Peer to Peer Lending: AI Visibility Market Discovery Index

Benchmark Summary

Questions This Section Answers

• Which peer to peer lending brands gained or lost the most recommendation coverage since July 2026?
• How did the balance of recommendation-shaped answers shift across the AI surfaces measured?

Upstart leads the Peer to Peer Lending category in October 2026 with 83.5% valid recommendation coverage, ahead of Upgrade at 68.5%. The gap between the two leaders is 15.0 points. Avant posted the largest coverage increase, rising to 61.9% in October 2026 from 41.2% in July 2026, a gain of 20.7 points, and LendingClub recorded the largest decline, falling to 0.0% in October 2026 from 43.4% in July 2026, a drop of 43.4 points. Both moves exceeded normal month-to-month variation.

The month saw a mixed pattern across the seven tracked brands: Avant, Lending Club, Prosper, Upgrade, and Upstart were significant risers, LendingClub was a significant decliner, and the remaining two brands, Best Egg and SoFi, stayed within normal month-to-month variation. The current benchmark reflects 667 qualified observations in October 2026, following 677 in July 2026, 664 in August 2026, and 667 in September 2026.

Current Benchmark at a Glance

Qualified surface breadth counts the number of canonical AI surface families with at least one qualified observation. The six families measured are ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews, and AI Mode, all six of which recorded qualified observations in each month. In August 2026 and September 2026, intermediate to this baseline-to-current comparison, the qualified observation counts were 664 and 667 respectively.

For the strategic interpretation of this benchmark, read CiteWorks Studio's analysis of How AI Search Is Recommending Peer to Peer Lending

Research Scope and Qualification

Questions This Section Answers

• How many of the collected prompt-surface observations qualified for the public benchmark?
• Why is the public benchmark denominator smaller than the raw collection universe?

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

Current Brand Standings

Questions This Section Answers

• Which peer to peer lending brands lead on valid recommendation coverage, and by how much?
• How do presence rate, top-three rate, and rank-one rate differ across the tracked brands?

How to Read the Standings

• Presence rate is the share of qualified observations where the brand is mentioned, regardless of recommendation status.
• Valid recommendation coverage is the share of qualified observations where the brand appears in a clear, attributable recommendation shortlist.
• Top-three rate is the share of qualified observations where the brand appears in the first three recommended positions.
• Rank-one rate is the share of qualified observations where the brand is the first recommendation.
• Net sentiment is the balance of positive over negative mentions, from 0 to 1, among observations where the brand appears.

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

Prosper: Current Position

Questions This Section Answers

• Why does Prosper's presence convert so rarely into first-choice or top-three recommendations?
• How large is the placement gap between Prosper and the category leaders?

Prosper's October 2026 standing shows a presence rate of 26.2% and a valid recommendation coverage of 21.6%, up from 14.5% in July 2026, a gain of 7.1 points. Placement within recommendations remains thin: Prosper's top-three rate is 4.3% and its rank-one rate is 0.3%. Net sentiment, at 0.86, sits close to the category's stronger brands when Prosper does appear.

Upstart records 83.5% on valid recommendation coverage, while Prosper stands at 21.6%. The more important issue is what that gap means for Prosper's recommendation position. On first-choice placement, Upstart achieves a 23.4% rank-one rate, compared with 0.3% for Prosper, and on top-three placement Upstart reaches 57.7% against Prosper's 4.3%. Prosper's presence rate of 26.2% is already converting into valid recommendation coverage at a similar ratio to its peers, but the resulting coverage base is small, and almost none of it is translating into first-choice or top-three placement. This is a clear, measurable gap on the metrics that determine whether a brand is actually being recommended to a buyer rather than simply mentioned.

Highest-priority diagnostic: What is driving Upstart's and SoFi's ability to convert presence into first-position and top-three recommendations at rates Prosper has not yet reached, and what would it take to close that gap?

Recommendation Coverage Movement

Questions This Section Answers

• Which brand posted the largest coverage increase since July 2026, and did it rise every month?
• What happened to LendingClub's coverage, top-three rate, and rank-one rate across the series?

Largest Increase: Avant

Avant raised its valid recommendation coverage to 61.9% in October 2026 from 41.2% in July 2026, a gain of 20.7 points beyond normal variation. The brand rose in each of the three months since July 2026, including intermediate readings of 44.3% in August 2026 and 46.9% in September 2026. Its presence rate rose to 70.0% in October 2026 from 60.7% in July 2026.

Largest Decline: LendingClub

LendingClub fell to 0.0% valid recommendation coverage in October 2026 from 43.4% in July 2026, a drop of 43.4 points beyond normal variation. The decline continued in each of the three months since July 2026, including intermediate readings of 31.9% in August 2026 and 27.0% in September 2026. The brand's top-three rate fell to 0.0% in October 2026 from 17.4% in July 2026, and its rank-one rate fell to 0.0% in October 2026 from 2.9% in July 2026.

Category Leader: Upstart

Upstart remained the category leader by valid recommendation coverage with 83.5% in October 2026, up from 67.8% in July 2026. Its lead over Upgrade widened to 15.0 points as both brands rose across the series. Upstart's top-three rate rose to 57.7% in October 2026 from 37.8% in July 2026, and its rank-one rate rose to 23.4% in October 2026 from 15.2% in July 2026.

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Questions This Section Answers

• How can two brands with similar coverage have very different first-position rates?
• Which brand stands out for rank-one placement relative to its overall coverage?

Coverage alone does not show how prominently a brand is recommended. Among the leading brands, placement reveals distinct patterns between the baseline and current months.

SoFi's rank-one rate of 35.4% in October 2026 stands out relative to its overall coverage standing, while Upgrade shows a higher top-three rate than SoFi but a lower first-position rate. Close coverage can still hide different first-position rates.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

Questions This Section Answers

• Which buyer-intent classes produced qualified observations in October 2026?

The qualified observations in October 2026 fell into the Brand Recommendation class.

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

Historical Measurement Record

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

Evidence and Source Layer

Questions This Section Answers

• What does source presence tell us about how a brand ended up recommended?
• What fields are retained in each prompt-level observation?

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 in October 2026?
• How concentrated are citations among the top domains, and which types of sites dominate?

Across all AI platform responses in October 2026, 6,715 citations were observed across 651 unique domains. The top 10 most-cited domains are listed below.

Citations are moderately concentrated: the top 10 domains account for 45.7% of all citations, while the remaining 641 domains share the rest. No tracked brand's own domain appears in the top 10. Review and comparison sites, including nerdwallet.com, bankrate.com, lendingtree.com, and credible.com, feature prominently, alongside news outlets such as cnbc.com, forbes.com, and wsj.com, and financial services domains like experian.com and moneylion.com.

About This Benchmark

The LLM Authority Index AI Visibility Market Discovery Index tracks how AI and search surfaces present and recommend brands across industries, using a neutral, repeatable measurement methodology. Canonical research links:

• AI Visibility Market Discovery Index
• 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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