Copilot cut

Leading Quick Service Restaurants Brands in AI Search in the United States

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

October 2026 edition

Across the six months through October 2026, Starbucks leads AI search visibility in Quick Service Restaurants on Copilot in United States with a Goodie visibility score of 74.7, ahead of Five Guys (74.0) and McDonald’s (73.9). The median score across the 10 ranked brands is 71.9, and a score above 68.6 reaches the top ten. The most-cited source grounding these answers is msn.com at 7.0% of all citations, while brand-owned pages account for just 7.4%.

34k prompts · 2.5m AI answers · 11.3m citations · Goodie AI Visibility Index

Industry Benchmarks

October 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
71.9
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 71.3
Score to enter the top 10
68.6
Clearing 68.6 puts a brand in the category top ten. The bar sits 3.3 points below the midpoint, so the leaderboard is closely contested.
Brands named per answer
5.9
A typical answer names six brands, so the consideration set is narrow and a mention is hard-won.
Index-wide average is 7.2
Citation mix
  • UGC 1%
  • Editorial 6%
  • Video 1%
  • Reference 5%
  • Other 87%
Other leads the third-party sources grounding quick service restaurants answers. Brand-owned citations sit in the next cell and are not counted here. “Other” covers domains we have not classified into a type yet.
Brand-owned citation share
7.4%
Owned content is weak here: third-party sources decide most of these answers.
Index-wide average is 26.8%
Industry sentiment
63/100
Mean tone of mentions across the ranked brands that carry a measured value. Per-brand sentiment sits on each brand profile.
Prompts sampled
34k
Real buyer phrasing, 4 models
AI answers analysed
2.5m
291k in October · ▲ 17.3% vs September
Citations parsed
11.3m
1m in October · ▲ 13.9% vs September
Brands observed
528
10 ranked here · 518 unranked

Brand Visibility Leaderboard

Brand visibility leaderboard for Quick Service Restaurants, ranked by six-month average AI visibility score
#BrandVisibility scoreShare of voiceModelsΔ vs last monthSentimentTop cited source
01Starbucks
74.7
10.4%Copilot—68accio.com
02Five Guys
74.0
10.3%Copilot—62jackintheboxfranchising.com
03McDonald’s
73.9
10.3%Copilot—68accio.com
04Dave's Hot Chicken
72.6
10.1%Copilot▲ 0.568mashed.com
05Taco Bell
72.2
10.0%Copilot▼ 0.170businesstats.com
06Shake Shack
71.7
9.9%Copilot—67jackintheboxfranchising.com
07KFC
71.5
9.9%Copilot—66accio.com
08Wingstop
71.1
9.9%Copilot▲ 4.659mashed.com
09Raising Cane's
70.1
9.7%Copilot▼ 0.359mashed.com
10Slim Chickens
68.6
9.5%Copilot▲ 0.339mashed.com
10 ranked · visibility is a six-month averageTop source = most frequent source in answers mentioning the brand · Δ compares Oct with Sep

Most-Cited Domains

The answer supply chain
Most-cited domains in AI answers for Quick Service Restaurants
#DomainCitation shareΔ vs last month
01msn.com
7.0%
—
02forbes.com
4.5%
—
03wikipedia.org
4.5%
—
04nrn.com
4.1%
—
05eatthis.com
2.8%
▼ 2.9
06mordorintelligence.com
2.7%
—
07grandviewresearch.com
2.6%
—
08marketing91.com
2.6%
—
09posterbooking.com
2.6%
—
10qsrmagazine.com
2.5%
▲ 4.6
Top 10 of 1k domains observedΔ compares Oct with Sep, in percentage points

Prompts, Topics & Movers

What's driving this month's answers

Sampled prompts

Prompts sampled for Quick Service Restaurants, with distinct brands named and sources cited
#PromptBrandsSources
01Are halal fast food chains growing globally?1033
02Fried chicken chains expanding rapidly2026
03Which fast food chains offer best value?1924
04Best burger chains3023
05Fast food brands with strong global presence1619
5 of 34k sampledDistinct brands named & sources cited

Biggest movers

Oct vs Sep
Rising
Wingstopscore 71.1
▲ 4.6
▲ 0.5
Slim Chickensscore 68.6
▲ 0.3
Falling
Raising Cane'sscore 70.1
▼ 0.3
Taco Bellscore 72.2
▼ 0.1
5 ranked brands scored in both Sep and OctIndustry avg ±1.1/mo

Global Search Demand

Where this industry's questions originate
81,169 searches sampled
Tracked markets for Quick Service Restaurants, by sampled search volume
#CountrySearch volume
01United States63K
02Canada4K
03Japan4K
04United Kingdom4K
05Australia2K
06Germany1K
07France1K
08Egypt400
09Italy395
10United Arab Emirates353
11Singapore329
12Saudi Arabia275
12 tracked markets
This edition

What Changed This Month

Starbucks leads Quick Service Restaurants this edition with a visibility score of 74.7, ahead of Five Guys at 74.0.

msn.com is the most-cited source grounding quick service restaurants answers, at roughly 7.0% of citations. Brand-owned pages account for 7.4% — the rest of the answer supply chain runs through third-party sources.

The median visibility score across ranked quick service restaurants brands is 71.9, and a score above 68.6 reaches the industry top ten.

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Where Does Your Brand Stand in AI Search?

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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 run these prompts across the tracked models and across every market we cover, so each market is scored on its own answers rather than on a global average applied everywhere.

Attribution Mapping

We analyze the generated answers to capture the "Kingmaker" domains: the specific sources models cite most often in the answers that name a brand, so you can see which sources the models lean on where you appear and where you do not.

Three-dimensional logo of Goodie, an end-to-end AI search visibility platform.
FAQ · Quick Service Restaurants

Questions?
We Have
the Answers.

Starbucks currently leads AI search visibility in quick service restaurants with a Goodie visibility score of 74.7, measured across the tracked AI models.

msn.com is the most-cited source in quick service restaurants AI answers, grounding roughly 7.0% of citations in this industry.

The median score among ranked quick service restaurants brands is 71.9. A score above 68.6 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.