% in July 2026, an increase of 15.4 points beyond normal month-to-month variation. Coverage moved up in each of the two months since August 2026. Presence rate was 56.7% in October 2026, up from 43.7% in July 2026, a rise of 13.0 points. Top-three rate was 23.8% in October 2026, up from 13.3% in July 2026, a rise of 10.5 points. Rank-one rate was 2.8% in October 2026, up from 2.1% in July 2026.

Largest Increase: Rocket Mortgage

Rocket Mortgage rose to 79.2% valid recommendation coverage in October 2026 from 71.2% in July 2026, an increase of 8.0 points beyond normal month-to-month variation. Presence rate was 98.1% in October 2026, up from 97.7% in July 2026. Top-three rate was 69.9% in October 2026, up from 55.4% in July 2026, a rise of 14.5 points. Rank-one rate was 49.0% in October 2026, up from 38.1% in July 2026, a rise of 10.9 points.

Largest Increase: United Wholesale Mortgage

United Wholesale Mortgage rose to 18.3% valid recommendation coverage in October 2026 from 13.3% in July 2026, an increase of 5.0 points beyond normal month-to-month variation. Presence rate was 28.9% in October 2026, up from 25.5% in July 2026. Top-three rate was 14.2% in October 2026, up from 9.1% in July 2026, a rise of 5.1 points. Rank-one rate was 4.5% in October 2026, up from 2.3% in July 2026.

Largest Decline: Bank of America

Bank of America declined to 0.0% valid recommendation coverage in October 2026 from 55.4% in July 2026, a drop of 55.4 points beyond normal variation. Presence rate fell to 0.0% in October 2026 from 83.4% in July 2026.

Largest Decline: Chase

Chase declined to 0.0% valid recommendation coverage in October 2026 from 54.5% in July 2026, a drop of 54.5 points beyond normal variation. Presence rate fell to 0.0% in October 2026 from 86.2% in July 2026.

Largest Decline: Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo declined to 0.0% valid recommendation coverage in October 2026 from 20.8% in July 2026, a drop of 20.8 points beyond normal variation. Presence rate fell to 0.0% in October 2026 from 46.5% in July 2026.

Largest Decline: Guaranteed Rate

Guaranteed Rate declined to 0.0% valid recommendation coverage in October 2026 from 15.2% in July 2026, a drop of 15.2 points beyond normal variation. Presence rate fell to 0.0% in October 2026 from 17.6% in July 2026.

Largest Decline: Better.com

Better.com declined to 27.6% valid recommendation coverage in October 2026 from 33.8% in July 2026, a drop of 6.2 points beyond normal variation. Presence rate fell to 28.7% in October 2026 from 41.3% in July 2026, a drop of 12.6 points. Top-three rate was 19.1% in October 2026, up from 16.5% in July 2026.

Category Leader: Rocket Mortgage

Rocket Mortgage held the category lead in October 2026 at 79.2% valid recommendation coverage, up from 71.2% in July 2026. Its 49.0% rank-one rate means it was the first or primary recommendation in nearly half of all qualified observations.

Stable Brands

New American Funding, PennyMac, and Chase Credit Journey each moved within normal month-to-month variation across the full series. New American Funding fell to 17.2% in October 2026 from 19.9% in July 2026, down 2.7 points, though it rose 1.2 points month over month from September 2026. PennyMac fell to 26.5% in October 2026 from 27.7% in July 2026, down 1.2 points, though it rose 6.5 points month over month from September 2026, beyond normal variation for a single month. Chase Credit Journey rose to 0.6% in October 2026 from 0.0% in July 2026, up 0.6 points, within normal variation. This is not yet a trend.

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Questions This Section Answers

• Why does valid recommendation coverage alone understate Rocket Mortgage's advantage?
• How did top-three and rank-one placement differ between Rocket Mortgage, loanDepot, and Bank of America Corp.?

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

Rocket Mortgage's 49.0% rank-one rate means it was the first or primary recommendation in nearly one of every two observations, up from 38.1% in July 2026. loanDepot held a top-three rate of 23.8% in October 2026, up from 13.3% in July 2026, while its rank-one rate rose modestly to 2.8% from 2.1%. Similar coverage can still hide very different first-position rates.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

Questions This Section Answers

• Which buyer-intent classes appeared in the qualified Mortgage Refinance Lenders observations?
• What does the absence of pricing, value, and multi-brand comparison observations mean for how this index should be read?

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

Questions This Section Answers

• How many qualified observations did each Mortgage Refinance Lenders measurement record, and who led?
• Does the four-month coverage history support a durable trend or only period-to-period movement?

Evidence and Source Layer

Questions This Section Answers

• What evidence is retained for each Mortgage Refinance Lenders prompt-level observation?
• Does a citation in an AI answer prove that the source caused a refinance 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, only the sampled prompt set
• Organic-search ranking performance
• Social media mention volume
• Private or sponsored AI channels
• Causality from a metric movement alone

Top 10 Cited Domains

Questions This Section Answers

• Which domains were cited most often in AI answers about mortgage refinance, and how concentrated were they?
• How does rocketmortgage.com's citation position compare with the review sites and financial news outlets?

Across all AI platform responses in October 2026, 6,037 citations were observed across 787 unique domains.

Citations are distributed across a wide range of sources, with the top ten domains accounting for roughly 42.7% of all citations and the remaining 780 domains sharing the balance. Rocket Mortgage's own domain, rocketmortgage.com, is the only tracked brand domain in the top ten, cited 245 times across all six canonical AI surface families. Review and comparison sites such as bankrate.com, nerdwallet.com, and lendingtree.com dominate the upper ranks, alongside general financial news outlets like cnbc.com and finance.yahoo.com.

About This Benchmark

The LLM Authority Index AI Visibility 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 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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