Password Managers: AI Market Discovery Index

Tracking how AI platforms recommend password managers. This public AI Market Discovery Index is updated monthly since July 2026.

By Mark Huntley, J.D.Growth Strategist & AI Discovery Analyst

4 minutes read

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On this page

01Benchmark Summary
02Current Benchmark at a Glance
03Current Brand Standings
04How to Read the Standings
05Recommendation Coverage Movement
06Largest Increase: NordPass
07Category Leader: Bitwarden
08Recommendation Placement Snapshot
09Buyer-Intent Distribution
10Historical Measurement Record
11Evidence and Source Layer
12Scope Boundaries

Benchmark Summary

Bitwarden led the Password Managers benchmark in August 2026 with valid recommendation coverage of 89.0%, up from 80.8% in July 2026. The gap to the next brand widened to 7.6 points, as 1Password moved to 81.4% in August 2026, up from 78.1% in July 2026.

Bitwarden, NordPass, and Proton Pass each recorded coverage gains large enough to exceed normal month-to-month variation. NordPass posted the largest increase, rising to 71.0% in August 2026 from 61.3% in July 2026, a gain of 9.7 points. Proton Pass climbed to 65.8% in August 2026 from 58.3% in July 2026. The remaining tracked brands moved within normal month-to-month variation, including Keeper, which held essentially flat at 32.9% in August 2026 versus 33.2% in July 2026.

The benchmark produced 538 qualified observations in August 2026, up from 530 in July 2026.

AI recommendation trend

valid recommendation coverage, Jul 2026 to Aug 2026

Bitwarden+8.2% · beyond normal variation
Jul 202680.8%
Aug 202689.0%
1Password+3.3%
Jul 202678.1%
Aug 202681.4%
NordPass+9.7% · beyond normal variation
Jul 202661.3%
Aug 202671.0%
Proton Pass+7.5% · beyond normal variation
Jul 202658.3%
Aug 202665.8%
RoboForm+4.2%
Jul 202632.6%
Aug 202636.8%
Keeper-0.3%
Jul 202633.2%
Aug 202632.9%
Dashlane+1.4%
Jul 202628.5%
Aug 202629.9%
LastPass+1.2%
Jul 20264.9%
Aug 20266.1%
Enpassno change
Jul 20260.6%
Aug 20260.6%
Zoho Vault+0.6%
Jul 20260.0%
Aug 20260.6%
**Zoho Expenseno change
Jul 20260.0%
Aug 20260.0%

Current Benchmark at a Glance

Measure	Jul 2026	Aug 2026	Movement
Qualified benchmark observations	530	538	Up 8
Tracked brands	10	10	No change
Qualified surface breadth	6	6	No change
Recommendation-shaped answer share	50.0%	65.6%	Up 15.6 points
Valid recommendation shortlist share	80.6%	87.5%	Up 6.9 points
Leader by valid recommendation coverage	Bitwarden	Bitwarden	No change

Qualified surface breadth is the number of canonical AI/search surface families with at least one qualified observation. The six families are 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 Password Managers

Current Brand Standings

This table is the primary current-month benchmark view, sorted by valid recommendation coverage.

Brand	Presence rate	Valid recommendation coverage	Top-three rate	Rank-one rate	Net sentiment
Bitwarden	96.1%	89.0%	75.3%	29.0%	0.9
1Password	89.2%	81.4%	71.2%	43.7%	0.9
NordPass	77.1%	71.0%	44.2%	7.2%	0.9
Proton Pass	69.7%	65.8%	32.7%	2.8%	0.9
RoboForm	40.5%	36.8%	11.2%	3.7%	0.9
Keeper	40.5%	32.9%	10.6%	0.6%	0.8
Dashlane	42.9%	29.9%	5.9%	0.7%	0.7
LastPass	27.5%	6.1%	2.4%	0.2%	-0.2
Enpass	1.5%	0.6%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1
Zoho Vault	1.7%	0.6%	0.4%	0.0%	0.2

How to Read the Standings

Presence rate is the share of qualified observations where the brand appears at all, regardless of positive or negative context. Valid recommendation coverage is the share of qualified observations where the brand is recommended as a viable option. Top-three rate is the share where the brand appears in the top three recommendation slots. Rank-one rate is the share where the brand is the single first recommendation. Net sentiment is the balance of positive over negative mentions, from -1.0 (all negative) to 1.0 (all positive) with 0 meaning neutral.

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

Recommendation Coverage Movement

Brand	Jul 2026	Aug 2026	Movement since baseline
Bitwarden	80.8%	89.0%	Up 8.2 points
1Password	78.1%	81.4%	Up 3.3 points
NordPass	61.3%	71.0%	Up 9.7 points
Proton Pass	58.3%	65.8%	Up 7.5 points
RoboForm	32.6%	36.8%	Up 4.2 points
Keeper	33.2%	32.9%	Down 0.3 points
Dashlane	28.5%	29.9%	Up 1.4 points
LastPass	4.9%	6.1%	Up 1.2 points
Enpass	0.6%	0.6%	No change
Zoho Vault	0.0%	0.6%	Up 0.6 points

Largest Increase: NordPass

NordPass recorded the largest coverage increase in August 2026, rising to 71.0% from 61.3% in July 2026, a gain of 9.7 points. This move was beyond normal month-to-month variation. Presence also rose to 77.1% in August 2026 from 69.8% in July 2026, and top-three placement climbed to 44.2% from 36.4%.

Category Leader: Bitwarden

Bitwarden held the top valid recommendation coverage in August 2026 at 89.0%, up from 80.8% in July 2026. Presence held steady at 96.1% in August 2026, while top-three placement rose to 75.3% from 69.4%. Rank-one placement moved to 29.0% in August 2026 from 30.9% in July 2026, showing coverage growth despite slightly weaker first-choice positioning.

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Coverage alone does not show how prominently a brand is recommended. The leading brands show contrasting placement profiles.

Brand	Aug 2026 top-three rate	Aug 2026 rank-one rate	Jul 2026 top-three rate	Jul 2026 rank-one rate
Bitwarden	75.3%	29.0%	69.4%	30.9%
1Password	71.2%	43.7%	70.2%	36.0%
NordPass	44.2%	7.2%	36.4%	5.9%

Close coverage can still hide different first-position rates. 1Password trails Bitwarden by 7.6 points in coverage yet leads rank-one placement by 14.7 points in August 2026.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

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

Buyer-intent class	Jul 2026	Aug 2026
Brand Recommendation	530	538
Pricing & Value	0	0
Multi-Brand Comparison	0	0
Total qualified observations	530	538

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

This is an evergreen benchmark URL. New measurements are added to the same report.

Measurement	Qualified observations	Coverage leader	Leader coverage	Largest coverage movement
Jul 2026	530	Bitwarden	80.8%	-
Aug 2026	538	Bitwarden	89.0%	NordPass, up 9.7 points

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.

About This Benchmark

The LLM Authority Index AI Market Discovery Index benchmarks how often and how prominently brands appear in AI-generated answers to real buyer questions across six canonical AI/search surface families. Each monthly measurement tracks presence, recommendation coverage, placement, and sentiment for every tracked brand in the vertical.

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The public industry benchmark shows category-level standings. A company-level Authority Index can go deeper.

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The paid deep-dive adds competitor threat profiles, the gap matrix, citation failure map, platform-by-platform recovery roadmap, and client-specific economic modeling.

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