Australia, June 2026
Which brands lead mortgages in AI search in Australia?
Westpac leads what AI recommends for mortgages in Australia, but 35% of the citations go to affiliate and comparison sites rather than the providers.
A snapshot of who AI is recommending right now, not a fixed ranking.
The exact prompt we asked
I'm buying a home in Australia and want a competitive home loan with an offset account. Which lenders have the best home loan rates right now? Give me a ranked top five of specific lenders, each with the rate or product and a one-line reason.
Asked to ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews, up to 100 times each. Everything below is measured from their answers.
The short answer
There is no clear winner for mortgages in Australia. ChatGPT names Macquarie first but only 10% of the time, Gemini leads with SWS Bank 82% of the time, and Google AI Overviews puts Unloan first. Macquarie is the only brand all three engines share.
How consistent is the answer?
ChatGPT
Gemini
Google AI OverviewsDo the engines agree?
ChatGPTGeminiGoogle AI Overviews
Macquarie
SWS Bank
Unloan
Westpac
Tiimely Home
BCU Bank
Police Bank
Unity Bank
Bank Australia
Bank First
Up
ANZ
St.GeorgeEach cell shows where an engine ranks that brand. Blue rows are the brands every engine puts in its top five.
Recommendation share of voice
Which brands AI names
Share of runs each brand was named, by engine. Google showed an AI Overview in 88% of searches; its bars are measured over the runs where one appeared.
ChatGPT
Westpac28%Macquarie27%BCU Bank18%Bank Australia15%St.George15%
NRMA Insurance11%
Great Southern Bank9%SWS Bank8%
CommBank8%
Bankwest6%Gemini
SWS Bank83%Tiimely Home78%Police Bank75%Up70%Macquarie51%
Gateway Bank46%
loans.com.au16%CommBank10%Bank Australia9%Unity Bank8%Google AI Overviews
Unloan88%Macquarie86%Unity Bank67%Bank First44%ANZ34%
Bendigo Bank24%
Mortgage Choice23%
ING18%Gateway Bank18%Westpac10%Who wins the citations
What kind of sites get cited
This is what AI links to as its sources, which is not the same as the brands it names above. AI often recommends a provider by name but sends the citation to a publisher or affiliate instead, so “First-party brand” means a link to the provider’s own website. Here is the mix by engine.
ChatGPTGeminiGoogle AI OverviewsWhat the answers are really about
The themes behind the recommendations
Looking past the brand names, these are the concepts and buyer intent the AI answers kept returning to for this product. Each finding starts with what the engines foreground, then what it means for you.
The AI answers revolve around the advertised variable interest rate and the offset account, treated as the two things that decide a good home loan.
Rate-first ranking
ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews all lead with the lowest advertised variable owner-occupier rate, quoting figures and ranking lenders primarily on price. Lenders that do not publish a sharp headline rate rarely make the shortlist, so a visible competitive rate is the entry ticket to being recommended.
Offset account as a must-have
Every engine treats a full 100 percent offset feature as a default requirement, often filtering the whole comparison to loans that include one. Brands marketed as the best for offset accounts get named for that feature alone, which makes a strong offset product a clear way to be surfaced.
Smaller lenders over the Big Four
Gemini and ChatGPT repeatedly point to credit unions, smaller banks and digital-first lenders like Unloan and Macquarie as undercutting the major banks on price, and they caveat that rates shift with LVR, loan size and package fees. This rewards challenger and digital brands that compete on rate, while the big banks are framed as the more expensive benchmark to beat.
Questions
People also ask
Which brands lead mortgages in AI search in Australia?
The engines disagree. ChatGPT leans to Macquarie and Westpac, Gemini favours SWS Bank and Tiimely Home, and Google AI Overviews leads with Unloan.
How consistent is AI when you ask for the best Mortgages?
This is one of the least consistent categories, with only 20% of the top five overlapping. ChatGPT's top pick lands first just 10% of the time.
What kind of websites does AI cite for Mortgages?
Affiliate sites lead at 47% and brand-owned pages follow at 43%. Regulator and community sources make up only small shares.
More reports
Other Australia products in AI search
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