OpenSky AI Visibility Market Strategy Report - Credit Cards for Building Credit

Answer Capsule

OpenSky holds the second-strongest recommendation position in the Credit Cards for Building Credit category in October 2026, with valid recommendation coverage of 78.9% across 565 qualified observations. The brand is visible and frequently recommended, but it has been displaced from the category lead by Capital One, which entered the qualified set at 86.7% coverage. OpenSky's clearest win is a rank-one rate of 32.6%, well above every tracked brand except Capital One. Its clearest weakness is a top-three rate of 67.6% against Capital One's 83.7%, and its clearest opportunity is closing the recommendation breadth gap in the Brand Recommendation cluster where the category's discovery decisions are formed.

Who This Report Is For

This report is for OpenSky's marketing, brand, and growth leadership, and for category analysts tracking how secured and credit-building card brands are surfaced, shortlisted, and recommended across AI platforms.

Report Card

Executive Summary

OpenSky is visible in AI-generated recommendations at a scale most credit-building brands do not reach, but it is no longer the category leader. The LLM Authority Index benchmark for October 2026 records OpenSky at 78.9% valid recommendation coverage, second behind Capital One at 86.7%, a gap of 7.8 percentage points. OpenSky's raw mention presence rate is 82.8%, meaning the brand appears in most qualified AI answers, and its valid recommendation count of 446 from 565 qualified observations shows that when OpenSky is surfaced, it is usually placed in a recommendation shortlist.

The brand's strongest signal is first-position strength. OpenSky's rank-one rate is 32.6%, with 184 rank-one placements, second only to Capital One's 36.6%. That is a meaningful position: OpenSky is not merely listed, it is frequently the first brand AI systems name. Its average recommended rank of 2.07 confirms that when OpenSky earns rank credit, it sits near the top of the shortlist.

The clearest gap is recommendation breadth. OpenSky's top-three rate is 67.6%, which means roughly one in three qualified observations surfaces the brand without placing it in the top three. Capital One's top-three rate is 83.7%, a 16.1 percentage point advantage. The benchmark also shows OpenSky's top-three rate rose 11.1 points from 56.5% in July 2026, a significant gain, while its rank-one rate moved only slightly from 31.6% to 32.6%. That pattern points to growing breadth of recommendation rather than growth in single-placement selectedness.

Sentiment is strongly positive. OpenSky's net sentiment score is 0.9615, with 452 positive mentions, 14 neutral mentions, and 2 negative mentions across 468 presence observations. The brand carries almost no negative framing in the qualified set.

The strongest platform signal for OpenSky is AI Overviews, where the brand records 115 valid recommendations from 146 observations, a coverage rate of 78.8%, and a rank-one rate of 34.3%. The weakest platform signal is Gemini, where OpenSky's valid recommendation coverage is 78.5% but its rank-one rate is 27.9%, and Copilot, where coverage is 80.7% but the platform's overall observation base is small.

The clearest structural gap is cluster coverage. The entire qualified set of 565 observations falls into the Brand Recommendation cluster. The benchmark does not yet contain qualified observations in the Pricing and Value or Multi-Brand Comparison clusters, which means OpenSky's visibility on fee, deposit, and head-to-head comparison questions is not measured in this public series. That gap matters because the AI Response Inconsistency Alerts section below documents ten high-confidence pricing conflicts about OpenSky's own secured card products across eight AI platforms.

What OpenSky Is Winning

Questions This Section Answers

• Where does OpenSky lead or nearly lead the credit-building card category in AI recommendations?
• Which recommendation metrics show the strongest positive momentum for OpenSky?

OpenSky holds the second-highest rank-one rate in the category at 32.6%, with 184 first-position recommendations from 565 qualified observations. Only Capital One, at 36.6%, places first more often.

OpenSky's top-three rate rose 11.1 percentage points from 56.5% in July 2026 to 67.6% in October 2026, a significant gain. The brand added 382 top-three placements in October 2026, the second-highest count in the tracked set.

OpenSky posted a second consecutive monthly gain in valid recommendation coverage, rising 6.9 percentage points from 72.0% in September 2026 to 78.9% in October 2026. It is the only brand in the series with a multi-month upward streak.

OpenSky's net sentiment score of 0.9615 is the highest among the three leading brands, ahead of Capital One at 0.9506 and Chime at 0.9475. The brand carries 452 positive mentions against 2 negative mentions.

OpenSky's average recommended rank of 2.07 is the strongest in the category after Capital One's 1.76, confirming that when the brand earns rank credit it sits near the top of the shortlist.

Where OpenSky Has the Clearest AI Visibility Gaps

Questions This Section Answers

• How far behind Capital One is OpenSky on top-three placement, and what does that gap mean in practice?
• Why is OpenSky's rank-one rate stable while its top-three rate is growing?
• What buyer-intent clusters remain unmeasured for OpenSky in this benchmark?

OpenSky's primary gap is recommendation breadth against Capital One. Capital One's top-three rate of 83.7% is 16.1 percentage points above OpenSky's 67.6%. In practical terms, Capital One converts roughly five of every six qualified observations into a top-three placement, while OpenSky converts roughly two of every three. That difference compounds across the category's high-intent prompt set.

The gap is not a presence problem. OpenSky's raw mention presence rate of 82.8% is close to Capital One's 93.1%, and OpenSky's valid recommendation coverage of 78.9% is only 7.8 points behind. The gap is in how often OpenSky converts a mention into a top-three recommendation. The benchmark shows OpenSky appearing in AI answers without being placed in the recommendation shortlist in roughly one of every three qualified observations.

OpenSky's rank-one rate is stable but not growing. The brand moved from 31.6% in July 2026 to 32.6% in October 2026, a 1.0 percentage point change, while its top-three rate expanded by 11.1 points over the same period. The benchmark's own interpretation notes that this pattern points to growing breadth of recommendation rather than growth in single-placement selectedness. OpenSky is being added to more shortlists, but it is not becoming the first name more often.

Chime's decline creates a displacement question the benchmark cannot answer. Chime fell 12.0 percentage points in valid recommendation coverage from July 2026 to October 2026, and its raw mention presence fell 15.6 points over the same period. The benchmark identifies as a highest-priority diagnostic whether Chime's displaced mentions went to Capital One or to OpenSky. The public data does not resolve that question, but the timing overlaps with OpenSky's second consecutive monthly gain.

OpenSky's cluster coverage is limited to a single qualified cluster. The benchmark defines three buyer-intent clusters, but only the Brand Recommendation cluster contains qualified observations in October 2026. OpenSky's visibility on Pricing and Value questions and Multi-Brand Comparison questions is not measured in this public series, which means the brand's position on fee sensitivity and head-to-head preference questions is unknown from this dataset.

Biggest Opportunity

Questions This Section Answers

• Where is OpenSky's largest addressable recommendation gap?
• Which prompt types concentrate the top-three conversion gap for OpenSky?
• Which citation sources are shaping OpenSky's recommendation case in AI answers?

OpenSky's clearest path from reference to recommendation is closing the top-three conversion gap in the Brand Recommendation cluster. The brand already appears in 82.8% of qualified AI answers and earns valid recommendation credit in 78.9% of them, but it converts only 67.6% into top-three placements. The 11.1 percentage point gap between OpenSky's valid recommendation coverage and its top-three rate represents the single largest addressable pocket in the brand's current position.

The prompt evidence in the dataset points to specific high-intent question types where this gap is likely concentrated. Prompts such as "What is the easiest secured card to get approved for?", "What is the best secured credit card with no credit check?", and "What is the easiest secured credit card to be approved for?" appear repeatedly in the cluster prompt examples and in the inconsistency data. These are comparison and selection questions where AI systems weigh multiple brands against each other. OpenSky's rank-one strength suggests the brand is often the first name, but its top-three rate suggests it is not consistently placed alongside the other leading options when the answer format calls for a shortlist.

The opportunity is to make OpenSky's recommendation case more retrievable and more consistent across the source layer that AI systems draw from. The benchmark's citation data shows that third-party comparison and review sites lead the citation list, with bankrate.com, wallethub.com, nerdwallet.com, and cardrates.com in the top five. OpenSky's own domain does not appear in the top ten cited domains. The brand's recommendation case is being assembled by AI systems from third-party sources, and the consistency of those sources determines whether OpenSky lands in the top three or falls to a lower position.

Competitive Landscape

Questions This Section Answers

• How do OpenSky's top-three, rank-one, and average recommended rank compare to Capital One and the rest of the field?
• Which brands sit in the same recommendation tier as OpenSky?

Capital One holds the strongest recommendation-stage position in the Credit Cards for Building Credit category in October 2026, with OpenSky as the closest challenger and Chime as the third-ranked brand. The remaining tracked brands hold very small recommendation shares.

Average recommended rank covers rank-eligible recommendations only.

OpenSky's position in the table shows a brand with strong first-position strength and a meaningful top-three gap to the leader. Its rank-one rate of 32.57% is within 4.07 percentage points of Capital One's, but its top-three rate is 16.11 percentage points behind. The gap between OpenSky and Chime is larger than the gap between OpenSky and Capital One on top-three rate, which places OpenSky in a distinct tier between the leader and the rest of the field.

AI Response Inconsistency Alerts

Questions This Section Answers

• What kinds of factual conflicts are AI platforms producing about OpenSky's secured cards?
• Where do the conflicting pricing claims about OpenSky originate in the evidence layer?
• Which platforms and question types produce the annual fee and minimum deposit conflicts?

Ten high-confidence factual inconsistencies about OpenSky were detected across eight AI platforms in the October 2026 measurement period. All ten conflicts are pricing-related, and all ten involve the annual fee or minimum security deposit on OpenSky's secured card products. The platforms involved are ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Google AI Mode, Google AI Mode Keywords, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Overviews Keywords, and Perplexity.

The most frequent conflict concerns the annual fee on the OpenSky Plus Secured Visa. When asked "What is the easiest secured card to get approved for?", Google AI Mode stated that OpenSky Plus features a $0 annual fee, citing WalletHub, NerdWallet, and Navy Federal Credit Union pages, while Copilot stated that the OpenSky Plus Secured Visa has a $59 annual fee, citing WalletHub, Screened, and ClearValueLending pages. A flagged WalletHub source page on the $0 side contained the excerpt "you won't have to pay an annual fee, making this card a great option for improving your credit score."

A second annual fee conflict appeared on the same question type. When asked "What is the best secured credit card with no credit check?", Google AI Mode stated that the Plus version has a $0 annual fee, citing OneUnited, Finder, and Tilt pages, while Copilot stated that the OpenSky Plus Secured Visa has a $59 annual fee, citing Screened, US News, and ClearValueLending pages.

A third annual fee conflict appeared on a different question. When asked "What's the easiest credit card to get right now?", Gemini stated that the OpenSky Plus Secured Visa has a $35 annual fee, citing CardRates and WalletHub pages, while Google AI Overviews stated that the OpenSky Plus Secured Visa charges a $0 annual fee, citing CNBC, Discover, and WalletHub pages.

A fourth annual fee conflict appeared on the question "What is the easiest secured card to get?". Google AI Mode stated that the OpenSky Secured Visa charges a small annual fee, citing Bankrate, while Google AI Overviews stated that the OpenSky Plus Secured Visa has a $0 annual fee, citing WalletHub, Mastercard, and a WalletHub answers page. The flagged Bankrate source on the annual fee side contained the excerpt "For a low annual fee and security deposit, you can start using the opensky Secured Visa Credit Card to build credit," while the flagged WalletHub answers source on the $0 side contained the excerpt "you won't have to pay an annual fee."

A fifth annual fee conflict appeared on the question "What is the best secured credit card to use?". Gemini stated that the OpenSky Plus Secured Visa has a $0 annual fee, citing Bankrate, Chime, and Visa pages, while Perplexity stated that the OpenSky Secured Visa has a $35 annual fee, citing CardRates, Capital One, and CNBC pages.

A sixth annual fee conflict appeared on the keyword query "best bad credit credit cards". Google AI Overviews Keywords stated that the OpenSky Secured Visa has a $35 annual fee, citing Mastercard, Navy Federal Credit Union, and Discover pages, while Google AI Mode Keywords stated that the OpenSky Plus Secured Visa has a $0 annual fee, citing Experian, Reddit, and Navy Federal Credit Union pages. Two flagged WalletHub answers sources on the $0 side contained excerpts stating that the OpenSky Plus Credit Card "has a $0 annual fee" and that the OpenSky Plus Secured Visa Credit Card offers a $2,000 credit limit.

A seventh annual fee conflict appeared on the question "What is the easiest secured credit card to be approved for?". Google AI Mode stated that the OpenSky Secured Visa carries a $35 annual fee, citing Bankrate, the OpenSky FAQ page, and Chime, while Google AI Overviews stated that the OpenSky Plus Secured Visa features a $0 annual fee, citing WalletHub answers, WalletHub, and NerdWallet pages. The flagged WalletHub answers source on the $0 side contained the excerpt "you won't have to pay an annual fee."

An eighth annual fee conflict appeared on the question "What is the best secured credit card to use?". Gemini stated that the OpenSky Plus Secured Visa has a $0 annual fee, citing Bankrate, Chime, and Visa pages, while Google AI Overviews stated that the OpenSky Secured Visa carries a small annual fee, citing Bankrate, Credit Karma, and a WalletHub Facebook video page.

The ninth conflict concerns the minimum security deposit. When asked "What credit cards are approved immediately with no credit check?", ChatGPT stated a $100 minimum security deposit, citing WalletHub, NerdWallet, and Visa pages, while Gemini stated a $200 minimum refundable deposit, citing CreditCards.com and Bankrate pages.

The tenth conflict also concerns the minimum deposit. When asked "Who has the lowest deposit on a secured credit card?", ChatGPT stated a $200 minimum deposit, citing NerdWallet and WalletHub pages, while Gemini stated a $150 minimum deposit. Three flagged sources on the $200 side contained excerpts stating that most major issuers set the minimum at $200, that secured credit cards generally require a minimum $200 security deposit, and that the OpenSky Secured Visa requires a $200 deposit with a $35 annual fee and no credit check.

Across all ten conflicts, the pattern is consistent: AI platforms are providing conflicting information about OpenSky's annual fee and minimum deposit, and the conflicts are not confined to a single platform pair. The same platform appears on both sides of different conflicts, and the same question type produces different answers across platforms. The source pages cited on each side include third-party comparison sites, issuer pages, and user-generated content, which suggests the inconsistency originates in the public evidence layer rather than in a single platform's retrieval behavior.

Prompt Evidence

Google AI Mode / Best Credit Cards for Building Credit Prompt: "What is the easiest secured card to get approved for?" Result: OpenSky was recommended with a $0 annual fee claim, while Copilot stated a $59 annual fee for the same card on the same question.

Gemini / Best Credit Cards for Building Credit Prompt: "What's the easiest credit card to get right now?" Result: OpenSky was recommended with a $35 annual fee claim, while Google AI Overviews stated a $0 annual fee for the same card on the same question.

ChatGPT / Best Credit Cards for Building Credit Prompt: "What credit cards are approved immediately with no credit check?" Result: OpenSky was recommended with a $100 minimum deposit claim, while Gemini stated a $200 minimum refundable deposit for the same card on the same question.

Google AI Overviews / Best Credit Cards for Building Credit Prompt: "What is the best secured credit card to use?" Result: OpenSky was recommended with a $0 annual fee claim, while Perplexity stated a $35 annual fee for the same card on the same question.

What CiteWorks Studio Would Do Next

Phase 1: AI Visibility Market Discovery Audit Map OpenSky's prompt-level recommendation outcomes across all six tracked platforms, identify which question types produce top-three placements and which produce mentions without recommendation credit, and isolate the source pages AI systems cite when OpenSky is placed versus when it is not.

Phase 2: Recommendation Readiness Plan Prioritize the prompt clusters and question types where OpenSky's top-three conversion gap is largest, and define the specific recommendation attributes that need to be consistent across the public evidence layer.

Phase 3: Owned Answer Layer Buildout Strengthen OpenSky's owned pages so that annual fee, minimum deposit, and card feature information is stated in extractable, unambiguous language that AI systems can retrieve and repeat without conflict.

Phase 4: Citation and Authority Layer Development Work the third-party comparison and review sources that AI systems cite most often in this category, including the domains that appear on both sides of the current pricing conflicts, to reduce the inconsistency that is currently splitting AI answers about OpenSky's own products.

Phase 5: Monthly AI Visibility and Recommendation Tracking Track OpenSky's valid recommendation coverage, top-three rate, rank-one rate, and pricing-claim consistency month over month against Capital One and the rest of the tracked set.

Why This Matters

Questions This Section Answers

• What does the difference between being mentioned and being placed in the top three mean for OpenSky in this category?
• How do the documented pricing conflicts affect OpenSky's recommendation case when buyers compare options?

OpenSky's position in this category is strong but not secure. The brand appears in most AI answers about credit-building cards and is frequently the first name recommended, but it converts fewer of those appearances into top-three placements than Capital One does. In a category where buyers ask AI systems to name the easiest card to get approved for, the difference between being mentioned and being placed in the shortlist is the difference between being considered and being chosen.

The pricing conflicts documented in this report add a second layer of risk. Ten high-confidence inconsistencies about OpenSky's annual fee and minimum deposit are circulating across eight AI platforms, and the conflicting claims are being drawn from third-party sources that AI systems treat as authoritative. A buyer who asks two different platforms the same question can receive two different answers about what OpenSky's card costs. That inconsistency does not just affect framing quality, it affects whether OpenSky's recommendation case holds together when a buyer moves from discovery to comparison.

The next move is targeted correction of the prompt, page, and citation layers that produce these outcomes. OpenSky's recommendation strength is real and measurable. The work is to make it consistent, to close the top-three gap against Capital One, and to ensure that the public evidence layer AI systems draw from states OpenSky's product facts the same way every time.

Core Metrics

Sentiment Score

Sentiment Score = (positive mentions × 1 + neutral mentions × 0 + negative mentions × -1) / total mentions

OpenSky's sentiment score for October 2026 is 0.9615, calculated from 452 positive mentions, 14 neutral mentions, and 2 negative mentions across 468 total mentions.

This score matters because unclassified mention counts are misleading. A brand that appears in 468 AI answers sounds strong until the mentions are separated into positive recommendations, neutral references, cautionary mentions, and competitor-displaced mentions. OpenSky's 468 mentions include 452 positive recommendations, 14 neutral references, and 2 negative mentions. Counting all 468 as wins would overstate the brand's position and hide the small but real negative framing that exists in the data.

Share of voice is a diagnostic metric, not a business KPI. Knowing that OpenSky appears in 82.8% of qualified AI answers does not tell a buyer whether OpenSky is being recommended, compared, or merely listed as context. The sentiment score separates those outcomes. A positive recommendation, a neutral reference, a cautionary mention, and a competitor-displaced mention are not equal, and treating them as equal produces bad measurement.

Classified sentiment is required before interpreting AI visibility. OpenSky's score of 0.9615 places the brand in strongly positive framing territory, alongside Capital One at 0.9506 and Chime at 0.9475. The three leading brands are close on sentiment, which means sentiment alone does not explain the recommendation gap between them. The gap is in recommendation placement, not in framing quality.

Sentiment by Platform

Methodology

1. Report orientation: This is a benchmark-based AI Visibility Company Market Strategy Report for OpenSky in the Credit Cards for Building Credit category. It interprets the LLM Authority Index AI Visibility Market Discovery Index for October 2026 and does not represent a client engagement result.
2. Reporting window: October 2026, with July 2026 as the baseline month and August 2026 and September 2026 as intermediate months in the public series.
3. Platforms tracked: Six canonical AI and search surface families, ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews, and AI Mode. All six registered at least one qualified observation in October 2026.
4. Observation count: 565 qualified benchmark observations in October 2026, drawn from 800 collected prompt-surface observations. The qualified set is the public denominator for all brand-level percentages in this report.
5. Competitor universe: Eight tracked brands, Applied Bank, Capital One, Chime, Discover Home Loans, First Latitude, Navy Federal Credit Union, OpenSky, and Self. OpenSky is the target company for this report.
6. Public clusters used: One qualified cluster, Best Credit Cards for Building Credit (C01, consideration stage). Two additional clusters, Credit Card Comparisons for Credit Building (C02, evaluation stage) and Credit Card Pricing and Fees for Credit Builders (C03, decision stage), are defined in the benchmark but contain no qualified observations in October 2026.
7. Stage 0 role: The benchmark retains prompt-level observations that include the query, AI or search surface, answer, brand outcome, recommendation placement, sentiment, and, where exposed, citations or attributable evidence sources. Source presence is treated as evidence about the information environment and is not treated as proof of causation.
8. Definition of a mention: A mention is a qualified observation in which OpenSky appears in the AI response at all, regardless of whether the brand is recommended, compared, or referenced as context. OpenSky recorded 468 mentions in October 2026.
9. Definition of a valid recommendation: A valid recommendation is a qualified observation in which OpenSky appears in a valid recommendation shortlist. OpenSky recorded 446 valid recommendations in October 2026, a coverage rate of 78.94%.
10. Ranking interpretation: Top-three rate measures how often OpenSky appears in the first three recommended positions. Rank-one rate measures how often OpenSky is the first recommendation. Average recommended rank covers rank-eligible recommendations only and is calculated from positive valid recommendations with rank 1 through 10.
11. Unique question count: The October 2026 collection covered 638 unique questions after deduplication, from 800 collected prompt-surface observations. All 800 prompts mentioned a tracked brand or competitor, 630 were relevant to the category, and 170 were irrelevant.
12. Limitations: The public benchmark measures the Brand Recommendation class of discovery and does not yet contain qualified observations in the Pricing and Value or Multi-Brand Comparison classes. Month-over-month movement identifies changes worth investigating and does not by itself establish the cause of those changes. The pricing conflicts documented in this report describe what AI systems stated, not what OpenSky's published terms are. Small-count brands in the tracked set should be read with their absolute counts beside their percentages.

See How AI Is Recommending Your Brand

The public benchmark shows where OpenSky stands in AI-generated recommendations across the credit-building card category. A company-level AI visibility audit maps the prompt, surface, competitor, ranking, sentiment, and evidence-source patterns behind those standings into a prioritized strategy for defending and expanding recommendation share.