Best mortgage lenders in Canada, according to AI

What does AI say when a Canadian asks about a mortgage?

No company owns the category: TD, the most frequently named, appeared in 10.8 percent of 288 answers, and the three engines ranked the field differently.

1. No company was named in more than 10.8 percent of 288 Canadian mortgage answers, and 130 of 155 companies appeared in three answers or fewer.

   Figure 1

2. The engines disagree on the leader: TD leads ChatGPT at 13.5 percent and Ratehub leads Perplexity at 10.4 percent, on identical questions.

   Figure 2

3. Butler Mortgage ranks second on Google AI Overviews at 6.2 percent and does not appear in ChatGPT's top thirteen.

   Figure 4

4. Perplexity surfaced 26 citations from 1,400 retrievals; Google AI Overviews surfaced 350 from 369.

   Figure 3

5. canada.ca is the most cited domain at 186 citations, ahead of every lender-owned site in the study.

   Figure 5

Which mortgage lenders does AI name most in Canada?

TD, in 31 of 288 answers, or 10.8 percent. No other company exceeds 7.3 percent.

Visibility is thinly spread rather than concentrated. TD leads at 10.8 percent, followed by True North Mortgage at 7.3, nesto and Ratehub at 6.9, Scotiabank at 6.6 and RBC at 6.2, a span of 4.6 percentage points across the top six. Below that the distribution falls away sharply: twelfth place is named in seven of 288 answers, and 130 of the 155 companies matched appear in three answers or fewer.

Because a single answer can name several companies, these shares do not sum and should not be read as market share. The ratio between first and sixteenth place is 6.4 to one, which is narrow for a category of this size.

Figure 1

The full ranking

The leader is named in one answer out of nine. Nobody else clears one in thirteen.

Chartered bankBrokerage or non-bank lenderComparison site

1. 01TD10.8%1st of 163.5 points ahead of True North MortgageAnswers naming it31 of 288Share of voice7.7%Sentiment76 / 100
2. 02True North Mortgage7.3%2nd of 163.5 points behind TDAnswers naming it21 of 288Share of voice5.2%Sentiment71 / 100
3. 03nesto6.9%3rd of 16, tied with 13.9 points behind TDAnswers naming it20 of 288Share of voice5.0%Sentiment70 / 100
4. 04Ratehub6.9%3rd of 16, tied with 13.9 points behind TDAnswers naming it20 of 288Share of voice5.0%Sentiment73 / 100
5. 05Scotiabank6.6%5th of 164.2 points behind TDAnswers naming it19 of 288Share of voice4.7%Sentiment73 / 100
6. 06RBC6.2%6th of 164.6 points behind TDAnswers naming it18 of 288Share of voice4.5%Sentiment58 / 100
7. 07BMO3.8%7th of 16, tied with 17.0 points behind TDAnswers naming it11 of 288Share of voice2.7%Sentiment58 / 100
8. 08Butler Mortgage3.8%7th of 16, tied with 17.0 points behind TDAnswers naming it11 of 288Share of voice2.7%Sentiment83 / 100
9. 09CIBC3.1%9th of 16, tied with 17.7 points behind TDAnswers naming it9 of 288Share of voice2.2%Sentiment63 / 100
10. 10National Bank3.1%9th of 16, tied with 17.7 points behind TDAnswers naming it9 of 288Share of voice2.2%Sentiment50 / 100
11. 11First National2.4%11th of 16, tied with 18.4 points behind TDAnswers naming it7 of 288Share of voice1.7%Sentiment59 / 100
12. 12Pine2.4%11th of 16, tied with 18.4 points behind TDAnswers naming it7 of 288Share of voice1.7%Sentiment82 / 100
13. 13Equitable Bank2.1%13th of 16, tied with 28.7 points behind TDAnswers naming it6 of 288Share of voice1.5%Sentiment67 / 100
14. 14Home Trust2.1%13th of 16, tied with 28.7 points behind TDAnswers naming it6 of 288Share of voice1.5%Sentiment55 / 100
15. 15Outline Financial2.1%13th of 16, tied with 28.7 points behind TDAnswers naming it6 of 288Share of voice1.5%Sentiment82 / 100
16. 16Frank Mortgage1.7%

0%3%6%9%12%

Show all 16 companies ↓Show the top 15 ↑

Data behind Figure 116 rows · CSV · JSON · PNG

Share of the 288 answers to unbranded questions in which each company was named, over two runs on 14 September 2026. The Prompt Group, 14 September 2026.

Companies are matched against a tracked roster, so more than 155 were named. Sentiment is a classifier output. It scored TD 93.8 on ChatGPT and 25.0 on Google over the same questions on the same day, so read that column as directional.

Name	Value	Answers naming it	Share of voice	Sentiment
TD	10.8%	31 of 288	7.7%	76 / 100
True North Mortgage	7.3%	21 of 288	5.2%	71 / 100
nesto	6.9%	20 of 288	5.0%	70 / 100
Ratehub	6.9%	20 of 288	5.0%	73 / 100
Scotiabank	6.6%	19 of 288	4.7%	73 / 100
RBC	6.2%	18 of 288	4.5%	58 / 100
BMO	3.8%	11 of 288	2.7%	58 / 100
Butler Mortgage	3.8%	11 of 288	2.7%	83 / 100
CIBC	3.1%	9 of 288	2.2%	63 / 100
National Bank	3.1%	9 of 288	2.2%	50 / 100
First National	2.4%	7 of 288	1.7%	59 / 100
Pine	2.4%	7 of 288	1.7%	82 / 100
Equitable Bank	2.1%	6 of 288	1.5%	67 / 100
Home Trust	2.1%	6 of 288	1.5%	55 / 100
Outline Financial	2.1%	6 of 288	1.5%	82 / 100
Frank Mortgage	1.7%	5 of 288	1.2%	81 / 100

A category without a dominant answer is one in which a small number of well-sourced pages can change a position, which is the opening for any lender outside the top six. The engines do not appear to be ranking by balance sheet: one-office brokerages are named at rates comparable to monoline lenders with multi-billion dollar books.

Two of the 48 questions favour True North Mortgage. Across the other 46 it appears in 13 of 276 responses, or 4.7 percent, which would place it seventh, and 4.7 is the figure to quote.

Do ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google recommend the same mortgage lenders?

No. ChatGPT names TD most often at 13.5 percent and Perplexity names Ratehub most often at 10.4 percent, on identical questions.

ChatGPT and Perplexity draw on substantially the same leading set and order it differently. The four companies at the top of each engine overlap, but a chartered bank leads one and a rate comparison platform leads the other: Ratehub ranks fourth on ChatGPT at 7.3 percent and first on Perplexity at 10.4.

The reversal is not confined to one company. nesto ranks second on ChatGPT and joint second on Perplexity, and eighth on Google AI Overviews at 2.1 percent.

Figure 2

Engine by engine

A bank wins on one engine and a comparison site on the other.

ChatGPTPerplexity

0%4%8%12%

1. 01TD13.5%9.4%44 percent more often on ChatGPTas on Perplexity, a gap of 4.1 pointsChatGPT1st of 7Perplexity2nd of 7
2. 02nesto9.4%9.4%The engines agreeChatGPT2nd of 7Perplexity2nd of 7
3. 03True North Mortgage9.4%7.3%29 percent more often on ChatGPTas on Perplexity, a gap of 2.1 pointsChatGPT2nd of 7Perplexity5th of 7
4. 04Ratehub7.3%10.4%42 percent more often on Perplexityas on ChatGPT, a gap of 3.1 pointsChatGPT4th of 7Perplexity1st of 7
5. 05RBC7.3%6.2%18 percent more often on ChatGPTas on Perplexity, a gap of 1.1 pointsChatGPT4th of 7Perplexity7th of 7
6. 06Scotiabank6.2%8.3%34 percent more often on Perplexityas on ChatGPT, a gap of 2.1 pointsChatGPT6th of 7Perplexity4th of 7
7. 07BMO4.2%7.3%Highest on Perplexity3.1 points above ChatGPTChatGPT7th of 7Perplexity5th of 7

Data behind Figure 27 rows · CSV · JSON · PNG

Share of each engine's 96 unbranded answers in which the company was named, two runs, 14 September 2026. The Prompt Group, 14 September 2026.

Butler Mortgage and Frank Mortgage fall below the cutoff of our ChatGPT extract, which is a limit of the extract and not evidence the engine never names them.

Name	ChatGPT (96 answers)	Perplexity (96 answers)
TD	13.5%	9.4%
nesto	9.4%	9.4%
True North Mortgage	9.4%	7.3%
Ratehub	7.3%	10.4%
RBC	7.3%	6.2%
Scotiabank	6.2%	8.3%
BMO	4.2%	7.3%

A bank and a comparison platform are not equivalent outcomes for a borrower: one answer directs them to a single lender, the other to a table of competing rates. Any single-engine visibility score therefore describes one third of a market that does not agree with itself.

Averaging the three engines into one figure removes the disagreement, which is the part of the result an organization can act on.

Which AI engine names the most mortgage companies?

Perplexity, with 421 company mentions across 96 answers, against 364 for ChatGPT and 116 for Google AI Overviews.

Mention volume and citation visibility move in opposite directions. Perplexity retrieved 1,400 pages while composing its 96 answers and surfaced 26 clickable citations, a ratio of 1.9 percent, against 95 percent for Google AI Overviews, which retrieved 369 and surfaced 350. ChatGPT sits between them at 847 retrievals and 300 citations.

Part of this gap reflects how each platform reports its own activity rather than how the underlying model behaves, so the ratios are directional rather than exact. The ordering held across both runs.

Figure 3

How much each engine names

Perplexity reads the most and shows the least. Google is the other way round.

0150300450

1. 364ChatGPT40 percent of all 901
2. 421Perplexity47 percent of all 901
3. 116Google AI Overviews13 percent of all 901

Data behind Figure 33 rows · CSV · JSON · PNG

Company mentions across the 288 answers, two runs, 14 September 2026. The Prompt Group, 14 September 2026.

A retrieval is a page the engine pulled while composing; a citation is a link the reader can see. ChatGPT: 847 retrievals and 300 citations, Perplexity 1,400 and 26, Google 369 and 350.

Name	Value
ChatGPT	364
Perplexity	421
Google AI Overviews	116

Retrieval, citation and mention are distinct events, and an organization can be strong on one and absent from another. A page read by Perplexity is unlikely to be shown to the reader, which makes citation an unreliable proxy for influence on that engine and a reasonable one on Google AI Overviews.

Google AI Overviews is the outlier at both ends: fewest mentions, fewest companies and fewest retrievals, with the highest proportion of visible citations.

Which mortgage lenders does Google AI Overviews name?

Eighteen companies across 96 answers, with TD first at 9.4 percent and Butler Mortgage second at 6.2 percent.

Google AI Overviews produced a materially narrower field than the other two engines. It named 18 companies across its 96 answers, against 104 for Perplexity, and returned an empty overview on 24 of the 48 responses read in full, with no sources attached and no stated reason.

The composition also differs. Butler Mortgage ranks second here and does not appear in ChatGPT's top thirteen, and Frank Mortgage ranks seventh at 2.1 percent while appearing in neither of the other two shortlists.

Figure 4

Google AI Overviews alone

A brokerage that ChatGPT barely names is second on Google.

Chartered bankBrokerage or non-bank lenderComparison site

1. 01TD9.4%1st of 113.2 points ahead of Butler MortgageAnswers naming it9 of 96Share of voice19.1%
2. 02Butler Mortgage6.2%2nd of 113.2 points behind TDAnswers naming it6 of 96Share of voice12.8%
3. 03RBC5.2%3rd of 11, tied with 24.2 points behind TDAnswers naming it5 of 96Share of voice10.6%
4. 04Scotiabank5.2%3rd of 11, tied with 24.2 points behind TDAnswers naming it5 of 96Share of voice10.6%
5. 05True North Mortgage5.2%3rd of 11, tied with 24.2 points behind TDAnswers naming it5 of 96Share of voice10.6%
6. 06Ratehub3.1%6th of 116.3 points behind TDAnswers naming it3 of 96Share of voice6.4%
7. 07Frank Mortgage2.1%7th of 11, tied with 17.3 points behind TDAnswers naming it2 of 96Share of voice4.3%
8. 08nesto2.1%7th of 11, tied with 17.3 points behind TDAnswers naming it2 of 96Share of voice4.3%
9. 09Calvert Home Mortgage1.0%9th of 11, tied with 28.4 points behind TDAnswers naming it1 of 96Share of voice2.1%
10. 10Equitable Bank1.0%9th of 11, tied with 28.4 points behind TDAnswers naming it1 of 96Share of voice2.1%
11. 11Home Trust1.0%9th of 11, tied with 28.4 points behind TDAnswers naming it1 of 96Share of voice2.1%

0%4%8%

Data behind Figure 411 rows · CSV · JSON · PNG

Every company Google AI Overviews named more than once, two runs, 14 September 2026. The Prompt Group, 14 September 2026.

Name	Value	Answers naming it	Share of voice
TD	9.4%	9 of 96	19.1%
Butler Mortgage	6.2%	6 of 96	12.8%
RBC	5.2%	5 of 96	10.6%
Scotiabank	5.2%	5 of 96	10.6%
True North Mortgage	5.2%	5 of 96	10.6%
Ratehub	3.1%	3 of 96	6.4%
Frank Mortgage	2.1%	2 of 96	4.3%
nesto	2.1%	2 of 96	4.3%
Calvert Home Mortgage	1.0%	1 of 96	2.1%
Equitable Bank	1.0%	1 of 96	2.1%
Home Trust	1.0%	1 of 96	2.1%

The engine with the smallest field sits on the largest share of Canadian search, so inclusion in this shortlist is worth more per position than inclusion in either of the others. Two of the five companies at the top of Google AI Overviews are brokerages rather than lenders.

We cannot distinguish a refusal from a non-trigger: the empty responses return an empty string with no sources, and Google does not report which.

Which sources does AI cite about Canadian mortgages?

Government and comparison sites dominate: canada.ca leads with 186 citations, and the most cited lender-owned domain ranks fifth.

The evidence layer is controlled by third parties. The fifteen most cited domains account for 1,173 of 2,616 citations, and within that set lender and brokerage domains account for 327, or 28 percent. canada.ca and gc.ca together supply 253 citations, and reddit.com, at 62, is cited more often than any bank's own site.

Breadth matters more than any single page: ratehub.ca is cited across 68 distinct pages and canada.ca across 71.

Figure 5

Most cited domains

Reddit is cited more often than any bank's own website.

Government or regulatorComparison site, editorial or forumA lender or brokerage’s own site

1. 01canada.caGOVERNMENT1861st of 1512 ahead of ratehub.caResponses using it23.0%Pages used71
2. 02ratehub.caCOMPARISON1742nd of 1512 behind canada.caResponses using it36.5%Pages used68
3. 03nerdwallet.comEDITORIAL1113rd of 1575 behind canada.caResponses using it33.9%Pages used59
4. 04wowa.caEDITORIAL1004th of 1586 behind canada.caResponses using it28.3%Pages used47
5. 05nesto.caLENDER905th of 1596 behind canada.caResponses using it25.7%Pages used47
6. 06forbes.comEDITORIAL706th of 15116 behind canada.caResponses using it17.4%Pages used42
7. 07gc.caGOVERNMENT677th of 15119 behind canada.caResponses using it9.1%Pages used49
8. 08reddit.comFORUM628th of 15124 behind canada.caResponses using it20.0%Pages used47
9. 09rbcroyalbank.comBANK529th of 15134 behind canada.caResponses using it18.3%Pages used21
10. 10truenorthmortgage.caBROKERAGE4910th of 15137 behind canada.caResponses using it17.0%Pages used27
11. 11scotiabank.comBANK4711th of 15139 behind canada.caResponses using it13.9%Pages used20
12. 12td.comBANK4512th of 15141 behind canada.caResponses using it15.2%Pages used24
13. 13mortgagesquad.caBROKERAGE4413th of 15, tied with 1142 behind canada.caResponses using it16.5%Pages used33
14. 14rates.caCOMPARISON4413th of 15, tied with 1142 behind canada.caResponses using it15.7%Pages used28
15. 15wealthnorth.caEDITORIAL3215th of 15154 behind canada.caResponses using it11.3%Pages used24

050100150200

Data behind Figure 515 rows · CSV · JSON · PNG

Citations by source domain across the 288 answers, two runs, 14 September 2026. The Prompt Group, 14 September 2026.

The type tag is our classification. The right-hand column is the share of the 230 responses that returned any source at all; 58 returned none, most of them empty Google AI Overviews.

Domain	Value	Responses using it	Pages used
canada.ca	186	23.0%	71
ratehub.ca	174	36.5%	68
nerdwallet.com	111	33.9%	59
wowa.ca	100	28.3%	47
nesto.ca	90	25.7%	47
forbes.com	70	17.4%	42
gc.ca	67	9.1%	49
reddit.com	62	20.0%	47
rbcroyalbank.com	52	18.3%	21
truenorthmortgage.ca	49	17.0%	27
scotiabank.com	47	13.9%	20
td.com	45	15.2%	24
mortgagesquad.ca	44	16.5%	33
rates.ca	44	15.7%	28
wealthnorth.ca	32	11.3%	24

Visibility and source authority are not the same asset. nesto is named in 6.9 percent of answers while nesto.ca is the fifth most cited domain at 90 citations, and TD leads on visibility at 10.8 percent while td.com ranks twelfth at 45.

That suggests two separate exposures for a lender: presence in the answer, and presence in the material the answer is assembled from. An organization absent from ratehub.ca and wowa.ca is absent from a large part of the second.

What should a Canadian lender or brokerage do about this?

Treat each engine as a separate market, and treat presence in the sources as a separate exposure from presence in the answer.

Measure each engine as a separate market. TD leads ChatGPT at 13.5 percent and Google AI Overviews at 9.4. Ratehub leads Perplexity at 10.4 and ranks sixth on Google. Butler Mortgage ranks second on one engine and outside the top thirteen on another. A single blended score removes the only variation an organization can act on.

Being cited and being named are separate. nesto is named in 6.9 percent of answers while nesto.ca is the fifth most cited domain at 90 citations. TD leads on visibility at 10.8 percent while td.com ranks twelfth at 45. The two are not interchangeable and will not respond to the same work.

Third parties hold most of the evidence layer. Within the fifteen most cited domains, lender and brokerage sites account for 327 of 1,173 citations, or 28 percent. Government sources supply 253. A lender absent from ratehub.ca, wowa.ca and the government pages is absent from most of the material the answers are built from.

Google AI Overviews is the scarcest position. It named 18 companies across 96 answers against 104 for Perplexity, and surfaced 350 citations from 369 retrievals. Fewer places are available and more of what it reads is shown to the reader, so a position there carries more weight per place than on either other engine.

How was this Canadian mortgage AI study measured?

48 questions that name no company, put to ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews twice each on 14 September 2026, giving 288 answers, 144 of which were read one at a time.

Panel

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.

Topics

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.

Geography

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.

Collection

Two runs on 14 September 2026, about five minutes apart. 48 questions across three engines, twice, is 288 answers, 96 per engine.

What answer share means

The percentage of those 288 answers in which a company was named. Not market share, not funded volume, not revenue.

What we read

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.

How companies were counted

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.

Frozen extract

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.

Limitations

One day and two runs, so nothing here is a trend: two runs show that the engines are unstable, not how unstable. Two of the 48 questions favour True North Mortgage, the brand the tracking project is built around, so we quote its corrected 4.7 percent. Mortgages.ca is withheld because the instrument matched its name against the word “mortgages”. Answer text is truncated at 2,000 characters, and where Google returned nothing we cannot tell a refusal from a non-trigger. No rate was checked against a lender. We left out every survey statistic the engines quoted, because one engine cited the same 72 percent figure against two metrics and two years within five minutes.

What do people ask about AI search and Canadian mortgages?

Which lender each AI engine names in Canada, which sources it reads, and how a lender should measure its visibility, all from the 14 September 2026 collection.

Written by

Anton Sopov

Founder, The Prompt Group

Anton Sopov is the founder of The Prompt Group, an AI brand strategy and agentic discovery firm. He works with brands on how they are ranked, cited and described in ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity answers, and is the author of The Delegation Curve.

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