AEO INDEX OCTOBER 2026 USA: Samsung is in 97% of AI answers about phones, but the engine you ask decides whether Samsung or Apple is named first
ChatGPT put Samsung first in six of its ten smartphone answers. Gemini and Google AI Overviews each put Apple first four times, and Google was nobody’s first pick.
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Samsung was named in 97% of the 30 AI answers we collected about smartphones. It was named first in 11 of them, more than any other brand, and six of those 11 came from ChatGPT. Gemini and Google AI Overviews went the other way. Each put Apple first four times, against two first places for Samsung on Gemini and three on AI Overviews.
So which phone brand AI recommends first depends on the engine you ask. The October 2026 AEO Index for smartphones is built on ten “best brands” questions, asked on 21 October 2026 from one U.S. location. Google, which makes the Pixel, showed up in 67% of answers and was ranked first in none. Every question is broken down in the full October 2026 report.
Who comes out on top overall?
Samsung leads with an AI Rank Score of 77.0. The score looks at where a brand sits in each answer and runs from 0 to 100, so a brand named first by all three engines on every question would get 100. Apple is second at 54.3, then Google (42.3), OnePlus (28.3) and Motorola (26.3).
Apple and Samsung won four questions each. Apple’s were flagship phones, camera phones, battery life and phones for seniors. Samsung took foldables, compact phones and Android phones, and shared budget phones with Motorola at 87 apiece. Two specialists won the rest:
- Gaming phones: Asus scored 100, named first by all three engines. RedMagic was second at 80.
- Phones for kids: Bark scored 100, ahead of Gabb (60) and Pinwheel (53).
Asus appears in only 23% of all answers and Bark in 10%, yet each owned its question outright.
Do the three engines agree?
On four of the ten questions, yes: gaming, foldable, kids and Android phones. On the other six at least one engine named a different brand first, and mostly it comes down to Apple versus Samsung. ChatGPT put Samsung first for flagship, camera and budget phones, and its one Apple first pick was for seniors. Gemini and AI Overviews both had Apple first on flagship, camera and battery life. ChatGPT went with OnePlus for battery life, and Gemini went with Jitterbug for seniors.
The data does not show why ChatGPT prefers Samsung. Answers from one day and one place also can’t tell us whether that lean holds.
Then there’s Google. It came second on foldable and Android phones and third on flagship and camera phones, and Gemini named it in 70% of its answers. It was missing from the battery life and gaming questions.
Where do the engines get their phone information?
The engines cited 175 sources from 83 websites. Only 14 of those citations (8%) pointed to brands’ own sites. YouTube was cited most, 22 times across nine questions, and 16 of those were in AI Overviews. Google Shopping cards added another 14, all in AI Overviews, which is 17.7% of its citations.
ChatGPT cited Reddit or YouTube exactly once. Gemini cited sources in only four of its ten answers, but when it did, 27.3% of the citations were brand websites. For ChatGPT that figure was 1.9%, and for AI Overviews 1.3%.
What should phone brands take from this?
My read is that a single “AI visibility” number hides the part that matters here. A brand can be named in two-thirds of answers and never come first, and a blended score would never show it. Brand and PR teams need the report per engine and per question, because in phones the first name on ChatGPT and the first name on Gemini are often different brands.
For most teams, I think the niche results are the more useful lesson. Bark and Asus got there with narrow visibility. Each became the obvious name for one specific question, and every engine treated it that way.
What to watch in November
The November edition will show whether ChatGPT’s Samsung lean holds and whether Google picks up a first place anywhere. Foldables, where it already sits second at 60, is the question I’d track. Analysis for the index is powered by markaeo.com, and every table is in the full October 2026 report.
How we measured: we asked ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews 10 buying questions, 30 answers in all, 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: Smartphones, October 2026
