Personal Insurance: AI Visibility Market Discovery Index

Benchmark Summary

Questions This Section Answers

• Which personal insurance brand leads valid recommendation coverage in October 2026, and how narrow is the gap to the runner-up?
• Which brands rose and fell across the July to October 2026 series, and which month-over-month movement fell outside normal variation?

The Zebra leads the Personal Insurance index in October 2026 with valid recommendation coverage of 86.5%, ahead of Insurify at 85.7%. The gap between the two leaders was 0.8 percentage points.

Five brands were significant risers across the July to October 2026 series: Compare.com, Insurify, NerdWallet, Inc., Policygenius, and The Zebra. One brand, NerdWallet Insurance, was a significant decliner. Across the full series, the largest increase was NerdWallet, Inc., which moved from a not-tracked position in July 2026 to 18.0% coverage in October 2026, reflecting the shift of the NerdWallet label used in the benchmark. The largest series decline was NerdWallet Insurance, which moved from 16.4% in July 2026 to no valid recommendations in October 2026.

Month over month, the picture was mixed. Compare.com eased 0.9 points from 83.6% in September 2026 to 82.7% in October 2026, Insurify eased 1.2 points from 86.9% to 85.7%, The Zebra eased 0.5 points from 87.0% to 86.5%, NerdWallet, Inc. eased 2.9 points from 20.9% to 18.0%, and Bankrate Insurance fell 0.7 points from 0.8% to 0.1%, a move beyond normal variation. All of these month-over-month moves were within normal variation except Bankrate Insurance. Policygenius was the one brand to extend a rise, up 2.4 points from 56.7% in September 2026 to 59.1% in October 2026, its second consecutive monthly increase.

The benchmark began with 800 prompt-surface observations in each month and produced 755 qualified observations after qualification.

Current Benchmark at a Glance

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. All six families were represented in each month. August 2026 recorded 708 qualified observations and a recommendation-shaped answer share of 54.1%, and September 2026 recorded 748 qualified observations and a recommendation-shaped answer share of 64.7%.

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

Research Scope and Qualification

Questions This Section Answers

• How many observation-level questions qualified as benchmark observations, and why is the public denominator smaller than the raw collection?
• Which research stages separate the raw collection universe from the qualified benchmark observations?

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.

August 2026 recorded 533 unique questions, 799 relevant observations, 1 irrelevant observation, and 708 qualified observations. September 2026 recorded 493 unique questions, 800 relevant observations, 0 irrelevant observations, and 748 qualified observations.

AI Visibility Market Discovery Methodology

Current Brand Standings

Questions This Section Answers

• How do the nine tracked personal insurance brands rank by valid recommendation coverage in October 2026?
• Which brands lead on top-three and rank-one recommendation rates, and how does that differ from overall coverage?

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

How to Read the Standings

• Presence rate is the share of qualified observations where the brand appears in the AI response, regardless of recommendation status.
• Valid recommendation coverage is the share of qualified observations where the brand appears in a valid 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 measures the balance of positive over negative mentions, from -1.0 to +1.0.

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

Recommendation Coverage Movement

Questions This Section Answers

• Which brand recorded the largest coverage increase since July 2026, and did that gain fall within or beyond normal variation?
• What happened to the NerdWallet label change, and how should the new NerdWallet, Inc. entry be read against the discontinued NerdWallet Insurance label?

The label previously reported as NerdWallet Insurance showed 21.5% coverage in August 2026. Beginning in September 2026 that label no longer appears in the benchmark, and the NerdWallet, Inc. label records 18.0% coverage in October 2026.

Largest Increase: Policygenius

Policygenius extended the longest active rising streak in the benchmark, up 2.4 points from 56.7% in September 2026 to 59.1% in October 2026, its second consecutive monthly increase, and up 8.0 points from 51.1% in July 2026. The brand's presence rate was 64.0%, its top-three rate 17.6%, its rank-one rate 0.9%, and its net sentiment 0.93. The October 2026 gain was within normal month-to-month variation.

Largest Decline: Bankrate Insurance

Bankrate Insurance fell 0.7 points from 0.8% in September 2026 to 0.1% in October 2026, a move beyond normal variation and the only month-over-month decline of that scale in October 2026. Over the full series the brand moved from 0.4% in July 2026 to 0.1% in October 2026. Its presence rate was 1.7%, down 4.0 points from 5.7% in July 2026, and its net sentiment turned negative at -0.23. Bankrate Insurance has now declined in each of the last two months.

Category Leader: The Zebra

The Zebra held the highest valid recommendation coverage in October 2026 at 86.5%, up 4.5 points from 82.0% in July 2026. The gap to Insurify narrowed to 0.8 points. The Zebra's top-three rate rose from 66.8% in July 2026 to 78.9% in October 2026, up 12.1 points, and its rank-one rate rose from 23.0% to 27.6%, up 4.6 points. Presence rate moved from 94.8% in July 2026 to 96.0% in October 2026.

Risers Within the Leading Cluster

Compare.com and Insurify both posted significant series increases while easing slightly month over month. Compare.com rose 7.0 points from 75.7% in July 2026 to 82.7% in October 2026, supported by a top-three rate that climbed from 62.0% to 71.8%, up 9.8 points, and a presence rate up 4.0 points to 87.8%. Insurify rose 4.0 points from 81.7% in July 2026 to 85.7% in October 2026, with a top-three rate up 11.2 points to 84.0% and a rank-one rate up 6.7 points to 46.8%. Both brands eased in October 2026 relative to September 2026, within normal variation.

Stable Brands

Insurance.com, MoneyGeek, and ValuePenguin all remained within normal month-to-month variation across the series. Insurance.com moved from 0.9% in July 2026 to 0.8% in October 2026, MoneyGeek from 0.7% to 0.4%, and ValuePenguin rose from 0.4% to 1.2%. Each recorded valid recommendation coverage below 1.3% in October 2026, with presence rates below 10%.

Company Focus: MoneyGeek

MoneyGeek's current position sits at the bottom of the tracked field: a presence rate of 6.8%, valid recommendation coverage of 0.4%, a top-three rate of 0.1%, a rank-one rate of 0.0%, and net sentiment of 0.06. Coverage has not grown across the series — it fell from 0.7% in July 2026 to 0.4% in October 2026, a 0.3-point decline — and MoneyGeek has recorded zero rank-one recommendations in every month measured.

The Zebra records 86.5% valid recommendation coverage, while MoneyGeek stands at 0.4%. Insurify achieves a 46.8% rank-one rate, compared with 0.0% for MoneyGeek. The more important issue is not the size of the gap alone but what it means for conversion: MoneyGeek's presence rate of 6.8% is already comparable to ValuePenguin's (6.8%) and above Bankrate Insurance's (1.7%), yet that presence is converting into valid recommendations at only 0.4%, a materially lower rate than brands with similar visibility. Visibility in the information environment is not translating into recommendation outcomes, and the decline from July to October suggests the gap is not closing on its own.

Highest-priority diagnostic: Why does MoneyGeek's presence in AI responses fail to convert into valid recommendations at a rate anywhere close to its presence-rate peers, and what is driving the continued erosion in coverage from July to October 2026?

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Questions This Section Answers

• Why does Insurify rank first more often than The Zebra despite slightly lower overall recommendation coverage?
• Which of the three leading brands converts the most shortlist appearances into first-position recommendations?

Coverage alone does not show how prominently a brand is recommended. The three leading brands by valid recommendation coverage show very different placement patterns in October 2026.

Insurify was recommended first in 46.8% of qualified observations, well above The Zebra at 27.6% and Compare.com at 10.1%, even though The Zebra holds slightly higher overall coverage. Close coverage can still hide very different first-position rates.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

All qualified observations in each month fell into the Brand Recommendation class, where the AI response directly recommends one or more named brands.

The current public series measures Brand Recommendation discovery only; Pricing & Value and Multi-Brand Comparison questions have no qualified observations in this benchmark.

Historical Measurement Record

Questions This Section Answers

• Has The Zebra held the coverage lead across every month in the series, and how has the leader's coverage moved?
• Which brand recorded the largest coverage movement in each measurement, and what does that say about momentum across the series?

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

The Zebra has held the coverage lead in every measurement of the series.

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. It captures how nine tracked brands appear across six canonical AI surface families in response to personal insurance queries.

Top 10 Cited Domains

Questions This Section Answers

• Which domains receive the most citations across AI platform responses, and how concentrated are those citations?
• Which tracked brands' own domains appear among the top cited sources in this personal insurance benchmark?

Across all AI platform responses in October 2026, the benchmark observed 6,036 citations drawn from 476 unique domains.

Citations are concentrated at the top of the distribution: the three most-cited domains account for 37.8% of citations between them, and the top ten account for 59.1%, while the remaining 466 domains share the rest. Five tracked brands' own domains appear in the top ten: insurify.com, thezebra.com, compare.com, policygenius.com, and insurance.com. The mix skews toward insurance comparison and marketplace sites, with general-purpose platforms such as google.com, youtube.com, and reddit.com appearing alongside them.

About This Benchmark

The LLM Authority Index AI Visibility Market Discovery Index tracks how brands surface, appear, and are recommended across major AI-assisted search surfaces, using a consistent methodology that treats each brand and surface on its own terms.

• 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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