Copilot cut

Leading Quick Service Restaurants Brands in AI Search

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

August 2026 edition

Across the six months through August 2026, In-N-Out Burger leads AI search visibility in Quick Service Restaurants on Copilot with a Goodie visibility score of 78.9, ahead of Dave's Hot Chicken (78.5) and McDonald’s (78.3). The median score across the 10 ranked brands is 77.1. The most-cited source grounding these answers is monkish.com.au at 5.3% of all citations, while brand-owned pages account for just 4.9%.

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

Industry Benchmarks

August 2026 · Quick Service Restaurants · Copilot
What good looks like in this category. Read a brand's own score against these before looking at who is winning.
Median visibility score
77.1
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 74.2
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
5.4
A typical answer names five brands, so the consideration set is narrow and a mention is hard-won.
Index-wide average is 6.5
Citation mix
  • Editorial 3%
  • Reference 7%
  • Other 90%
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
4.9%
Owned content is weak here: third-party sources decide most of these answers.
Index-wide average is 24.2%
Industry sentiment
84/100
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
01In-N-Out Burger
78.9
10.3%Copilot▼ 1.984en.wikipedia.org
02Dave's Hot Chicken
78.5
10.3%Copilot▼ 6.584mashed.com
03McDonald’s
78.3
10.3%Copilot▼ 3.684en.wikipedia.org
04Raising Cane's
78.2
10.3%Copilot▲ 1.784mashed.com
05Starbucks
77.1
10.1%Copilot▲ 4.984posterbooking.com
06KFC
77.0
10.1%Copilot—83canstarblue.com.au
07Subway
74.8
9.8%Copilot—82eathealthy365.com
08Slim Chickens
73.9
9.7%Copilot▼ 2.782yahoo.com
09Shake Shack
73.7
9.7%Copilot—82jackintheboxfranchising.com
10Five Guys
72.1
9.5%Copilot▼ 2.881jackintheboxfranchising.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
01monkish.com.au
5.3%
—
02wikipedia.org
4.4%
—
03qsr.pro
3.0%
—
04qsrmagazine.com
2.8%
▼ 1.8
05mordorintelligence.com
2.7%
—
06nrn.com
2.5%
▲ 0.9
07mashed.com
2.0%
▲ 3.6
08imarcgroup.com
1.9%
—
09restaurantbusinessonline.com
1.9%
—
10mcdonalds.com
1.8%
—
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
01Fried chicken chains expanding rapidly1923
02Are halal fast food chains growing globally?523
03Best burger chains3318
04Which fast food chains offer best value?1017
05Fast food brands with strong global presence1514
Top 5 of 5k sampledDistinct brands named & sources cited

Biggest movers

Aug vs Jul
Rising
Starbucksscore 77.1
▲ 4.9
Raising Cane'sscore 78.2
▲ 1.7
Falling
Dave's Hot Chickenscore 78.5
▼ 6.5
McDonald’sscore 78.3
▼ 3.6
Five Guysscore 72.1
▼ 2.8
7 ranked brands scored in both Jul and AugIndustry avg ±3.4/mo

Global Search Demand

Where this industry's questions originate
163,620 searches sampled
Tracked markets for Quick Service Restaurants, by sampled search volume
#CountrySearch volume
01United States128K
02Canada8K
03United Kingdom8K
04Japan8K
05Australia4K
06Germany2K
07France2K
08Italy778
09Egypt770
10United Arab Emirates715
11Singapore662
12Saudi Arabia557
12 tracked markets
This edition

What Changed This Month

In-N-Out Burger leads Quick Service Restaurants this edition with a visibility score of 78.9, ahead of Dave's Hot Chicken at 78.5.

monkish.com.au is the most-cited source grounding quick service restaurants answers, at roughly 5.3% of citations. Brand-owned pages account for 4.9% — the rest of the answer supply chain runs through third-party sources.

The median visibility score across ranked quick service restaurants brands is 77.1, and a score above 52.3 reaches the industry top ten.

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What you get
  • Visibility score
  • Industry rank
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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.

In-N-Out Burger currently leads AI search visibility in quick service restaurants with a Goodie visibility score of 78.9, measured across the tracked AI models.

monkish.com.au is the most-cited source in quick service restaurants AI answers, grounding roughly 5.3% of citations in this industry.

The median score among ranked quick service restaurants brands is 77.1. 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.