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Which personal loans brands AI answers recommend

Every week we ask 200 buyer questions, the way people really ask them, and count which brands the answers name and which sites they cite.

Curated by , co-founder of Ujeebu Published Editorial standards
Week
Week 40, Sep 28 - Oct 4, 2026
Updated
Engines
3 of 3 published
Market
US market, asked from the US
Methodology

Named most often

SoFi

in 39% of answers across the published engines

Top 10 brands, all engines

Share of answers that name the brand, across ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Overviews. The small figure is the change in points vs the previous week.

  1. 1 SoFi 39%
  2. 2 Upstart 35%
  3. 3 LightStream 27%
  4. 4 Upgrade 25%
  5. 5 Discover Personal Loans 17%
  6. 6 OneMain Financial 17%
  7. 7 Avant 12%
  8. 8 Wells Fargo 11%
  9. 9 PenFed Credit Union 10%
  10. 10 Best Egg 7%

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Top 10 by engine

Each engine answers differently. The bar is the share of that engine's answers naming the brand; the thin line is the likely range (95%): ask the same questions again and the number would probably land inside it.

Gemini

200 answers, 100% of prompts collected

  1. 1 SoFi 43% Likely range 36% to 49%
  2. 2 Upstart 41% Likely range 34% to 48%
  3. 3 Upgrade 30% Likely range 24% to 36%
  4. 4 LightStream 28% Likely range 22% to 35%
  5. 5 OneMain Financial 22% Likely range 16% to 28%
  6. 6 Discover Personal Loans 19% Likely range 14% to 25%
  7. 7 Avant 14% Likely range 9% to 19%
  8. 8 Wells Fargo 14% Likely range 9% to 19%
  9. 9 Best Egg 13% Likely range 9% to 18%
  10. 10 PenFed Credit Union 12% Likely range 8% to 17%
Full table
Gemini, US market, Week 40, Sep 28 - Oct 4, 2026
BrandNamed inRangeAvg positionShare of voicevs last week
SoFi 85 / 200 (43%) 36%-49% 1.5 12.7% n/a
Upstart 82 / 200 (41%) 34%-48% 2.3 12.2% n/a
Upgrade 59 / 200 (30%) 24%-36% 2.5 8.8% n/a
LightStream 56 / 200 (28%) 22%-35% 2.2 8.4% n/a
OneMain Financial 43 / 200 (22%) 16%-28% 3.3 6.4% n/a
Discover Personal Loans 38 / 200 (19%) 14%-25% 2.7 5.7% n/a
Avant 27 / 200 (14%) 9%-19% 2.7 4.0% n/a
Wells Fargo 27 / 200 (14%) 9%-19% 3.1 4.0% n/a
Best Egg 25 / 200 (13%) 9%-18% 3.2 3.7% n/a
PenFed Credit Union 23 / 200 (12%) 8%-17% 2.4 3.4% n/a

Google AI Overviews

183 answers, 99% of prompts collected. Google AI Overviews appeared on 92% of searches

  1. 1 SoFi 38% Likely range 32% to 45%
  2. 2 Upstart 33% Likely range 27% to 40%
  3. 3 Upgrade 25% Likely range 19% to 31%
  4. 4 LightStream 23% Likely range 17% to 30%
  5. 5 OneMain Financial 20% Likely range 15% to 27%
  6. 6 Discover Personal Loans 15% Likely range 11% to 21%
  7. 7 Avant 15% Likely range 10% to 21%
  8. 8 Wells Fargo 14% Likely range 9% to 19%
  9. 9 LendingClub 7% Likely range 4% to 12%
  10. 10 PenFed Credit Union 7% Likely range 4% to 12%
Full table
Google AI Overviews, US market, Week 40, Sep 28 - Oct 4, 2026
BrandNamed inRangeAvg positionShare of voicevs last week
SoFi 70 / 183 (38%) 32%-45% 1.3 14.0% n/a
Upstart 61 / 183 (33%) 27%-40% 2.5 12.2% n/a
Upgrade 45 / 183 (25%) 19%-31% 2.5 9.0% n/a
LightStream 42 / 183 (23%) 17%-30% 2.4 8.4% n/a
OneMain Financial 37 / 183 (20%) 15%-27% 3.0 7.4% n/a
Discover Personal Loans 28 / 183 (15%) 11%-21% 2.6 5.6% n/a
Avant 27 / 183 (15%) 10%-21% 2.6 5.4% n/a
Wells Fargo 25 / 183 (14%) 9%-19% 2.5 5.0% n/a
LendingClub 13 / 183 (7%) 4%-12% 3.0 2.6% n/a
PenFed Credit Union 13 / 183 (7%) 4%-12% 2.6 2.6% n/a

ChatGPT (search)

200 answers, 100% of prompts collected

  1. 1 SoFi 36% Likely range 30% to 43%
  2. 2 Upstart 32% Likely range 26% to 39%
  3. 3 LightStream 30% Likely range 24% to 36%
  4. 4 Upgrade 21% Likely range 15% to 27%
  5. 5 Discover Personal Loans 18% Likely range 13% to 23%
  6. 6 PenFed Credit Union 11% Likely range 7% to 16%
  7. 7 OneMain Financial 10% Likely range 7% to 15%
  8. 8 Avant 9% Likely range 6% to 14%
  9. 9 LendingClub 8% Likely range 5% to 12%
  10. 10 Wells Fargo 7% Likely range 4% to 11%
Full table
ChatGPT (search), US market, Week 40, Sep 28 - Oct 4, 2026
BrandNamed inRangeAvg positionShare of voicevs last week
SoFi 72 / 200 (36%) 30%-43% 2.0 14.6% n/a
Upstart 64 / 200 (32%) 26%-39% 2.2 12.9% n/a
LightStream 59 / 200 (30%) 24%-36% 3.0 11.9% n/a
Upgrade 41 / 200 (21%) 15%-27% 3.4 8.3% n/a
Discover Personal Loans 35 / 200 (18%) 13%-23% 2.8 7.1% n/a
PenFed Credit Union 21 / 200 (11%) 7%-16% 2.6 4.2% n/a
OneMain Financial 20 / 200 (10%) 7%-15% 2.9 4.0% n/a
Avant 18 / 200 (9%) 6%-14% 3.0 3.6% n/a
LendingClub 15 / 200 (8%) 5%-12% 2.7 3.0% n/a
Wells Fargo 13 / 200 (7%) 4%-11% 3.7 2.6% n/a

Which sites AI trusts

The 10 domains cited most often as sources in these answers, as a share of all citations. Brands rarely win on their own site: the answers lean on review sites, forums and media.

  1. 1 bankrate.com Review site 6.0%
  2. 2 experian.com Video and other 6.0%
  3. 3 upstart.com Brand site 5.8%
  4. 4 consumerfinance.gov Video and other 5.4%
  5. 5 sofi.com Brand site 5.0%
  6. 6 lendingtree.com Brand site 4.5%
  7. 7 nerdwallet.com Review site 4.3%
  8. 8 credible.com Brand site 4.2%
  9. 9 cnbc.com Media 2.7%
  10. 10 finder.com Review site 2.5%
By engine
DomainType ChatGPTGeminiGoogle AI Overviews
bankrate.comReview site 3.2%9.5%5.5%
experian.comVideo and other 3.1%8.6%6.3%
upstart.comBrand site 9.4%4.4%3.6%
consumerfinance.govVideo and other 15.9%n/a0.2%
sofi.comBrand site 6.4%4.7%3.7%
lendingtree.comBrand site 3.2%8.1%2.2%
nerdwallet.comReview site 6.3%0.2%6.4%
credible.comBrand site 1.5%6.0%5.0%
cnbc.comMedia 1.9%n/a6.1%
finder.comReview site 2.0%3.9%1.4%

Weekly movers

The largest changes vs the previous week, from last week's share (hollow dot) to this week's. One week can be noise: a move is clear only when this week's range and last week's do not overlap.

All weekly notes

First week: movers appear from the second published week.

About this week's data

Prompts
200: 80 recommendation, 50 problem-led, 40 comparison, 30 price
Market
US market: buyer questions in US English, asked from the US.
Collected
Oct 1, 2026 to Oct 2, 2026
Checked by hand
15 answers, 0 with errors

Brand names are reported as they appear in answers. How we collect and count: methodology. Spotted an error? Tell us. Data licensed CC BY 4.0.

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.

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