Online Backup: AI Visibility Market Discovery Index

Benchmark Summary

Questions This Section Answers

• Which online backup brands lead the benchmark in recommendation coverage?
• Which brands rose or declined significantly since the July 2026 baseline?

IDrive leads the Online Backup benchmark in October 2026 with a valid recommendation coverage of 80.8%, ahead of Backblaze at 69.8%, a gap of 11.0 points. The largest coverage increase came from pCloud, which rose to 35.6% in October 2026 from 29.8% in July 2026. The largest coverage decline came from Carbonite, which fell to 17.9% in October 2026 from 28.6% in July 2026.

October 2026 was a mixed month. IDrive and pCloud registered as significant risers against the July 2026 baseline, while Acronis, Carbonite, CrashPlan, Livedrive, and SpiderOak registered as significant decliners. Backblaze is a watch item: its coverage declined in each of the three months since July 2026, from 73.3% to 69.8%, though the cumulative move remains within normal month-to-month variation. IDrive's coverage rose in each of the three months since July 2026, from 75.6% to 80.8%. Carbonite declined in each of the three months since July 2026, from 28.6% to 17.9%, and its prior-to-current move, from 24.8% in September 2026 to 17.9% in October 2026, was beyond normal variation. Livedrive's prior-to-current move, from 1.6% in September 2026 to 0.4% in October 2026, was also beyond normal variation.

The benchmark began with 800 prompt-surface observations in each month and produced 665 qualified observations in October 2026 after qualification.

Current Benchmark at a Glance

September 2026 sat between these two months, with 677 qualified observations, a 48.9% recommendation-shaped answer share, and a 73.9% valid recommendation shortlist share. Qualified surface breadth counts the 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 Online Backup

Research Scope and Qualification

Questions This Section Answers

• How were the 800 prompt-surface observations reduced to the 665 qualified benchmark observations?
• What counts in the public benchmark denominator for brand-level percentages?

The public benchmark is narrower than the raw collection universe by design. The funnel below shows how observations were qualified.

Brand-level percentages use the qualified observations as the public denominator, not the raw collection. Link AI Visibility Market Discovery Methodology.

Current Brand Standings

Questions This Section Answers

• Which online backup brands have the strongest presence, recommendation coverage, and top-three rates?
• How does the difference between mention rate and recommendation coverage vary across the tracked brands?

How to Read the Standings

Presence rate is the share of qualified observations in which a brand is mentioned at all. Valid recommendation coverage is the share of qualified observations in which a brand appears in a recommendation context. Top-three rate is the share of qualified observations in which a brand appears in the first three recommended positions. Rank-one rate is the share of qualified observations in which a brand is the single top recommendation. Net sentiment is the balance of positive over negative mentions.

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

Recommendation Coverage Movement

Questions This Section Answers

• Which online backup brands gained or lost the most recommendation coverage since July 2026?
• Which movement patterns were beyond normal month-to-month variation?

Largest Increase: pCloud

pCloud's valid recommendation coverage rose to 35.6% in October 2026 from 29.8% in July 2026, an increase beyond normal month-to-month variation. The move accelerated month over month: coverage rose to 35.6% in October 2026 from 27.6% in September 2026, an increase that was also beyond normal variation. pCloud rose in each of the two months since September 2026. Its top-three rate rose to 28.1% in October 2026 from 14.9% in July 2026, and its rank-one rate rose to 6.2% from 2.7% over the same span. Qualified recommendations rose from 200 in July 2026 to 237 in October 2026.

Category Leader: IDrive

IDrive's valid recommendation coverage rose to 80.8% in October 2026 from 75.6% in July 2026, an increase beyond normal month-to-month variation, and it rose in each of the three months since July 2026. Its top-three rate rose to 75.3% in October 2026 from 62.7% in July 2026, and its presence rate rose to 93.2% from 89.0% over the same span. Qualified recommendations rose from 507 in July 2026 to 537 in October 2026.

Largest Decline: Carbonite

Carbonite's valid recommendation coverage fell to 17.9% in October 2026 from 28.6% in July 2026, a decline beyond normal month-to-month variation, and it declined in each of the three months since July 2026. The largest single-month move came between September and October 2026, when coverage fell 6.9 points, from 24.8% to 17.9%. Presence rate fell to 26.3% in October 2026 from 38.9% in July 2026. Qualified recommendations fell from 192 in July 2026 to 119 in October 2026.

Other Significant Declines

Acronis declined to 39.6% in October 2026 from 48.3% in July 2026, moving down in each of the three months since July 2026, with its presence rate falling to 46.0% from 60.1% and its top-three rate falling to 28.7% from 36.4%. CrashPlan declined to 7.8% in October 2026 from 15.2% in July 2026, with its largest single-month move coming between July and August 2026, when coverage fell 5.4 points. SpiderOak declined to 2.7% in October 2026 from 11.0% in July 2026, moving down in each of the three months since July 2026, with its presence rate falling to 3.0% from 11.2%. Livedrive declined to 0.4% in October 2026 from 2.7% in July 2026, with a prior-to-current move from 1.6% in September 2026 to 0.4% in October 2026 that was beyond normal variation.

Watch Item: Backblaze

Backblaze's valid recommendation coverage declined in each of the three months since July 2026, from 73.3% to 69.8%, though the cumulative move remains within normal month-to-month variation. This is not yet a trend.

Stable Brands

SugarSync and Zoolz held at 0.0% valid recommendation coverage for the fourth consecutive month. Zoolz registered a presence rate of 0.1% in October 2026, with one negative mention.

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Questions This Section Answers

• How often do IDrive, Backblaze, and pCloud appear as the single top recommendation?
• How does first-position recommendation rate differ between brands with similar coverage?

Coverage alone does not show how prominently a brand is recommended. The table below shows how often the leading brands appear in the top three positions and as the single top recommendation.

Close coverage can still hide different first-position rates. IDrive was the top recommendation in 43.6% of October 2026 observations, well ahead of Backblaze at 23.6%, despite the two brands sitting within 11.0 points on coverage.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

Questions This Section Answers

• What buyer-intent classes are represented in the qualified observations?
• Which buyer-intent categories remain empty in the current public series?

All qualified observations in all four months 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

Questions This Section Answers

• Who has led recommendation coverage across each monthly measurement?
• Which single-month coverage movements were largest in each period?

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, attributable sales, every possible AI response, organic-search ranking, social mention volume, private or sponsored channels, or causality from a metric movement alone.

Top 10 Cited Domains

Questions This Section Answers

• Which domains are cited most often across AI platform responses?
• How concentrated are citations among the top ten domains?
• Which tracked brands' own domains appear among the most-cited sources?

Across all AI platform responses in October 2026, 6,639 citations were observed across 1,214 unique domains. The table below shows the ten most-cited domains.

Citations are moderately concentrated: the top ten domains account for roughly 37% of all observed citations, while the remaining share is spread across more than 1,200 other domains. Three tracked brands' own domains appear in the top ten: idrive.com at rank 6, acronis.com at rank 7, and backblaze.com at rank 9. Review and editorial sources dominate the rest of the list, with youtube.com, pcmag.com, techradar.com, pcworld.com, tomsguide.com, and cloudwards.net all present, alongside reddit.com as the highest-ranked community source.

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 and search surfaces. Canonical research links:

• 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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