Which crypto exchange do AI engines recommend most?

In the July 2026 study, Coinbase, Kraken and Binance filled every engine's top three across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude and Google AI Overviews. Kraken was named first on ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini; Claude led with Coinbase; Google AI Overviews leaned Binance. AI answers are non-deterministic, so treat this as a pattern, not a fixed rank.

Why does Crypto.com have the highest score but rank low on recommendation?

Crypto.com posts the highest blended brand visibility score (76.6) because it is heavily present on brand and authority queries, but it is rarely named when a buyer asks for the best exchange. Being findable when someone asks about you is different from being recommended when someone asks about the category. The index ranks by category recommendation, not by the blended score.

How is AI recommendation measured?

citeOS runs 20 buyer-style prompts across 5 AI engines, 100 observation points per exchange, run once per prompt per engine in the July 2026 batch. The blended score weights mention rate 0.60, citation rate 0.20 and an authority mix 0.20. All weights are published on the methodology page and every number is reproducible.

How often is the exchange index updated?

Trading volume is pulled live from CoinGecko. The AI recommendation data comes from the July 2026 five-engine study and is refreshed on a rolling basis. Each figure is dated on the page so you always know its vintage.

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citeOS Exchange Index

Which exchanges AI actually recommends

AI recommendation is not market share. We count who gets named when a buyer asks, and set it against real trading volume.

Most recommended

rank 1

Kraken

Named first, tops ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini

ChatGPT

Pplx

Gemini

Claude

top 3

AIO

top 3

band per engine, ChatGPT to Google AIO

Brand score

75.0

24h volume

16,747 BTC

AI vs vol

over

brand score rank 2 · ~$1.3B · vol 6 · 5 ranks above volume

Biggest gap

rank 5

Bybit

Appears on every engine, never top three

By volume2nd

By AI recommendation5th

24h volume28,845 BTC

Brand score51.5

3 ranks under

~$2.2B · vol 2 · biggest gap in the index

By engine

3 winners

ChatGPT

Kraken

82 mentions · Binance 77 · Coinbase 66

Claude

Coinbase

83 mentions, highest single engine count

Google AIO

Binance

Ran degraded, counts are thinner

Kraken also tops Perplexity and Gemini · 15 of 15 top three slots

AI data: Jul 2026 study · Volume: live CoinGecko, pulled 2 Sep 2026 · Sources: Apr to Aug 2026 corpus Scoring method and weights are public · Every number here is reproducible

AI answers vary between runs. Positions are patterns across a 20 prompt set, not fixed ranks.

Rank by

Engine

Index

Ten crypto exchanges ranked by AI recommendation, with brand visibility score, 24 hour volume, per engine results and top cited source

Ten crypto exchanges ranked by AI recommendation, with brand visibility score, 24 hour volume, per engine results and top cited source
AI rec rank	Exchange	Recommendation strength	ChatGPTPplxGeminiClaudeAIO	Brand score	24h volume	AI vs vol	Top cited source Apr to Aug corpus
1±1 steady	Kraken	Named first, tops ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini	#1#1#1top 3top 3	75.0 brand score rank 2	16,747 BTC ~$1.3B · vol 6	over 5 ranks above volume	kraken.com 41 of 498
Detail Per engine breakdown First on ChatGPT with 82 mentions, and first again on Perplexity and Gemini. The only brand to crown three of five engines, and the only one that converts a high brand score into the category pick. Its top cited sources kraken.com41 youtube.com32 support.kraken.com17 Apr to Aug 2026 corpus, 498 citation events Own-domain share 11.6% 11.6% of its 498 citations point at its own site
2±1 steady	Coinbase	Top three on all five engines, wins Claude	top 3top 3top 3#1top 3	69.2 brand score rank 3	20,644 BTC ~$1.6B · vol 4	balanced roughly balanced	youtube.com 27 of 654
Detail Per engine breakdown First on Claude with 83 mentions, the highest single engine count in the batch, and third on ChatGPT with 66. Present in the top three of every engine. Its top cited sources youtube.com27 coinbase.com21 help.coinbase.com21 Apr to Aug 2026 corpus, 654 citation events Own-domain share 6.6% 6.6% of its 654 citations point at its own site
3±1 steady	Binance	Top three on all five engines, leans Google AIO	top 3top 3top 3top 3#1	65.8 brand score rank 4	115,640 BTC ~$9.0B · vol 1	under largest volume, third on AI	binance.com 64 of 567
Detail Per engine breakdown Second on ChatGPT with 77 mentions and the leader on Google AI Overviews, which ran degraded with thinner counts. Moves roughly 5x Coinbase daily volume yet AI recommends it below Kraken and Coinbase. Its top cited sources binance.com64 youtube.com34 kraken.com20 Apr to Aug 2026 corpus, 567 citation events Own-domain share 11.3% 11.3% of its 567 citations point at its own site
4±2 steady	OKX	Appears on every engine, never top three	namednamednamednamednamed	52.7 brand score rank 7	22,902 BTC ~$1.8B · vol 3	under third by volume	okx.com 34 of 478
Detail Per engine breakdown Between 26 and 39 mentions per engine, consistent but never near a podium, against third place volume. One of the two widest gaps in the index. Its top cited sources okx.com34 youtube.com28 kraken.com22 Apr to Aug 2026 corpus, 478 citation events Own-domain share 7.1% 7.1% of its 478 citations point at its own site
5±2 volatile	Bybit	Appears on every engine, never top three	namednamednamednamednamed	51.5 brand score rank 8	28,845 BTC ~$2.2B · vol 2	under biggest gap in the index	youtube.com 46 of 577
Detail Per engine breakdown Between 23 and 51 mentions per engine, the widest spread in the set, against second place volume. Top three by volume and bottom half on recommendation. Its top cited sources youtube.com46 bybit.com40 kraken.com26 Apr to Aug 2026 corpus, 577 citation events Own-domain share 7.1% 7.1% of its 577 citations point at its own site
6±3 volatile	MEXC	Rarely in category answers	rarerarerarerarerare	53.9 brand score rank 6	15,130 BTC ~$1.2B · vol 7	balanced roughly balanced	mexc.com 42 of 542
Detail Per engine breakdown Rarely named when a buyer asks the category question, on mid pack volume. Its own domain still carries 8% of its citations, in line with the pack. Its top cited sources mexc.com42 youtube.com31 kraken.com29 Apr to Aug 2026 corpus, 542 citation events Own-domain share 8.1% 8.1% of its 542 citations point at its own site
7±3 volatile	KuCoin	Registers on Gemini and Claude, barely on ChatGPT	rarerarenamednamedrare	47.2 brand score rank 9	18,097 BTC ~$1.4B · vol 5	under two ranks below volume	kucoin.com 56 of 479
Detail Per engine breakdown Registers on Gemini and Claude but barely surfaces on ChatGPT, so its recommendation rank sits two places below its volume rank. Its top cited sources kucoin.com56 kraken.com23 youtube.com20 Apr to Aug 2026 corpus, 479 citation events Own-domain share 11.7% 11.7% of its 479 citations point at its own site
8±3 volatile	Crypto.com	Almost never in category answers	rarerarerarerarerare	76.6 brand score rank 1	11,736 BTC ~$915M · vol 8	balanced brand driven	youtube.com 29 of 492
Detail Per engine breakdown Highest Brand Visibility Score in the index at 76.6, yet almost never the pick when a buyer asks for the best exchange. Findable when asked about, not recommended for the category. Its top cited sources youtube.com29 kraken.com18 forbes.com13 Apr to Aug 2026 corpus, 492 citation events Own-domain share 1.2% 1.2% of its 492 citations point at its own site
9±3 volatile	Gemini	Rarely in category answers	rarerarerarerarerare	56.8 brand score rank 5	686 BTC ~$54M · vol 10	over brand driven	youtube.com 26 of 463
Detail Per engine breakdown Strong brand score against the smallest volume in the set, so it punches above its trading weight on brand alone. Rarely named in category answers. Its top cited sources youtube.com26 kraken.com20 forbes.com14 Apr to Aug 2026 corpus, 463 citation events Own-domain share 3.2% 3.2% of its 463 citations point at its own site
10±3 volatile	Bitget	Rarely in category answers	rarerarerarerarerare	42.9 brand score rank 10	11,296 BTC ~$881M · vol 9	balanced roughly balanced	bitget.com 72 of 588
Detail Per engine breakdown Bottom of both rankings on ninth place volume, so the gap between them is narrow. Its top cited sources bitget.com72 youtube.com38 kraken.com29 Apr to Aug 2026 corpus, 588 citation events Own-domain share 13.1% 13.1% of its 588 citations point at its own site

Sorted by AI recommendation rank, the primary rankingOpen any row for its detail · amber dot: top cited source is not the exchange's own site

Divergence

AI recommendation against market volume

The diagonal is where AI recommendation matches the market. Everything off it is the story.

← 24h trading volume rank

KrakenCoinbaseBinanceOKXBybitMEXCKuCoinCrypto.comGeminiBitget

1 highest4710

AI matches volume

1 best4710

AI recommendation rank →

On the diagonal: AI matches marketOver: recommended more than volume impliesUnder: recommended lessBalanced

Widest gaps

ExchangeBrand rankAI rec rank

Crypto.com18

Gemini59

Kraken21

Binance43

By engine

Same three names, three different winners

Coinbase, Kraken and Binance take 15 of 15 top three slots across all five engines, but who lands first place changes by engine. The best exchange depends on which engine your buyer asks.

ChatGPT

Kraken

82 mentions · Binance 77 · Coinbase 66

Perplexity

Kraken

The only engine to surface SimpleSwap

Gemini

Kraken

Names the most brands per answer

Claude

Coinbase

83 mentions, highest single engine count

Google AIO

Binance

Ran degraded, counts are thinner

Sources

Where the answers come from

Most cited sources across all 1,000 observations in the July batch. The brand domains that get cited are learn and help hubs, not landing pages.

YouTube319

kraken.com246

Forbes153

Reddit140

CoinBureau137

binance.com111

CoinMarketCap106

Pattern

kraken.com is a top-three cited source for eight of the other nine exchanges. When an engine answers a question about Bybit, MEXC or Bitget, it is reading Kraken's pages to do it.

BinanceOKXBybitMEXCKuCoinCrypto.comGeminiBitget

Counted from the citeOS corpus, April to August 2026. Coinbase is the one exchange whose top three has no Kraken page in it.

Supporting note

Highest brand score does not mean most recommended

What the index shows

Crypto.com posts the highest Brand Visibility Score at 76.6, yet almost never appears when a buyer asks for the best exchange.

Gemini is the same shape on a fraction of the volume.

Kraken is the exchange that converts brand strength into actual recommendation.

What brand score rank is

The rank on our Brand Visibility Score, which blends mention 0.60, citation 0.20 and authority 0.20.

It measures how well an engine knows a brand when asked about it.

Not a ranking of brand strength in the market, and not the same as being recommended for the category.

ExchangeScoreRank

Crypto.com76.61 → 87 ranks down

Gemini56.85 → 94 ranks down

Kraken75.02 → 1converts

Binance65.84 → 3converts

Methodology

How these numbers are made

The run

Buyer prompts per exchange20

Engines5

Exchanges10

Run date22 July 2026

RegionUS

Runs per prompt1

Observations1,000 total

What the numbers mean

100 observations per exchange, 200 checks per engine.

AI Recommendation Rank counts how often a brand is named in category answers.

Brand Visibility Score blends mention 0.60, citation 0.20 and authority 0.20.

Top cited sources and own-domain share are counted from the citeOS citation corpus, 39,948 events across 72 brands, April to August 2026, not from the July batch.

Scoring method and weights are public, so every number here is reproducible. Read the methodology.

Caveats and next

Engines are non deterministic: the same prompt can return different names on different runs, so a position is a pattern across a 20 prompt set. We publish the spread behind every band.

Google AI Overviews ran degraded during this batch, so its counts are thinner than the rest.

Grok is tracked but not scored in v1.

AI data comes from the Jul 2026 study. Volume is live CoinGecko 24h spot volume in BTC, pulled 2 Sep 2026, with USD approximated at $78K BTC.

Next two changes: repeat runs per prompt, and non-US regions.

Find your own gap.

citeos.io · refreshed every two to three days · positions are ranges, not verdicts · the beginner prompts, 15 Sep

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Which exchanges AI actually recommends

Per engine breakdown

Its top cited sources

Own-domain share

Per engine breakdown

Its top cited sources

Own-domain share

Per engine breakdown

Its top cited sources

Own-domain share

Per engine breakdown

Its top cited sources

Own-domain share

Per engine breakdown

Its top cited sources

Own-domain share

Per engine breakdown

Its top cited sources

Own-domain share

Per engine breakdown

Its top cited sources

Own-domain share

Per engine breakdown

Its top cited sources

Own-domain share

Per engine breakdown

Its top cited sources

Own-domain share

Per engine breakdown

Its top cited sources

Own-domain share

AI recommendation against market volume

Same three names, three different winners

Where the answers come from

Highest brand score does not mean most recommended

How these numbers are made

Find your own gap.