AI Visibility Rankings · Finance

Accounting firms: AI search visibility ranking (2026)

How AI search engines rank accounting firms by visibility and citations. 20 brands measured monthly across Google AI Mode: which brands the AI names in answers, which domains it cites as sources, and how the leaders compare. Accounting firms that provide audit, tax, advisory, transaction, and outsourced finance services for businesses across industries. Composite score: 70% visibility (% of AI answers naming the brand) + 30% citation rate (% citing the brand's domain). Full methodology →

Refreshed Jun 17, 2026

Avg visibility across category

Avg citation rate

20/20

Brands successfully audited

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At a glance

Category leader EY 50% visibility · named in 4 of 8 AI answers

Most cited brand EY 0% citation rate · the AI's most-trusted source brand in accounting firms

Top cited domain insidepublicaccounting.com Referenced by AI across the accounting firms query set — the highest-leverage PR target in this category

Visibility spread 50pp Gap between top and bottom of the ranking · 16 brands at 0% (invisible to the AI)

What we observed in this categoryauto-generated

EY leads the accounting firms category with a visibility score of 50%, exactly double PwC at 25% and four times Deloitte and KPMG, each sitting at 12.5%. The category average is just 5%, meaning EY outperforms the average by a factor of ten. This gap is substantial because it means Google AI Mode is concentrating mentions of the accounting sector almost entirely around one brand, compressing the competitive field dramatically for any firm ranked below the Big Four.

Every brand in this dataset carries a citation rate of 0%, including the four firms that do register visibility. This means EY, PwC, Deloitte, and KPMG are being named in AI-generated responses but their own domains are not being cited as sources. BDO, RSM, Grant Thornton, Baker Tilly, Crowe, and Forvis Mazars register zero visibility and zero citation, making them entirely absent from Google AI Mode outputs in this category.

The sources Google AI Mode anchors on for accounting firm queries are third-party directories and editorial outlets, not firm-owned domains. The top cited sources include insidepublicaccounting.com, vault.com, clutch.co, and m.yelp.com, alongside latimes.com and gmac.com. This pattern shows the AI is drawing on ranking and review aggregators rather than the firms themselves, which explains why brand visibility and citation rates are fully decoupled across the entire category.

Movers & shakers since last refresh

Biggest visibility risers

EY 0% → 50% · rank #0 → #1
+50pp
PwC 0% → 25% · rank #0 → #2
+25pp
Deloitte 0% → 12% · rank #0 → #3
+12pp

The ranking

#	Brand	Visibility	Citation	Top engine
1	EY ey.com	50%	0%	Google AI Mode
EY holds a 50% visibility score, ten times the 5% category average, and is the only firm achieving composite score above 30, yet still records zero citations.
2	PwC pwc.com	25%	0%	Google AI Mode
PwC sits at 25% visibility, half of EY and five times the category average, but shares the same 0% citation rate as every other brand in the dataset.
3	Deloitte deloitte.com	12%	0%	Google AI Mode
Deloitte matches KPMG exactly at 12.5% visibility and a composite score of 8.8, placing both firms well below EY and PwC with no citation presence at all.
4	KPMG kpmg.com	12%	0%	Google AI Mode
KPMG ties Deloitte at 12.5% visibility and 8.8 composite score, confirming that Google AI Mode treats these two brands as near-equivalent in this category.
5	BDO bdo.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
BDO records 0% visibility and a composite score of zero, meaning it is entirely absent from Google AI Mode responses despite being a major mid-market accounting firm.
6	RSM rsmus.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
7	Grant Thornton grantthornton.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
8	Baker Tilly bakertilly.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
9	Crowe crowe.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
10	Forvis Mazars forvismazars.us	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
11	Moss Adams mossadams.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
12	CohnReznick cohnreznick.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
13	CLA claconnect.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
14	EisnerAmper eisneramper.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
15	Marcum marcumllp.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
16	PKF pkf.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
17	Cherry Bekaert cbh.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
18	Plante Moran plantemoran.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
19	Armanino armanino.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
20	Moore moore-global.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode

Sources AI engines trust in this category

Across the 8 buyer-intent queries we ran on accounting firms, these are the domains Google AI Mode cited most often. If you're not on this list — or if your competitors are — that's a concrete PR / linkbuilding target.

insidepublicaccounting.comvault.comgmac.comclutch.com.yelp.comlatimes.comcpafirmnyc.com1800accountant.com

How to read this ranking

Four things worth knowing before you act on the numbers above. These are the same definitions across every industry page — for category-specific observations, see the What we observed section above (where available) and the per-brand insights inline in the ranking.

Visibility = being named

A brand's visibility % is the share of AI answers that mention it by name in the response prose. This is who AI engines actively recommend to the buyer.

Citation rate = being trusted

Citation rate is the share of AI answers that include the brand's domain as a clickable source link. This is what the AI treats as authoritative evidence — different from being named.

Top engine differs by brand

The "top engine" column shows which AI surface each brand performs best on. Big gaps between a brand's score across engines usually points to specific content or schema gaps.

Rankings move month to month

AI engines re-crawl and re-rank on shorter cycles than classical search. We re-audit every brand on this list at least every 30 days and refresh this page automatically.

Get your own accounting firms brand audited

The brands above were curated from public market-leader lists. Want the same measurement against your own brand — including the queries you appear on, which competitors get named instead, and a prioritised fix list? Run a free preview.

Audit your accounting firms brand → Browse all rankings Methodology →

Frequently asked about accounting firms AI visibility

Who leads AI visibility in the accounting firms category?

EY leads with 50% visibility in Google AI Mode, more than double the second-ranked PwC at 25% and ten times the 5% category average.

Which accounting firms are completely invisible in Google AI Mode?

BDO, RSM, Grant Thornton, Baker Tilly, Crowe, and Forvis Mazars all register 0% visibility and 0% citation in the current audit data.

What sources does Google AI Mode cite most when responding to accounting firm queries?

The top cited sources are third-party directories and editorial outlets including insidepublicaccounting.com, vault.com, clutch.co, and m.yelp.com, not firm-owned domains.

Do any accounting firms receive citations from Google AI Mode despite high visibility?

No. Every brand in the dataset, including EY at 50% visibility, records a 0% citation rate, meaning firm domains are not being used as sources even when brands are named.

How concentrated is AI visibility across accounting firms?

Extremely concentrated. The top four firms (EY, PwC, Deloitte, KPMG) account for all measured visibility, while the remaining 16 brands in the 20-brand dataset register zero.

Which engine is driving visibility for accounting firms, and does any brand perform better on an alternative engine?

Google AI Mode is the top engine for all brands in the dataset, and no brand records a different top engine, suggesting the entire category's AI presence is Google-dependent.