Does AI recommend Surfshark?
surfshark.com in vpns: how often Gemini, Google AI Overviews and ChatGPT name it next to NordVPN, its top competitor, which sites the answers cite, and whether AI crawlers can read the site.
47%
of AI answers name Surfshark
NordVPN: 54%. Rank 3 of 47 brands tracked.
Surfshark vs NordVPN, engine by engine
Named most by Google AI Overviews (53%), least by ChatGPT (35%). The grey tick is the typical (median) brand of the category.
Questions where NordVPN is named and Surfshark is not
- “Best VPN for Linux with a good command line client”
- “Best VPN for torrenting with port forwarding”
9 more questions like these in this check. The snapshot finds them all for Surfshark against up to 5 competitors, on 50 buyer questions asked 3 times in each engine, with the sites to get listed on and 5 fixes.
A PDF in 48 hours. What is in it
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The result as a PDF you can forward, then the same check again in 30 days so you see what moved.
Is Surfshark named, and where?
- Yes. Surfshark is named in 47% of the answers across Gemini, Google AI Overviews and ChatGPT.
- It ranks 3 of 47 brands we track in vpns.
- In list answers it shows up at position 2.2 on average in Gemini (1 = first).
- Its own site, surfshark.com, is the 6th most cited site in the category.
The category baseline
From the AI Citation Index (47 brands tracked in vpns, Week 41).
1%
The typical brand
54%
The category leader
47%
Surfshark, above typical
The sites the answers cite
The sites cited most in AI answers about vpns, all engines. Being listed, reviewed or discussed on these is the shortest path into the answers.
- youtube.com6.7% of citations
- reddit.com3.9% of citations
- cnet.com3.7% of citations
- nordvpn.com3.4% of citations
- protonvpn.com3.2% of citations
- surfshark.com2.9% of citations
- techradar.com2.5% of citations
Can AI crawlers read surfshark.com?
Yes: nothing we checked stops the AI engines from reading the site. Checked Nov 3, 2026.
| Crawler | What it feeds | robots.txt |
|---|---|---|
| OAI-SearchBot | ChatGPT search, the pages it cites | Allowed |
| GPTBot | OpenAI model training only | Allowed |
| Googlebot | Google Search and Google AI Overviews | Allowed |
| Google-Extended | Gemini answers and training | Allowed |
| ClaudeBot | Claude | Allowed |
| Firewall | Cloudflare in front of the site | Lets them in |
| Text without JavaScript | 1017 words in the raw homepage HTML | Readable |
Nothing to fix here. The crawlers behind ChatGPT search, Google AI Overviews and Gemini can read the site, and the homepage text shows without JavaScript. The next step is being cited: see the sites above.
What next
Get the full snapshot report
Surfshark against up to 5 competitors on many more buyer questions: where you are missing, the sites to get listed on, and 5 fixes. A PDF in 48 hours.
What is in it · Need something custom? Ask us
Track it every week
Weekly tracking for Surfshark is coming. Get notified when it opens.
Check another brand
A competitor, a client, or a brand in another category. Instant for every brand in the Index.
Numbers come straight from the answers we collected; we do not edit them for any brand. We publish counts and the sites cited, never the answers themselves. Surfshark team? If something looks wrong, tell us.
We make every effort to find high-quality data sources, but this data comes from AI engine answers collected from the open web and we cannot guarantee its accuracy, completeness or reliability. Use it at your own risk.