The Gist 100ConsumerOctober 2026
Half of dog food's top ten goes unnamed by ChatGPT
Purina is named in 91% of AI answers about dog food, and Hill's and Royal Canin in at least 74%. Five of the other seven brands on the page score 0% in ChatGPT, and each gets its highest score from Claude.
By Gist GEO team · October 2026
Share of AI answers about dog food that name each brand
Ask an assistant what to feed a dog and three names come back. Purina is named in 91% of answers, Hill's in 77% and Royal Canin in 74%. Some answers refer to a Big Three, and the counts make plain which three they mean. The answers credit all of them with feeding trials and research. Purina is also the first brand named in 57% of answers, against 21% for Hill's and 8% for Royal Canin.
After that the numbers drop quickly. Iams is fourth at 40% and Eukanuba fifth at 24%. No other brand is named in more than 18% of answers. Gist counted 38 brands named at least once across 304 answers in October 2026, but a typical answer names only 4.7 of them. When an owner switching foods asks for three brands to look at, Purina appears in 100% of answers and Hill's and Royal Canin in 94% each.
What a reader would not guess is how much of the list rests on one assistant. JustFoodForDogs, The Farmer's Dog, Nom Nom, Open Farm and Orijen are each named in 0% of ChatGPT's answers. Claude names all five, at rates from 30% to 61%. None of them is named in more than 17% of answers from Google AI Overviews or 14% from Perplexity. Nom Nom is the extreme case, at 49% in Claude and 0% in each of the other three.
Purina leads Hill's by 14 points and Hill's leads Royal Canin by 3. The larger break comes next. Iams, in fourth, is named in 40% of answers, 34 points behind Royal Canin. On seven of the eight questions the same three brands are the three most named. Below them, fourth place keeps changing hands. Six different brands hold it across the eight questions, from Eukanuba at 77% on the vet question to The Farmer's Dog at 22% on the three-brands question. For a challenger, the prize on offer is the fourth name in an answer, and no brand has secured it.
On the affordable question, 100% of answers name Purina and 88% name Iams, while Hill's falls to 22% and Royal Canin to 5%. On foods worth paying more for, Hill's and Royal Canin return at 82% each and Purina still leads at 88%. One visible reason is in the excerpts: answers name Purina ONE and Dog Chow when the question is price, and credit Pro Plan with research elsewhere. Third and fourth on the affordable question are Diamond Naturals, at 50%, and Nature's Recipe, at 35%, and neither makes the page. Affordability is the one question where the order below Purina is rewritten.
Claude names 7.9 brands per answer. Perplexity names 4.1, and ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews name 3.2 each. Much of the extra room goes to brands the answers describe as fresh or premium. JustFoodForDogs is named in 61% of Claude's answers and 0% of ChatGPT's, the widest gap between assistants on the page. ChatGPT's five most-named brands end with Iams at 46% and Eukanuba at 36%, and no brand lower on this page appears in its answers at all. For the brands ranked sixth to tenth, a place in AI answers mostly means a place in Claude's.
On the question of which brands vets recommend most, 100% of answers name Royal Canin, Purina and Hill's, with Eukanuba next at 77% and Iams at 66%. For Eukanuba it is the strongest question by 25 points, and the brand is named in 0% of answers on three others. The same question separates two brands the answers describe as fresh food, which share an overall score of 18. JustFoodForDogs reaches 32% and The Farmer's Dog 2%. The excerpts suggest why: they tie JustFoodForDogs to diets a veterinarian may ask for. A single overall number can hide where a brand is strong and where it is absent.
Who each company is, and how it shows up in the answers
91% of AI answers
Purina is a pet food maker that sells dog and cat food, treats and litter under names such as Pro Plan, Purina ONE and Dog Chow. William H. Danforth founded a St. Louis animal feed business in 1894 that became Ralston Purina in 1902. Nestlé acquired Ralston Purina in 2001, and the business now operates as Nestlé Purina PetCare.
Since 1894 · St. Louis · Part of Nestlé
Answers credit Pro Plan with research-driven diets and a wide range by age and size, and they name Purina ONE and Dog Chow when the question turns to price. It appears in 100% of answers on four of the eight questions and is the first brand named in 57% of all answers.
77% of AI answers
Hill’s is an American pet food company that makes dog and cat foods, including the Science Diet and Prescription Diet lines. It dates its start to 1948, when Dr. Mark Morris Sr. contracted with the Hill Packing Company of Topeka, Kansas, to make Canine k/d. Colgate-Palmolive has owned Hill’s since 1976, and its headquarters is in Overland Park, Kansas.
Since 1948 · Overland Park · Part of Colgate-Palmolive
Science Diet is the line the answers name, and they describe it as a favorite of veterinarians for its research and the nutritionists it employs. It leads the sensitive-stomach question at 95% and reaches 100% on the vet question, then drops to 22% on affordable food.
74% of AI answers
Royal Canin is a pet food maker that sells dog and cat foods, including formulas for specific breeds and for different dog sizes. French veterinarian Jean Cathary founded the company in 1968, and it is headquartered in Aimargues, France. It has been part of Mars since 2002.
Since 1968 · Aimargues, France · Part of Mars
The answers single out formulas tailored to breed and size, along with scientific research, and note that it often costs more. On the vet question it is named in 100% of answers and on foods worth paying more for in 82%, against 5% on affordable food.
40% of AI answers
Mass-market pet food brand.
Affordability brings it into the answers. ProActive Health and Minichunks appear as budget picks, and one answer places the brand midway between the cheap and the premium. On affordable food it is named in 88% of answers, second to Purina, and on the three-brands question in 0%.
24% of AI answers
Premium dog food brand aimed at active and working dogs.
Described as a science-focused choice for active dogs, it is set next to the Big Three in answers about what vets recommend, where it reaches 77%. Perplexity names it in 44% of its answers and ChatGPT in 36%, while Google AI Overviews names it in 3%.
18% of AI answers
Fresh dog food company.
Fresh food with a veterinary link is how the answers frame it: recipes developed with a veterinary nutritionist, and a brand suggested when a vet wants a fresh diet. Claude names it in 61% of its answers and ChatGPT in 0%, a split no other brand on the page matches.
18% of AI answers
Subscription service for fresh dog food.
Delivery sets it apart in the answers, which describe a personalized, fridge-fresh subscription that tends to cost more. Its strongest result is on the plain best-dog-food question, at 46%, the highest of any brand outside the top three, and it is named in 2% of answers on the vet question.
12% of AI answers
Fresh pet food delivery brand.
Human-grade ingredients made in small batches, plus microbiome testing done in-house, are what the answers credit. All of those answers come from Claude, which names the brand in 49% of its answers. ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and Perplexity name it in 0% of theirs.
12% of AI answers
Pet food brand built around ingredient sourcing.
Ethical sourcing runs through its excerpts. Answers credit it with traceable ingredients and supply-chain transparency, and one cites a Forbes panel of vets that chose it as a dry food pick. Claude names it in 30% of its answers and Google AI Overviews in 17%, where it is the fifth most-named brand.
12% of AI answers
Canadian maker of high-protein pet food.
High-protein kibble is the label the answers give it, citing recipes built largely on animal ingredients. One answer counts it among the costly foods worth the money. It ranks fourth on the pay-more question at 29% and is the only brand on the page outside the top four ever named first, in 3% of answers.
The three brands named most for each question Gist asked
| Question | Named most | Second | Third |
|---|---|---|---|
| What's the best dog food? | Purina 77% | Royal Canin 66% | Hill's 57% |
| Which dog food brands do you recommend? | Hill's 100% | Purina 100% | Royal Canin 96% |
| What's the best affordable dog food? | Purina 100% | Iams 88% | Diamond Naturals 50% |
| Which dog foods are worth paying more for? | Purina 88% | Royal Canin 82% | Hill's 82% |
| What's the best dog food for puppies? | Hill's 78% | Purina 78% | Royal Canin 78% |
| What's the best dog food for sensitive stomachs? | Hill's 95% | Purina 92% | Royal Canin 80% |
| I'm switching my dog's food. Which three brands should I look at? | Purina 100% | Hill's 94% | Royal Canin 94% |
| Which dog food brands do vets recommend most? | Hill's 100% | Purina 100% | Royal Canin 100% |
Share of each assistant’s answers that name the brand
| Brand | All four | ChatGPT | Perplexity | Claude | Google AI Overviews |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Purina | 91% | 85% | 98% | 95% | 88% |
| Hill's | 77% | 78% | 86% | 91% | 55% |
| Royal Canin | 74% | 71% | 85% | 78% | 62% |
| Iams | 40% | 46% | 46% | 48% | 20% |
| Eukanuba | 24% | 36% | 44% | 11% | 3% |
| JustFoodForDogs | 18% | 0% | 4% | 61% | 8% |
| The Farmer's Dog | 18% | 0% | 14% | 46% | 11% |
| Nom Nom | 12% | 0% | 0% | 49% | 0% |
| Open Farm | 12% | 0% | 0% | 30% | 17% |
| Orijen | 12% | 0% | 0% | 34% | 12% |
The websites AI cites most on dog food, by share of answers
A retailer and two publishers lead the citations. Chewy appears in 40% of answers, Forbes in 37% and Business Insider in 29%, and a health site, PetMD, in 26%. Perplexity and Claude overlap most, with Chewy in 88% and 64% of their answers. Google AI Overviews turns to Reddit in 61% of its answers and YouTube in 31%. ChatGPT cites none of the twelve most-cited sites except wsava.org, in 78% of its answers, and adds purina.com at 35% and royalcanin.com at 29%.
Three moves the numbers point to
Start with Claude, where the field is widest at 7.9 brands per answer. Its four most-cited sites are Chewy, Forbes, dogster.com and PetMD, in 52% to 64% of its answers, so check the brand's presence there first.
Aim at the plain best-dog-food question. Purina's score there is its lowest, at 77%, and Hill's, at 57%, sits 11 points ahead of The Farmer's Dog, the closest any challenger comes to a leader outside the affordable question.
Build the brand's own site with ChatGPT in mind. That assistant cites purina.com in 35% of its answers and royalcanin.com in 29%, next to wsava.org in 78%, and it cites Chewy, Forbes and Business Insider in 0%.
Analysis · 4 min read
A typical Claude answer names 7.2 brands, against 3.6 for Google AI Overviews. Claude gives 186 of the 304 brands in a published top ten their highest score, and ChatGPT never names 22 of them. Which brands appear depends on the assistant, and one overall score hides it.
7.2 vs 3.6Brands per answer, Claude vs Google AI Overviews
Gist asks a fixed set of eight buying questions in each category. None of them names a brand. Each question is put to ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI Overviews ten times, with web search on.
A brand’s score is the share of answers that name it, averaged across the assistants so that each one counts equally. Stores and review sites named in passing are not ranked. Brands named in fewer than one answer in ten are left off.
Measured October 5 to October 6, 2026.
No. It shows which brands AI assistants name when asked, not which products are best. Being named often usually reflects how much has been written about a brand, and where.
The page shows the 10 most-named brands. The free scan checks your own brand on a topic you choose.
Yes. AI answers shift as assistants are updated and as new pages are published. The date at the top shows when this ranking was measured.
See which brands appear in AI recommendations for your category, and where your brand stands among them.
Check my brand, freeChoose which optional analytics and advertising Gist can use. You can change your choices in Privacy settings. Privacy policy
