AIRANKS — The Authoritative Rankings for AI Web Content

AIRANKS measures AI visibility: we ask AI models real product and service questions, capture the complete answers as immutable observations, and publish what they contain — which brands were mentioned, which domains were cited, and which exact pages were linked. Every domain gets an AIR score from 1–10 (a decile of visibility in the active dataset; 0 means insufficient data), with the methodology in the open.

AIR

PHRASE

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The Question

← all rankings / dataset COBALT

What is the best vpn service

NordVPN takes the top spot in 100.0% of resamples. Of 10 ranked brands, only 6 hold a position we'd call firm.

0
answers sampled
0
brands named
1,000
bootstrap resamples

Who AI Cites For This Question

25 cited pages · bars vs the leader

The best VPN service 2026 | TechRadarwww.techradar.comtechradar.com/vpn/best-vpn?utm=airanks.net233
Proton VPN passes 5th annual external audit of no-logs policy | Proton VPNprotonvpn.comprotonvpn.com/blog/no-logs-audit?utm=airanks.net113
The best VPN in 2026: our top 5 picks | Tom's Guidewww.tomsguide.comtomsguide.com/best-picks/best-vpn?utm=airanks.net109
VPN deal of the week: 97% of TechRadar readers would rather pay a flat fee than face price rises - here's the VPN that does that bestwww.techradar.comtechradar.com/vpn/vpn-services/vpn…st?utm=airanks.net91
The 3 Best VPNs For Privacy of 2026 - RTINGS.comwww.rtings.comrtings.com/vpn/reviews/best/privacy?utm=airanks.net86
The Best VPN Services of 2026: 50+ VPNs Tested & Ranked | Security.orgwww.security.orgsecurity.org/vpn/best/?utm=airanks.net37

The Ranking, With Its Uncertainty

NordVPN locked NordVPN — ci 1.00–1.00 · n=359 · 100.0% of resamples held this rank · named in 98% of answers
ProtonVPN locked ProtonVPN — ci 0.89–0.89 · n=359 · 100.0% of resamples held this rank · named in 98% of answers
Mullvad locked Mullvad — ci 0.78–0.78 · n=359 · 100.0% of resamples held this rank · named in 94% of answers
Surfshark locked Surfshark — ci 0.67–0.67 · n=359 · 100.0% of resamples held this rank · named in 87% of answers
ExpressVPN locked ExpressVPN — ci 0.56–0.56 · n=359 · 100.0% of resamples held this rank · named in 16% of answers
Private Internet Access locked Private Internet Access — ci 0.44–0.44 · n=359 · 98.6% of resamples held this rank · named in 5% of answers
PrivadoVPN soft PrivadoVPN — ci 0.11–0.33 · n=359 · 68.8% of resamples held this rank · named in 2% of answers
Windscribe contested Windscribe — ci 0.11–0.33 · n=359 · 62.2% of resamples held this rank · named in 2% of answers
IVPN gathering IVPN — gathering data, n=359. No bootstrap interval yet.
Norton VPN gathering Norton VPN — gathering data, n=359. No bootstrap interval yet.

The Incomparability Lattice

what the intervals separate, not what the list claims

An edge means one brand's interval sits strictly above another's — zero overlap. No edge between two brands is not a gap in the drawing, it is the finding: their intervals overlap, and the bootstrap cannot tell them apart. Brands on the same rung are incomparable, not tied — the ranking above orders them anyway because a list has to print a total order; this diagram is the honest version.

NordVPN

1.00–1.00

ProtonVPN

0.89–0.89

Mullvad

0.78–0.78

Surfshark

0.67–0.67

ExpressVPN

0.56–0.56

Private Internet Access

0.44–0.44

PrivadoVPN

0.11–0.33

Windscribe

0.11–0.33