Online Doctors: AI Visibility Market Discovery Index

Benchmark Summary

Questions This Section Answers

• Which online doctor brand leads the October 2026 benchmark by recommendation coverage?
• Which brands recorded the largest coverage increase and decline over the past month?
• How did recommendation-shaped answer share change between July and October 2026?

Sesame led the Online Doctors benchmark in October 2026 with valid recommendation coverage of 49.6%, ahead of Doctor on Demand at 48.3%, a gap of just 1.3 points.

The largest coverage increase over the past month came from plushcare, which rose to 41.6% in October 2026 from 0.0% in September 2026, a move beyond normal month-to-month variation. The largest decline came from PlushCare, which fell to 0.0% in October 2026 from 34.4% in September 2026, also beyond normal variation.

Sesame led the category at 49.6% in October 2026, up from 47.0% in July 2026, a gain within normal variation. Teladoc Health posted the strongest placement gains across the series, with its top-three rate rising to 40.2% in October 2026 from 24.9% in July 2026, and its rank-one rate rising to 28.0% from 14.3%.

The benchmark began with 800 prompt-surface observations in each month and produced 565 qualified observations in October 2026 after qualification.

Current Benchmark at a Glance

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. All six families were represented in both months. August 2026 recorded 579 qualified observations and September 2026 recorded 595. PlushCare and plushcare are tracked as separate brand entries in this benchmark.

For the strategic interpretation of this benchmark, read CiteWorks Studio's analysis of How AI Search Is Recommending Online Doctors

Research Scope and Qualification

Questions This Section Answers

• How many of the 800 collected prompt-surface observations qualified for the public benchmark?
• Why are brand-level percentages calculated on 565 qualified observations rather than the raw collection?

The public benchmark is narrower than the raw collection universe by design.

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 online doctor brands rank highest on valid recommendation coverage in October 2026?
• How do presence rate and valid recommendation coverage differ across the tracked brands?

How to Read the Standings

Presence rate is the share of qualified observations where the brand is mentioned at all. Valid recommendation coverage is the share of qualified observations where the brand receives a valid recommendation. Top-three rate is the share of observations where the brand appears in the top three recommended options. Rank-one rate is the share of observations where the brand is the first recommendation. Net sentiment measures the balance of positive versus negative mentions within the benchmark's recorded framing, from 0 to 1.

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

Recommendation Coverage Movement

Questions This Section Answers

• Which online doctor brands moved beyond normal month-to-month variation in October 2026?
• Why did PlushCare fall to zero coverage while plushcare emerged with 41.6%?

The month-over-month picture was mixed, with several brands moving beyond normal variation in the same month. Amwell rose to 23.7% in October 2026 from 18.8% in September 2026, a move beyond normal variation. Doctor on Demand rose to 48.3% in October 2026 from 35.8% in September 2026, also beyond normal variation. Sesame rose to 49.6% in October 2026 from 42.4% in September 2026, beyond normal variation. Teladoc Health rose to 45.5% in October 2026 from 38.3% in September 2026, beyond normal variation. plushcare rose to 41.6% in October 2026 from 0.0% in September 2026, beyond normal variation.

Largest Increase: plushcare

plushcare recorded the largest coverage increase across the series, rising to 41.6% in October 2026 from 0.0% in July 2026, a gain beyond normal variation. The brand had recorded no valid recommendation coverage in each of the three months from July through September 2026 before emerging in October 2026 with 235 valid recommendations. Its presence rate stood at 50.1% and its top-three rate at 27.8% in October 2026, with a rank-one rate of 6.7%.

Largest Decline: PlushCare

PlushCare recorded the largest coverage decline across the series, falling to 0.0% in October 2026 from 46.5% in July 2026. The brand declined in each of the three months since July 2026, with valid recommendation coverage falling from 46.5% in July 2026 to 40.1% in August 2026 and 34.4% in September 2026. The brand recorded 267 valid recommendations in July 2026 and no recorded valid recommendations in October 2026. Its presence rate stood at 60.6% in July 2026; the benchmark recorded no observations for the brand under this name in October 2026.

Category Leader: Sesame

Sesame led the category in October 2026 with valid recommendation coverage of 49.6%, up from 47.0% in July 2026, a gain within normal month-to-month variation. Sesame's top-three rate rose to 34.0% in October 2026 from 26.0% in July 2026, while its rank-one rate stood at 12.9% in October 2026, up from 10.8% in July 2026. The leader's coverage moved up in each of the two months since August 2026.

Additional Movers

Doctor on Demand rose 12.5 points to 48.3% in October 2026 from 35.8% in September 2026, a move beyond normal variation, after declining in each of the two months from July to September 2026. Teladoc Health moved up in October 2026 for the first time since July 2026, reaching 45.5% coverage, beyond normal variation. MDLive recorded gains in each of the two months since August 2026, reaching 30.4% coverage and a 19.1% top-three rate in October 2026. Lemonaid Health's decline to 2.5% is not yet a trend relative to its 1.6% baseline.

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Questions This Section Answers

• Which brand has the highest top-three and rank-one rates despite ranking third on coverage?
• How can two brands with similar coverage rates differ on first-position recommendations?

Coverage alone does not show how prominently a brand is recommended. Among the leading brands, Teladoc Health stood out for placement despite ranking third on coverage.

Teladoc Health's top-three rate of 40.2% and rank-one rate of 28.0% in October 2026 were the highest in the benchmark. Close coverage rates can still hide very different first-position rates: Sesame's 49.6% coverage came with a 12.9% rank-one rate, while Teladoc Health's 45.5% coverage carried a 28.0% rank-one rate.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

All qualified observations in both 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 and value or multi-brand comparison classes.

Historical Measurement Record

Top 10 Cited Domains

Questions This Section Answers

• Which domains receive the most citations across AI platform responses in October 2026?
• Which tracked brand domains appear among the top cited sources?

Across all AI platform responses in October 2026, 6,323 citations were observed across 1,532 unique domains.

Citations were concentrated in a small set of domains, with the top 10 accounting for a modest share of the 6,323 total citations observed across 1,532 unique domains. Four tracked brand domains appear in the list: doctorondemand.com at number one, sesamecare.com at number three, teladochealth.com at number five, and plushcare.com at number six. Third-party health information and comparison sources also feature prominently, including goodrx.com, healthline.com, walgreens.com, and helloklarity.com, alongside reddit.com and google.com.

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. Movements in coverage or placement reflect observed changes in AI-generated outputs across the tested surfaces during the measurement window.

About This Benchmark

The LLM Authority Index AI Visibility Market Discovery Index is a neutral, industry-level benchmark tracking how AI search and assistant surfaces present and recommend brands across canonical surface families. Measurements are added monthly to the same evergreen report.

• 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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