VPN Services: AI Market Discovery Index

Benchmark Summary

Proton VPN led the VPN Services benchmark in September 2026 with a valid recommendation coverage of 80.3%, ahead of NordVPN at 76.4% by 3.9 percentage points. TunnelBear was the only significant mover, with valid recommendation coverage falling to 7.4% in September 2026 from 13.6% in July 2026 — the largest coverage decline in the series.

Private Internet Access recorded the largest month-over-month increase, rising to 33.3% in September 2026 from 29.5% in August 2026. TunnelBear posted the largest decrease, falling 5.0 points in a single month from 12.4% in August 2026 to 7.4% in September 2026.

Over the full July-to-September series, the category leader has remained consistent but narrowed: Proton VPN moved from 83.9% in July 2026 to 80.3% in September 2026, while NordVPN moved from 80.1% to 76.4% over the same period. Both leaders declined in each of the two months since July 2026, narrowing the leadership gap to 3.9 points. TunnelBear declined in each of the two months since July 2026, with valid recommendation coverage falling from 13.6% in July 2026 to 7.4% in September 2026, a movement beyond normal variation.

The benchmark began with 800 prompt-surface observations in each month and produced 700 qualified observations in September 2026 after qualification, compared with 707 in July 2026 and 709 in August 2026.

Current Benchmark at a Glance

Qualified surface breadth counts the canonical AI surface families with at least one qualified observation: ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews, and AI Mode. The benchmark captured all six families in each month of the series. In August 2026, recommendation-shaped answer share was 50.6% and valid recommendation shortlist share was 81.5%.

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

Research Scope and Qualification

The public benchmark is narrower than the raw collection universe by design. The funnel below shows how observations were qualified.

Brand-level percentages use the qualified observations as the public denominator, not the raw collection. See AI Market Discovery Methodology for the full qualification process.

Current Brand Standings

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

How to Read the Standings

• Presence rate: share of qualified observations where the brand is mentioned in any form.
• Valid recommendation coverage: share of qualified observations where the brand appears in a recommendation context, the benchmark's primary metric.
• Top-three rate: share of qualified observations where the brand appears among the top three recommended options.
• Rank-one rate: share of qualified observations where the brand is the first recommendation.
• Net sentiment: positive minus negative mentions divided by total mentions, scored from -1 to 1.

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

Recommendation Coverage Movement

September 2026 saw one significant mover among the ten tracked brands. Private Internet Access posted the largest increase from the prior month, rising to 33.3% in September 2026 from 29.5% in August 2026, a move within normal variation. Several brands declined in each of the two months since July 2026: NordVPN moved from 80.1% in July 2026 to 76.4% in September 2026, Surfshark moved from 77.1% to 73.4%, and Proton VPN moved from 83.9% to 80.3% over the same period. No brand was an outlier moving upward in September 2026.

Largest Decline: TunnelBear

TunnelBear was the only brand to move beyond normal month-to-month variation in the September 2026 series, with valid recommendation coverage falling 6.2 points across the series to 7.4%. The brand declined in each of the two months since July 2026, falling from 13.6% in July 2026 to 12.4% in August 2026 and then to 7.4% in September 2026. Presence rate fell to 10.4% in September 2026 from 18.7% in July 2026, and top-three rate fell to 2.3% from 4.5% over the same period. This movement was not shared across the category, which otherwise showed no significant change.

Category Leader: Proton VPN

Proton VPN led the category with 80.3% valid recommendation coverage in September 2026, down from 83.9% in July 2026 and 80.7% in August 2026. Its presence rate rose to 96.3% in September 2026 from 95.3% in July 2026, while its top-three rate was 45.0% and rank-one rate was 12.7% in September 2026, down from 46.4% and 15.1% respectively in July 2026. Proton VPN held the highest net sentiment among the leading brands at 0.89 in September 2026.

The gap between NordVPN and Private Internet Access narrowed in each month of the series, from 50.5 percentage points in July 2026 to 43.1 percentage points in September 2026. Private Internet Access also widened its lead over TunnelBear in each month, from 16.0 percentage points in July 2026 to 25.9 percentage points in September 2026.

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

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

Proton VPN held a higher rank-one rate than Surfshark (12.7% versus 5.7% in September 2026) despite a lower top-three rate. NordVPN's rank-one rate of 47.7% in September 2026, combined with a top-three rate of 65.1%, shows that similar coverage levels can still hide very different first-position rates.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

All qualified observations in July, August, and September 2026 fell into the brand recommendation class, which captures discovery and consideration behavior.

All 709 qualified observations in August 2026 also fell into the brand recommendation class. The current public series measures brand recommendation discovery only and does not yet contain qualified observations in the pricing and value or multi-brand comparison classes.

Historical Measurement Record

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 or attributable sales
• Every possible AI response across all model versions and configurations
• Organic-search ranking or search engine optimization performance
• Social media mention volume or sentiment outside AI surfaces
• Private or sponsored channels, including gated enterprise deployments
• Causality from a metric movement alone; movements indicate correlation, not cause

About This Benchmark

The LLM Authority Index AI Market Discovery Index is a neutral, industry-level benchmark tracking how AI and search surfaces recommend brands across canonical surface families. It is built from prompt-level observations with audited, reproducible methodology.

• AI Market Discovery Methodology
• AI Market Discovery Metric Definitions
• AI Market Discovery Research Standards
• Modeled AI Authority Value

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

The public percentage cannot identify the prompts, competitors, or sources causing the result.

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