AEO INDEX OCTOBER 2026 USA: CeraVe is ranked first in 11 of 30 AI skincare answers, while La Roche-Posay is named in more of them
Three brands take eight of the ten skincare questions. Gemini, which named more brands per answer than either rival, cited just six sources to back them.
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CeraVe was ranked #1 in 11 of 30 AI skincare answers in Answer Engine Daily’s October 2026 AEO Index, more than any other brand across ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews. It is not the brand named most, though. La Roche-Posay appears in 83% of answers to CeraVe’s 80%, and is ranked first in 4.
Between them, those two and SkinCeuticals won eight of the ten questions. What sits behind the answers is uneven. ChatGPT cited 78 sources across its ten skincare answers and AI Overviews cited 60. Gemini cited 6.
We collected the answers on 21 October 2026 from a single U.S. location, with analysis powered by markaeo.com. Every question and engine is broken out in the full October 2026 report.
Which brands does AI put first for skincare?
The index ranks brands by AI Rank Score, from 0 to 100, which gives more credit the higher a brand is named in an answer. First place everywhere would score 100. CeraVe scored 60.7, La Roche-Posay 48.3 and SkinCeuticals 35.0. Vanicream follows at 23.3, with Paula’s Choice just behind at 22.3.
The three leaders split the questions roughly by type of product:
- CeraVe: Facial cleanser (93), face moisturizer (100, with all three engines agreeing) and body lotion (93).
- SkinCeuticals: Vitamin C serum (100, all three agreeing), eye cream (87) and anti-aging (93).
- La Roche-Posay: Acne (93) and sensitive skin (80).
- Specialists: EltaMD won face sunscreen (93) and RoC won retinol (67).
SkinCeuticals gets the most first places out of its appearances, named in 57% of answers and ranked first in 8. La Roche-Posay has the widest gap between the two measures, named in 83% and first in 13%. Gemini named both CeraVe and La Roche-Posay in all ten of its answers.
How did RoC win retinol without a first place?
Retinol split three ways. ChatGPT ranked SkinCeuticals first, Gemini chose CeraVe and AI Overviews picked Paula’s Choice. RoC was second on Gemini and AI Overviews and fourth on ChatGPT. The score rewards being high on every engine, so those placements added up to 67, ahead of CeraVe at 60.
Sensitive skin split three ways as well, with CeraVe, Vanicream and La Roche-Posay each ranked first by one engine. La Roche-Posay took it at 80, with CeraVe and Vanicream tied at 73. Overall, the engines agreed on the top brand for 2 of the 10 questions.
Where do the answers come from?
The engines cited 144 sources from 75 websites, and 95.1% were sites the brands do not own.
ChatGPT leans on beauty editors and retailers. Who What Wear (8 citations) and Vogue (4) were cited only by ChatGPT, and Allure was cited 9 times, 7 of them by ChatGPT. Dermstore and cartiq.net, a review site, each supplied 4 ChatGPT citations. AI Overviews pulled from The New York Times and Byrdie, 6 citations each, and Google Shopping cards made up 26.7% of its citations.
Gemini is the outlier. Its answers averaged about 1,157 words and named 10.7 brands each, roughly twice as many as the other two engines. Yet only 2 of its 10 answers cited any source. Of its six citations, 83.3% went to authority sites such as the American Academy of Dermatology’s aad.org. So Gemini’s skincare rankings can’t be traced back to the pages it cited, and the data does not show what they rest on.
What does this mean for skincare brands?
If I ran a skincare brand, I would treat the engines as three separate audiences. ChatGPT and AI Overviews leave a visible trail to work on: the beauty editors, the retailer pages, the product feed. Gemini leaves almost none, so its answers read more like a summary of how a brand is already described across the web. I doubt a single placement moves them much.
The visibility gap is the other number to watch. Being named in most answers counts for less if another brand keeps getting the first line.
In November, track retinol and sensitive skin, since a single engine changing its pick could hand either to a different brand. Full results are in the full October 2026 report.
How we measured: We asked ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews 10 non-branded skincare buying questions, giving 30 answers, collected on 21 October 2026 from a single U.S. location. AI answers vary by time, place and user. The full method and notice are in the report.
Sources
- Answer Engine Daily AEO Index: Skincare, October 2026
