VPN Services

Cycle 2026-08-01run #70

The VPN Services AI-visibility leaderboard ranks 14 brands by how often Perplexity, ChatGPT (OpenAI), Claude (Anthropic) and Gemini (Google) mention and recommend them across a fixed panel of realistic buyer questions, re-measured every monthly cycle. NordVPN currently leads with a global visibility score of 40.4.

Shopping, not analyzing? Read the buyer's guide: The best vpn services, according to AI →

Movers

No statistically significant movement since the last run — all 14 tracked brands are stable within their confidence intervals. Muted hollow arrows in the standings below show drift that stayed within statistical noise.

Standings

#	Brand	Global score	Per model
1	NordVPN	40.4 ±2.6△ +0.5	perplexity45 google-search49 openai-search38 openai37 anthropic36 google52
2	ExpressVPN	38.7 ±2.8▽ −0.3	perplexity30 google-search35 openai-search35 openai39 anthropic34 google42
3	Surfshark	38.5 ±2.7△ +0.2	perplexity37 google-search42 openai-search32 openai38 anthropic30 google42
4△1	Mullvad	32.9 ±2.7△ +0.5	perplexity24 google-search29 openai-search28 openai34 anthropic32 google32
5▽1	Proton VPN	31.6 ±2.6▽ −1.1	perplexity28 google-search43 openai-search31 openai30 anthropic36 google37
6	Private Internet Access	24.5 ±2.3▽ −0.1	perplexity22 google-search22 openai-search22 openai24 anthropic27 google25
7	Norton VPN	20.0 ±4.2▽ −2.0	perplexity25 google-search21 openai-search23 openai20 anthropic22 google18
8△1	Windscribe	18.9 ±2.5△ +0.3	perplexity25 google-search22 openai-search14 openai18 anthropic16 google22
9▽1	CyberGhost	18.7 ±2.0▽ −0.0	perplexity19 google-search20 openai-search12 openai18 anthropic21 google22
10△3	Hotspot Shield	17.7 ±3.9△ +3.5	perplexity15 google-search14 openai-search14 openai18 anthropic13 google20
11	IPVanish	16.9 ±4.1▽ −0.7	perplexity12 google-search11 openai-search26 openai18 anthropic14 google16
12▽2	VyprVPN	16.7 ±3.7▽ −1.2	perplexity18 google-search14 openai-search18 openai17 anthropic15 google16
13▽1	hide.me	15.9 ±1.8△ +1.4	perplexity19 google-search21 openai-search20 openai13 anthropic24 google22
14	TunnelBear	12.3 ±2.0▽ −1.3	perplexity14 google-search16 openai-search0 openai12 anthropic18 google12

What the AIs cite

The domains search-backed assistants relied on when answering this industry's questions (2026-08-01). Getting featured on these is the most direct lever on AI visibility.

Domain	Answers citing it
reddit.com	279
youtube.com	260
techradar.com	171
cnet.com	158
security.org	151
tomsguide.com	148
gizmodo.com	130
pcmag.com	116
cybernews.com	114
top10vpn.com	114

Head-to-head: NordVPN vs ExpressVPN · NordVPN vs Surfshark · ExpressVPN vs Surfshark

Global score = market-share-weighted blend of per-model visibility scores (0–100). Methodology

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