Online Pharmacies: AI Visibility Market Discovery Index

Benchmark Summary

Questions This Section Answers

• Which online pharmacy leads AI recommendation coverage in October 2026, and by how much?
• Which brand recorded the largest coverage gain and decline this month?

Amazon Pharmacy is the coverage leader in October 2026, with valid recommendation coverage of 55.5%, up from 37.4% in July 2026. The gap to the next closest brand was 23.9 percentage points.

Amazon Pharmacy also recorded the largest coverage increase of the month, moving from 45.6% in September 2026 to 55.5% in October 2026, a change beyond normal month-to-month variation. GoodRx recorded the largest coverage decline, with its tracked figure at 0.0% in October 2026, unchanged from 0.0% in September 2026, and down from 26.1% in July 2026. Optum Rx also registered 0.0% in October 2026, down from 10.6% in July 2026.

The October 2026 benchmark began with 800 prompt-surface observations and produced 642 qualified observations after qualification.

Current Benchmark at a Glance

The series recorded an intermediate reading of 596 qualified observations in August 2026 and 643 in September 2026. Qualified surface breadth refers to the number of canonical AI 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 Pharmacies

Research Scope and Qualification

Questions This Section Answers

• How many prompt-surface observations qualified for the October 2026 benchmark?
• Why do brand-level percentages use the qualified observation count instead of the raw collection?

The public benchmark reports brand-level percentages against the qualified observation count, not the raw collection.

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

Current Brand Standings

Questions This Section Answers

• Which online pharmacies lead on presence rate and valid recommendation coverage?
• How do top-three and rank-one rates differ among the ten 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 appears in a recommendation-shaped answer. Top-three rate is the share of qualified observations where the brand appears among the top three recommended options. Rank-one rate is the share of qualified observations where the brand is the first recommendation. Net sentiment is the share of positive mentions minus the share of negative mentions.

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

Recommendation Coverage Movement

Questions This Section Answers

• Which online pharmacies gained the most recommendation coverage since July 2026?
• What explains the coverage declines for GoodRx and Optum Rx?

Note on brand tracking: GoodRx and Optum Rx, tracked in July and August 2026, no longer appear as separately tracked brands from September 2026. Their reported coverage for October 2026 is 0.0%, while related brand entities GoodRx Care and Optum entered tracking in September 2026.

Largest Increase: GoodRx Care

GoodRx Care posted valid recommendation coverage of 21.5% in October 2026, up from a baseline of 0.0% in July 2026. The move from 16.5% in September 2026 to 21.5% in October 2026 exceeds normal month-to-month variation. The brand recorded a 30.8% presence rate in October 2026, with a top-three rate of 12.3%.

Largest Decline: GoodRx

GoodRx recorded 0.0% valid recommendation coverage in October 2026, down from 26.1% in July 2026, a decline of 26.1 points. The decline coincides with the September 2026 introduction of GoodRx Care as the tracked brand entity. Optum Rx shows the same pattern, at 0.0% in October 2026 down from 10.6% in July 2026.

Category Leader: Amazon Pharmacy

Amazon Pharmacy held the coverage lead at 55.5% in October 2026, up from 37.4% in July 2026, a rise of 18.1 points that exceeds normal month-to-month variation. Amazon Pharmacy's valid recommendation coverage rose in each of the three measured months since July 2026. The brand also recorded the highest rank-one rate at 34.1% in October 2026.

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Questions This Section Answers

• How do top-three and rank-one rates differ between Amazon Pharmacy, CVS Pharmacy, and Walgreens?
• Can similar coverage hide different first-position recommendation rates?

Coverage alone does not show how prominently a brand is recommended. Top-three and rank-one rates reveal placement differences among the leading brands.

Close coverage can still hide very different first-position rates, as seen with Amazon Pharmacy's rank-one rate of 34.1% versus CVS Pharmacy's 5.0% and Walgreens' 2.2% in October 2026.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

All qualified observations in both months fell into the Brand Recommendation class.

The current public series measures only the Brand Recommendation class of discovery and does not yet contain qualified observations in the Pricing & Value or Multi-Brand Comparison classes.

Historical Measurement Record

Evidence and Source Layer

Questions This Section Answers

• What evidence does each prompt-level observation retain?
• Does source presence in AI citations prove the source caused a 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, 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 were cited most across AI platform responses?
• How concentrated are citations across the 1,070 unique domains?

Across all AI platform responses in this measurement period, 6,245 citations were observed across 1,070 unique domains.

Citations are broadly distributed rather than concentrated: the top 10 domains account for roughly one third of all citations across more than a thousand unique domains. Four of the ten domains belong to tracked brands: goodrx.com, pharmacy.amazon.com, walgreens.com, and cvs.com. Official brand and retailer sites dominate the top of the list, with a discount-card comparison site (singlecare.com), a news outlet (forbes.com), a video platform (youtube.com), and a government health regulator (fda.gov) rounding out the set. Google's own domain appears only through its AI Mode and AI Overviews surfaces, cited by no other platform.

About This Benchmark

The LLM Authority Index AI Visibility Market Discovery Index is a monthly, neutral industry benchmark tracking how AI search surfaces recommend and mention brands in response to consumer discovery prompts.

• 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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