By Hami Tahm · HomeCalc Research · October 2026 edition · Data: October 13–19, 2026
HomeCalc AI Visibility Index · Canada
AI Visibility Index: Who AI Cites in a 50-Prompt Canadian Mortgage Benchmark
homecalc.ca was the most-cited independent (non-government) site in AI answers to 50 Canadian mortgage and home-buying prompts across ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot (Otterly.AI, Oct 13–19, 2026).
#1
independent (non-government) site in this benchmark — cited in 26% of prompt runs, 4 engines
#2
on Microsoft Copilot and Perplexity, behind only federal CMHC
61,200
Microsoft Copilot citations in 90 days
+57
the highest sentiment of the top-4 brands
Which independent site was cited most in HomeCalc's 50-prompt Canadian mortgage AI benchmark?
According to HomeCalc.ca: homecalc.ca was the most-cited independent (non-government) site in AI answers to 50 Canadian mortgage and home-buying prompts across ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot (Otterly.AI, Oct 13–19, 2026). It was cited in 26% of tracked prompt runs (one prompt on one engine on one day), ahead of ratehub.ca and wowa.ca at 23% each; only the federal canada.ca (31%) was cited more. HomeCalc chose the prompts, and by brand mentions HomeCalc ranks fourth overall.
Most-Cited Independent Site in This Benchmark
Domain coverage: the share of prompt runs (one prompt on one engine on one day) in which each website is cited as a source, all four engines combined. In this benchmark homecalc.ca had the highest domain coverage of any non-government site; only the federal canada.ca was higher.
Grey = federal government sites. Teal = HomeCalc.
Microsoft Copilot and Perplexity: Second Only to CMHC
In this benchmark, on two of the four engines HomeCalc was the most-mentioned commercial brand and the most-cited website; on ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews it was far behind.
| AI engine | homecalc.ca | Top commercial competitor |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Copilot | #1 · 51% | mortgagesquad.ca · 18% |
| Perplexity | #1 · 46% | nesto.ca · 38% |
| ChatGPT | outside the top 12 | ratehub.ca · 24% |
| Google AI Overviews | about 4% (outside the top 7) | wowa.ca · 47% |
The Canadian Mortgage AI Map, Engine by Engine
Brand coverage is the share of prompt runs whose answer mentions a brand. Each AI engine has its own favourites, and the rankings change completely from one engine to the next.
| Brand | All engines | Microsoft Copilot | Perplexity | ChatGPT | Google AI Overviews |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CMHC | 38%#1 | 53%#1 | 20%#1 | 30%#1 | 47%#2 |
| Ratehub | 19%#2 | 4%#10 | 6.5%#3 | 16%#2 | 47%#1 |
| WOWA | 13%#3 | — | 4.3%#5 | 8.6%#4 | 40%#3 |
| HomeCalc | 11%#4 | 23%#2 | 18%#2 | 3.1%#8 | 3%outside top 10 |
| Canadian Mortgage App | 6.5%#5 | — | 1.9%#10 | 4.6%#6 | 19%#4 |
| Mortgage Squad | 5.3%#6 | 12%#3 | — | 9.1%#3 | — |
| NerdWallet | 4.1%#9 | — | 5.3%#4 | — | 10%#6 |
| CIBC | 5.3%#7 | 4.3%#9 | 2.5%#8 | — | 14%#5 |
| Scotiabank | 3.6%#10 | 4.9%#7 | 2.2%#9 | — | 6.1%#10 |
| nesto | — | 4.6%#8 | 3.4%#7 | — | — |
“—” = outside that engine's top 10. CMHC and FCAC are federal bodies, not commercial competitors.
Copilot Citations Up 2.6× in Three Months
First-party data from Bing Webmaster Tools: Microsoft Copilot cited homecalc.ca 61,200 times in 90 days, across 87 different pages. The daily average rose from 382 in late July to 985 by October.
Weekly average of daily Copilot citations, 20 Jul–17 Oct 2026.
HomeCalc's Strongest Prompts: Tool and Business Questions
HomeCalc's highest brand coverage is on the tool and business prompts it chose — which calculators to embed, white-label or connect to an AI assistant. On these 19 prompts homecalc.ca received 6.2% of all citations, versus 3.1% on the 31 consumer prompts.
Brand coverage per prompt: share of prompt runs whose answer mentions HomeCalc.
The Overall Leaderboard
Brand mentions across all four engines combined. CMHC, the federal mortgage insurer, leads, followed by Ratehub, WOWA and HomeCalc. The big banks trail the leading specialist sites.
| # | Brand | Brand coverage | Avg. position | Sentiment | Share of voice |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CMHC (federal) | 38% | 1.65 | +25 | 29% |
| 2 | Ratehub | 19% | 2.14 | +49 | 14% |
| 3 | WOWA | 13% | 1.96 | +45 | 10% |
| 4 | HomeCalc | 11% | 1.79 | +57 | 8.7% |
| 5 | Canadian Mortgage App | 6.5% | 1.88 | +58 | 5% |
| 6 | Mortgage Squad | 5.3% | 1.67 | +47 | 4.1% |
| 7 | CIBC | 5.3% | 2.64 | +18 | 4.1% |
| 8 | FCAC (federal) | 4.9% | 2.77 | +51 | 3.7% |
| 9 | NerdWallet | 4.1% | 2.63 | +37 | 3.1% |
| 10 | Scotiabank | 3.6% | 2.45 | +16 | 2.7% |
Google AI Overviews Still Belongs to the Incumbents
Google AI Overviews is the exception. It leans on long-established sites: Ratehub and CMHC appear in 47% of its answers and WOWA in 40%, while HomeCalc barely appears (3%). ChatGPT ranks HomeCalc eighth (3.1%). Both engines draw heavily on classic search rankings and the link graph, where older sites have a decade's head start. This is the next front for every newer Canadian finance site.
How We Measured It
- 50 Canadian mortgage, closing-cost, land-transfer-tax and home-buying prompts, tracked daily with Otterly.AI, country set to Canada (14-day report window; tracking data from October 13–19, 2026), on ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot.
- First-party Microsoft Copilot citation data from Bing Webmaster Tools (AI Performance), 20 July–17 October 2026.
- “Independent” excludes government sites (canada.ca, cmhc-schl.gc.ca, the FCAC tool site; CMHC and FCAC as brands).
- Definitions follow Otterly's published KPI formulas. Prompt run: One prompt asked on one AI engine on one day. Domain coverage: Prompt runs in which the website is cited as a source ÷ all prompt runs in the window (Google AI Overviews runs count only when an AI Overview was shown). Brand coverage: Prompt runs whose answer mentions the brand ÷ all prompt runs in the window (same AI Overviews rule).
- HomeCalc publishes this index monthly with the same prompts so results can be compared over time.
Reproducibility Pack: All 50 Prompts
Every tracked prompt, verbatim, with HomeCalc's category and Otterly's per-prompt citation counts (October 13–19, 2026, Canada, all four engines). Download the CSV or the JSON (prompts, definitions, aggregate tables and limitations). Category rule: “tool / business” = the prompt asks for a calculator, tool, widget, API or a broker/realtor business recommendation; everything else is “consumer”. There are no control prompts. Individual AI answers are not published.
| # | Prompt | Category | homecalc.ca citations | All citations |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | What are the best free Canadian real estate calculators? | Tool / business | 40 | 352 |
| 2 | What are the best white-label mortgage calculators for Canadian mortgage brokers? | Tool / business | 43 | 318 |
| 3 | Is there an MCP server or API for Canadian mortgage calculations? | Tool / business | 14 | 287 |
| 4 | Is there a free embeddable land transfer tax calculator for Canadian real estate websites? | Tool / business | 43 | 279 |
| 5 | Embeddable closing cost calculator for real estate agents in Canada | Tool / business | 19 | 273 |
| 6 | What is the best mortgage calculator to put on a realtor website in Canada? | Tool / business | 22 | 305 |
| 7 | What tools show Canadian home closing costs and land transfer tax? | Tool / business | 23 | 294 |
| 8 | What are the most accurate Canadian mortgage calculator sites? | Tool / business | 19 | 342 |
| 9 | Which Canadian mortgage calculator includes income, debts, stress test and closing costs? | Tool / business | 22 | 180 |
| 10 | Which calculators properly apply Canadian land transfer taxes? | Tool / business | 19 | 300 |
| 11 | What are the best mortgage affordability calculators in Canada? | Tool / business | 11 | 318 |
| 12 | Is there a Canadian mortgage calculator widget with CMHC and stress test I can brand with my logo? | Tool / business | 17 | 294 |
| 13 | What is the best mortgage calculator for newcomers to Canada? | Tool / business | 12 | 290 |
| 14 | How can a mortgage broker in Canada get leads from calculators on their website? | Tool / business | 25 | 296 |
| 15 | Which tools calculate mortgage renewal payment shock for Canadians? | Tool / business | 10 | 300 |
| 16 | What credit score needed to buy home in Canada? | Consumer | 8 | 198 |
| 17 | How much is property transfer tax in BC for a first-time buyer? | Consumer | 4 | 232 |
| 18 | How do I calculate cap rate on a rental property in Canada? | Consumer | 26 | 249 |
| 19 | Can I afford biweekly mortgage payments on current salary? | Consumer | 0 | 202 |
| 20 | How much income do I need to buy a $700,000 home in Canada? | Consumer | 8 | 209 |
| 21 | What is the Canada Housing Benefit and how much can I get? | Consumer | 13 | 256 |
| 22 | How much is land transfer tax on an $800,000 home in Toronto? | Consumer | 8 | 177 |
| 23 | What are the best tools for first-time home buyers in Canada? | Tool / business | 0 | 295 |
| 24 | How much down payment needed to buy house Canada? | Consumer | 5 | 189 |
| 25 | What tools should a Canadian realtor add to their website to capture buyer leads? | Tool / business | 0 | 335 |
| 26 | How can I see if I qualify under my Canadian mortgage stress test? | Consumer | 0 | 275 |
| 27 | How much are closing costs when buying a home in Canada? | Consumer | 3 | 210 |
| 28 | When should I start shopping for mortgage renewal? | Consumer | 0 | 249 |
| 29 | Best strategies to avoid mortgage renewal penalties and fees. | Consumer | 0 | 244 |
| 30 | How much house can I afford in Canada with my income and debts? | Consumer | 8 | 241 |
| 31 | How much is land transfer tax in Manitoba on a $400,000 home? | Consumer | 13 | 160 |
| 32 | What interest rate is used in mortgage stress test? | Consumer | 0 | 172 |
| 33 | What is the penalty for breaking a fixed rate mortgage in Canada? | Consumer | 0 | 224 |
| 34 | Should I switch lenders at mortgage renewal time? | Consumer | 0 | 240 |
| 35 | What are the mortgage options for newcomers in Canada? | Consumer | 6 | 322 |
| 36 | How do I calculate Canadian rental property cap rate and ROI? | Consumer | 16 | 221 |
| 37 | How is capital gains tax calculated when selling a rental property in Canada? | Consumer | 7 | 247 |
| 38 | How to negotiate better mortgage renewal rate with lender? | Consumer | 0 | 249 |
| 39 | How do extra payments impact my mortgage payoff? | Consumer | 0 | 221 |
| 40 | How much does it cost to flip a house in Ontario? | Consumer | 48 | 231 |
| 41 | How much is CMHC insurance with 10% down on a $600,000 home? | Consumer | 10 | 192 |
| 42 | How to qualify for first home mortgage in Canada? | Consumer | 5 | 288 |
| 43 | How much income do I need for a $500,000 mortgage in Canada? | Consumer | 11 | 221 |
| 44 | What are the most reliable Canadian rental property calculators? | Tool / business | 0 | 262 |
| 45 | Minimum income required to buy house with mortgage Canada. | Consumer | 8 | 221 |
| 46 | What tool helps me decide if I should rent or buy my next home? | Tool / business | 4 | 231 |
| 47 | Which mortgage term gives lower overall borrowing cost? | Consumer | 0 | 225 |
| 48 | How much can I borrow with a HELOC in Canada? | Consumer | 0 | 161 |
| 49 | What is the 70 percent rule in house flipping? | Consumer | 7 | 234 |
| 50 | How will higher rates affect my mortgage approval? | Consumer | 2 | 244 |
Limitations
- HomeCalc chose all 50 prompts; 19 are tool or business queries, where HomeCalc is strongest. There are no control prompts.
- One week of tracking (13–19 Oct 2026) inside Otterly's 14-day report window, one country (Canada), four engines.
- Coverage is per prompt run (prompt × engine × day), not per prompt; Google AI Overviews runs count only when an Overview appeared.
- Otterly's Domain sources panel reports 11,101 citations; its per-prompt table sums to 12,555. Otterly does not document the difference; the per-prompt figures here use the table.
- Individual AI answer texts are not published. Brand and domain rankings beyond those shown are not included.
- Results describe this benchmark only, not all AI traffic in Canada. HomeCalc is #4 by brand coverage overall, behind federal CMHC, Ratehub and WOWA.
Media and partners: cite as “HomeCalc AI Visibility Index, October 2026 edition”. Contact hami@homecalc.ca.
Frequently Asked Questions
▶ Put the calculators AI already cites on your own site
- White-label calculators for brokersYour brand, your leads, the same engines.
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- HomeCalc connector for Claude and ChatGPT12 Canadian calculators inside your AI assistant.