{"report":{"title":"Canada's mortgage answer gap: which lenders and brokers does AI actually name?","url":"https://thepromptgroup.com/research/canadian-mortgage-ai-visibility-2026","publisher":"The Prompt Group","author":"Anton Sopov","reportType":"Category benchmark","vertical":"Mortgages","market":"Canada, English prompts","collectedOn":"2026-09-14","collectionNote":"two runs, 14 September 2026","datePublished":"2026-09-15","dateModified":"2026-09-15","engines":[{"engine":"chatgpt","responses":96,"note":"364 company mentions, 74 companies"},{"engine":"perplexity","responses":96,"note":"421 company mentions, 104 companies"},{"engine":"googleAiOverview","responses":96,"note":"116 company mentions, 18 companies"}],"licence":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/","citeAs":"Anton Sopov (2026). Canada's mortgage answer gap: which lenders and brokers does AI actually name?. The Prompt Group Research. https://thepromptgroup.com/research/canadian-mortgage-ai-visibility-2026","limitations":"One day, two runs, so nothing here is a trend. Two runs is enough to show that the engines are unstable and not enough to say how unstable. Two of the 48 questions are flawed and both favour True North Mortgage, the brand the tracking project is built around: one names a city when the panel was meant to be geographically plain, and one carries a product name. Both are described under Figure 1 and the corrected 4.7 percent is what we quote. Mortgages.ca is withheld because the instrument matched its name against the word “mortgages” in answers that never mentioned the company. The platform truncates answer text at 2,000 characters, so what an answer contained is solid and what an answer left out is scoped to the questions we read in full. Where Google returned nothing we see an empty string, which could be a refusal or a non-trigger. No rate here was checked against a lender, so where we say the engines disagree about a rate we mean exactly that and nothing about anyone's pricing. And we left out every survey statistic the engines quoted, because one of them cited the same 72 percent figure against two different metrics and two different years inside five minutes.","methodology":[{"detail":"50 tracked questions written to match what a Canadian borrower types on the way to a decision. The 48 that name no company are the panel here. The other two are set aside.","term":"Panel"},{"detail":"Rates 15 questions, broker services 12, terms and fees 8, eligibility 7, the application 6, pre-approval 4, refinancing 4, renewal 2. Questions can carry more than one topic, so those do not add to 48. Topic names were set when the panel was loaded, before any results came back.","term":"Topics"},{"detail":"Run from Canadian locations with the country set to Canada. Forty-six questions are geographically plain, one names Toronto, one asks about variation by province. None names another country.","term":"Geography"},{"detail":"ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and Perplexity.","term":"Engines"},{"detail":"Two runs on 14 September 2026, about five minutes apart. 48 questions across three engines, twice, is 288 answers, 96 per engine.","term":"Collection"},{"detail":"The percentage of those 288 answers in which a company was named. Not market share, not funded volume, not revenue.","term":"What answer share means"},{"detail":"Twenty-four of the 48 questions were read answer by answer, 144 in total, picked to cover every topic and both ends of the intent range. Everything in this report about how the models behave comes from that reading rather than from a dashboard.","term":"What we read"},{"detail":"The tracking project is built around one Canadian brokerage's domain and counts against a roster. A company outside that roster is not counted no matter how often it is named. 155 matched here, so the real number of distinct companies is higher.","term":"How companies were counted"},{"detail":"A classifier score out of 100, not a measurement of reputation. We report it for context and flag it as unstable under Figure 1.","term":"Sentiment"},{"detail":"The project has kept collecting since. Re-run these queries today and you will get a wider window and different numbers. Everything here is the 14 September two-run population, available on request.","term":"Frozen extract"}],"downloads":{"json":"https://thepromptgroup.com/research/canadian-mortgage-ai-visibility-2026/data.json","csv":"https://thepromptgroup.com/research/canadian-mortgage-ai-visibility-2026/data.csv"}},"figures":[{"number":1,"id":"fig-share","title":"The leader is named in one answer out of nine. Nobody else clears one in thirteen.","scope":"All 48 questions, 3 engines","caption":"Share of the 288 answers to unbranded questions in which each company was named, pooled over two collection runs on 14 September 2026. Companies were matched against a tracked roster, so the true number of distinct companies named is higher than 155. Mortgages.ca is withheld: the instrument matched its name against the substring “mortgages” in answers that did not name the company, including two answers about the United Kingdom and Australia.","unit":"%","series":["value"],"rows":[{"label":"TD","kind":"brand","site":"td.com","value":10.8,"Answers naming it":"31 of 288","Share of voice":"7.7%","Sentiment":"76 / 100"},{"label":"True North Mortgage","kind":"brand","site":"truenorthmortgage.ca","value":7.3,"Answers naming it":"21 of 288","Share of voice":"5.2%","Sentiment":"71 / 100"},{"label":"nesto","kind":"brand","site":"nesto.ca","value":6.9,"Answers naming it":"20 of 288","Share of voice":"5.0%","Sentiment":"70 / 100"},{"label":"Ratehub","kind":"brand","site":"ratehub.ca","value":6.9,"Answers naming it":"20 of 288","Share of voice":"5.0%","Sentiment":"73 / 100"},{"label":"Scotiabank","kind":"brand","site":"scotiabank.com","value":6.6,"Answers naming it":"19 of 288","Share of voice":"4.7%","Sentiment":"73 / 100"},{"label":"RBC","kind":"brand","site":"rbcroyalbank.com","value":6.2,"Answers naming it":"18 of 288","Share of voice":"4.5%","Sentiment":"58 / 100"},{"label":"BMO","kind":"brand","site":"bmo.com","value":3.8,"Answers naming it":"11 of 288","Share of voice":"2.7%","Sentiment":"58 / 100"},{"label":"Butler Mortgage","kind":"brand","site":"butlermortgage.ca","value":3.8,"Answers naming it":"11 of 288","Share of voice":"2.7%","Sentiment":"83 / 100"},{"label":"CIBC","kind":"brand","site":"cibc.com","value":3.1,"Answers naming it":"9 of 288","Share of voice":"2.2%","Sentiment":"63 / 100"},{"label":"National Bank","kind":"brand","site":"nbc.ca","value":3.1,"Answers naming it":"9 of 288","Share of voice":"2.2%","Sentiment":"50 / 100"},{"label":"First National","kind":"brand","site":"firstnational.ca","value":2.4,"Answers naming it":"7 of 288","Share of voice":"1.7%","Sentiment":"59 / 100"},{"label":"Pine","kind":"brand","site":"pine.ca","value":2.4,"Answers naming it":"7 of 288","Share of voice":"1.7%","Sentiment":"82 / 100"},{"label":"Equitable Bank","kind":"brand","site":"equitablebank.ca","value":2.1,"Answers naming it":"6 of 288","Share of voice":"1.5%","Sentiment":"67 / 100"},{"label":"Home Trust","kind":"brand","site":"hometrust.ca","value":2.1,"Answers naming it":"6 of 288","Share of voice":"1.5%","Sentiment":"55 / 100"},{"label":"Outline Financial","kind":"brand","site":"outline.ca","value":2.1,"Answers naming it":"6 of 288","Share of voice":"1.5%","Sentiment":"82 / 100"},{"label":"Frank Mortgage","kind":"brand","site":"frankmortgage.com","value":1.7,"Answers naming it":"5 of 288","Share of voice":"1.2%","Sentiment":"81 / 100"}]},{"number":2,"id":"fig-engine","title":"A bank wins on one engine and a comparison site on the other.","scope":"96 answers per engine","caption":"Share of each engine’s 96 unbranded answers in which the company was named, over two runs on 14 September 2026. Seven companies appear in the top thirteen of both engines. Butler Mortgage and Frank Mortgage are left out here because they fall below the cutoff of our ChatGPT extract, which is a limit of that extract rather than evidence the engine never names them.","unit":"%","series":["ChatGPT (96 answers)","Perplexity (96 answers)"],"rows":[{"label":"TD","kind":"brand","site":"td.com","value":13.5,"value2":9.4,"change":-4.1},{"label":"nesto","kind":"brand","site":"nesto.ca","value":9.4,"value2":9.4,"change":0},{"label":"True North Mortgage","kind":"brand","site":"truenorthmortgage.ca","value":9.4,"value2":7.3,"change":-2.1},{"label":"Ratehub","kind":"brand","site":"ratehub.ca","value":7.3,"value2":10.4,"change":3.1},{"label":"RBC","kind":"brand","site":"rbcroyalbank.com","value":7.3,"value2":6.2,"change":-1.1},{"label":"Scotiabank","kind":"brand","site":"scotiabank.com","value":6.2,"value2":8.3,"change":2.1},{"label":"BMO","kind":"brand","site":"bmo.com","value":4.2,"value2":7.3,"change":3.1}]},{"number":3,"id":"fig-volume","title":"Perplexity reads the most and shows the least. Google is the other way round.","scope":"96 answers per engine","caption":"Company mentions across 288 answers to 48 unbranded questions, two runs, 14 September 2026.","unit":"count","series":["value"],"rows":[{"label":"ChatGPT","kind":"brand","value":364},{"label":"Perplexity","kind":"brand","value":421},{"label":"Google AI Overviews","kind":"brand","value":116}]},{"number":4,"id":"fig-google","title":"A brokerage that ChatGPT barely names is second on Google.","scope":"Google AI Overviews, 96 answers","caption":"Every company Google AI Overviews named more than once, over two runs on 14 September 2026. It named 18 in total across the study, against 74 for ChatGPT and 104 for Perplexity.","unit":"%","series":["value"],"rows":[{"label":"TD","kind":"brand","site":"td.com","value":9.4,"Answers naming it":"9 of 96","Share of voice":"19.1%"},{"label":"Butler Mortgage","kind":"brand","site":"butlermortgage.ca","value":6.2,"Answers naming it":"6 of 96","Share of voice":"12.8%"},{"label":"RBC","kind":"brand","site":"rbcroyalbank.com","value":5.2,"Answers naming it":"5 of 96","Share of voice":"10.6%"},{"label":"Scotiabank","kind":"brand","site":"scotiabank.com","value":5.2,"Answers naming it":"5 of 96","Share of voice":"10.6%"},{"label":"True North Mortgage","kind":"brand","site":"truenorthmortgage.ca","value":5.2,"Answers naming it":"5 of 96","Share of voice":"10.6%"},{"label":"Ratehub","kind":"brand","site":"ratehub.ca","value":3.1,"Answers naming it":"3 of 96","Share of voice":"6.4%"},{"label":"Frank Mortgage","kind":"brand","site":"frankmortgage.com","value":2.1,"Answers naming it":"2 of 96","Share of voice":"4.3%"},{"label":"nesto","kind":"brand","site":"nesto.ca","value":2.1,"Answers naming it":"2 of 96","Share of voice":"4.3%"},{"label":"Calvert Home Mortgage","kind":"brand","site":"chmic.ca","value":1,"Answers naming it":"1 of 96","Share of voice":"2.1%"},{"label":"Equitable Bank","kind":"brand","site":"equitablebank.ca","value":1,"Answers naming it":"1 of 96","Share of voice":"2.1%"},{"label":"Home Trust","kind":"brand","site":"hometrust.ca","value":1,"Answers naming it":"1 of 96","Share of voice":"2.1%"}]},{"number":5,"id":"fig-sources","title":"Reddit is cited more often than any bank's own website.","scope":"584 domains, 2,616 source retrievals","caption":"Citations by source domain across 288 answers to unbranded questions, two runs, 14 September 2026. Type is our classification, not the platform's.","unit":"count","series":["value"],"rows":[{"label":"canada.ca","kind":"domain","site":"canada.ca","type":"Government","value":186,"Responses using it":"23.0%","Pages used":"71"},{"label":"ratehub.ca","kind":"domain","site":"ratehub.ca","type":"Comparison","value":174,"Responses using it":"36.5%","Pages used":"68"},{"label":"nerdwallet.com","kind":"domain","site":"nerdwallet.com","type":"Editorial","value":111,"Responses using it":"33.9%","Pages used":"59"},{"label":"wowa.ca","kind":"domain","site":"wowa.ca","type":"Editorial","value":100,"Responses using it":"28.3%","Pages used":"47"},{"label":"nesto.ca","kind":"domain","site":"nesto.ca","type":"Lender","value":90,"Responses using it":"25.7%","Pages used":"47"},{"label":"forbes.com","kind":"domain","site":"forbes.com","type":"Editorial","value":70,"Responses using it":"17.4%","Pages used":"42"},{"label":"gc.ca","kind":"domain","site":"gc.ca","type":"Government","value":67,"Responses using it":"9.1%","Pages used":"49"},{"label":"reddit.com","kind":"domain","site":"reddit.com","type":"Forum","value":62,"Responses using it":"20.0%","Pages used":"47"},{"label":"rbcroyalbank.com","kind":"domain","site":"rbcroyalbank.com","type":"Bank","value":52,"Responses using it":"18.3%","Pages used":"21"},{"label":"truenorthmortgage.ca","kind":"domain","site":"truenorthmortgage.ca","type":"Brokerage","value":49,"Responses using it":"17.0%","Pages used":"27"},{"label":"scotiabank.com","kind":"domain","site":"scotiabank.com","type":"Bank","value":47,"Responses using it":"13.9%","Pages used":"20"},{"label":"td.com","kind":"domain","site":"td.com","type":"Bank","value":45,"Responses using it":"15.2%","Pages used":"24"},{"label":"mortgagesquad.ca","kind":"domain","site":"mortgagesquad.ca","type":"Brokerage","value":44,"Responses using it":"16.5%","Pages used":"33"},{"label":"rates.ca","kind":"domain","site":"rates.ca","type":"Comparison","value":44,"Responses using it":"15.7%","Pages used":"28"},{"label":"wealthnorth.ca","kind":"domain","site":"wealthnorth.ca","type":"Editorial","value":32,"Responses using it":"11.3%","Pages used":"24"}]}]}