AI Mode cut

Leading Quick Service Restaurants Brands in AI Search

The same monthly sample, re-ranked using only AI Mode answers.

August 2026 edition

Across the six months through August 2026, Subway leads AI search visibility in Quick Service Restaurants on AI Mode with a Goodie visibility score of 74.3, ahead of Bojangles (73.7) and Wendy’s (72.7). The median score across the 10 ranked brands is 71.8. The most-cited source grounding these answers is youtube.com at 8.4% of all citations, while brand-owned pages account for just 1.4%.

5k prompts · 1.7m AI answers · 7.9m citations · Goodie AI Visibility Index

Industry Benchmarks

August 2026 · Quick Service Restaurants · AI Mode
What good looks like in this category. Read a brand's own score against these before looking at who is winning.
Median visibility score
71.8
Half of the 10 ranked quick service restaurants brands score below this. The midpoint, not the average, so a few dominant brands do not distort it.
Index-wide median is 71.9
Score to enter the top 10
—
Fewer than ten brands are ranked in this category, so there is no top-ten bar to report yet.
Brands named per answer
7.9
A typical answer names eight brands, so the consideration set is wide and a mention is comparatively easy to earn.
Index-wide average is 8.8
Citation mix
  • UGC 13%
  • Editorial 3%
  • Video 5%
  • Reference 4%
  • Other 75%
Other leads the third-party sources grounding quick service restaurants answers. Brand-owned citations sit in the next cell and are not counted here.
Brand-owned citation share
1.4%
Owned content is weak here: third-party sources decide most of these answers.
Index-wide average is 24.2%
Industry sentiment
81/100
Mean tone of mentions across all ranked brands. Per-brand sentiment sits on each brand profile.
Prompts sampled
5k
Real buyer phrasing, 4 models
AI answers analysed
1.7m
200k in August · ▼ 3.4% vs July
Citations parsed
7.9m
1m in August · ▲ 0.4% vs July
Brands observed
389
10 ranked here · 379 unranked

Brand Visibility Leaderboard

All models AI Mode ChatGPT Copilot Perplexity
Brand visibility leaderboard for Quick Service Restaurants, ranked by six-month average AI visibility score
#BrandVisibility scoreShare of voiceModelsΔ vs last monthSentimentTop cited source
01Subway
74.3
10.4%AI Mode—82brandirectory.com
02Bojangles
73.7
10.3%AI Mode—82youtube.com
03Wendy’s
72.7
10.2%AI Mode▲ 6.181facebook.com
04Domino’s Pizza
72.3
10.1%AI Mode—81brandirectory.com
05McDonald’s
72.2
10.1%AI Mode▲ 4.081facebook.com
06Wingstop
71.4
10.0%AI Mode—81datainsightsreports.com
07Starbucks
71.1
9.9%AI Mode▲ 1.981brandirectory.com
08Dave's Hot Chicken
69.4
9.7%AI Mode—80qsrmedia.com.au
09KFC
69.1
9.7%AI Mode▼ 4.380facebook.com
10Raising Cane's
69.0
9.7%AI Mode—80youtube.com
10 ranked · visibility is a six-month averageTop source = most frequent source in answers mentioning the brand · Δ compares Aug with Jul

Most-Cited Domains

The answer supply chain
Most-cited domains in AI answers for Quick Service Restaurants
#DomainCitation shareΔ vs last month
01youtube.com
8.4%
▼ 3.6
02facebook.com
6.9%
▲ 4.5
03instagram.com
5.7%
▲ 5.5
04qsrmedia.com.au
4.8%
—
05breakroom.cc
4.5%
—
06reddit.com
4.0%
▲ 1.8
07com.au
3.7%
—
08hungryjacks.com.au
3.6%
—
09nine.com.au
3.6%
—
10yahoo.com
3.6%
—
Top 10 of 840 domains observedΔ compares Aug with Jul, in percentage points

Prompts, Topics & Movers

What's driving this month's answers

Top prompts

Top prompts sampled for Quick Service Restaurants, with distinct brands named and sources cited
#PromptBrandsSources
01Fast food brands with strong global presence21105
02Best burger chains4367
03Are halal fast food chains growing globally?1351
04Fried chicken chains expanding rapidly1542
05Which fast food chains offer best value?1734
Top 5 of 5k sampledDistinct brands named & sources cited

Biggest movers

Aug vs Jul
Rising
Wendy’sscore 72.7
▲ 6.1
McDonald’sscore 72.2
▲ 4.0
Starbucksscore 71.1
▲ 1.9
Falling
KFCscore 69.1
▼ 4.3
4 ranked brands scored in both Jul and AugIndustry avg ±4.1/mo

Global Search Demand

Where this industry's questions originate
3,687,547 searches sampled
Tracked markets for Quick Service Restaurants, by sampled search volume
#CountrySearch volume
01United States3.1M
02United Kingdom182K
03Canada151K
04Australia82K
05Germany44K
06France44K
07Italy15K
08Egypt14K
09United Arab Emirates13K
10Japan13K
11Singapore12K
12Saudi Arabia10K
12 tracked markets
This edition

What Changed This Month

Subway leads Quick Service Restaurants this edition with a visibility score of 74.3, ahead of Bojangles at 73.7.

youtube.com is the most-cited source grounding quick service restaurants answers, at roughly 8.4% of citations. Brand-owned pages account for 1.4% — the rest of the answer supply chain runs through third-party sources.

The median visibility score across ranked quick service restaurants brands is 71.8, and a score above 52.3 reaches the industry top ten.

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What you get
  • Visibility score
  • Industry rank
  • Brands ahead of you
  • Model and source gaps
Our Methodology

Our Approach to Gathering AI Visibility Data

We process millions of real prompts across AI Mode, ChatGPT, Copilot and Perplexity, then track which brands, products, and domains show up in the answers. That's the raw data behind every score in the Index.

Real Intent Capture

This data results from processing millions of real user prompts. We use advanced semantic and agentic processing to categorize them and define intent, filtering out noise to focus on high-value queries.

Global Model Interrogation

We execute these prompts across different models, including GPT, Perplexity, AI Mode, and more, and across different regions. This allows us to map model understand exactly "how they think" in each market.

Attribution Mapping

We analyze the generated answers to capture the "Kingmaker" domains; the specific sources the models cite giving you a causal link between source authority and brand visibility.

Read the full methodology → Read the full methodology →
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FAQ · Quick Service Restaurants

Questions?
We Have
the Answers.

Subway currently leads AI search visibility in quick service restaurants with a Goodie visibility score of 74.3, measured across the tracked AI models.

youtube.com is the most-cited source in quick service restaurants AI answers, grounding roughly 8.4% of citations in this industry.

The median score among ranked quick service restaurants brands is 71.8. A score above 52.3 places a brand in the industry top ten.

Each edition samples the same tracked prompt set across the models Goodie follows, then ranks brands by how often they are named in those answers.

Monthly. Each edition re-samples the tracked prompt set so month-over-month figures are directly comparable.