GTM AI Index
Index Marketing Native ads › Teads vs Taboola
Native and content advertising · September 2026 Edition

Teads vs Taboola

One of twelve models named Teads first on the direct prompt; zero named Taboola. Both were named by all twelve models and Teads carries 70 labels and Taboola 59, so the shares are not directly comparable.

Teads

accepted challenger

By Q28872999, New York City, United States, founded 2005. Named in three categories this edition.

Taboola

criticized challenger

New York City, United States, founded 2007. Named in three categories this edition.

First-choice share14%11%Of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, 0 to 100.
Negative rate23%36%Negative labels as a share of the product's labels, 0 to 100.
Rank in category#3#5A position in a field of 8; printed, not drawn.
Labels7059A count; the two differ.
The two percentage rows are drawn on one 0 to 100 track, Teads reading right to left. Rank and label count are printed, not drawn.StackAdapt was named alongside these two in eleven of the twelve direct answers. StackAdapt vs Teads · StackAdapt vs Taboola · MGID vs Teads

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts over all twelve models, for a mid-market B2B company; rank is within the category; every quote names the model and the prompt it came from. Both figures come from the native and content advertising page.

By framing

How many of the twelve models made each the first choice, per way of asking, and how many argued against it.
TeadsFirst choices, of twelve modelsTaboola
Direct103 against Taboola
Paraphrase332 against Teads · 3 against Taboola
Comparative48
Budget-constrained106 against Teads · 5 against Taboola
Scale-constrained12
Negative008 against Teads · 10 against Taboola
Bars are first choices, 0 to 12 each sideModels that argued againstA model can name both, so the two sides of a row do not sum to twelve.

Across every category in the September 2026 Edition, Teads and Taboola were named in the same answer 167 times, of the 185 answers naming Teads and the 181 naming Taboola. In those answers Taboola took the first choice twenty-one times and Teads eight.

Every model, every framing

The seventy-two answers behind the chart above, one cell each: where Teads and Taboola stood in it.
ModelDirectParaphraseComparativeBudget-constrainedScale-constrainedNegative
Claude Haiku 4.5
GPT-5.4 mini
Gemini 3.5 Flash
Perplexity Sonar
Grok 4.1 Fast
Mistral Small
DeepSeek V4 Flash
Llama 4 Maverick
Qwen 3.7 Flash
Kimi K2
GLM 4.7 FlashX
MiniMax M2.5
Teads Taboola first choice named as an alternative argued againstblank: not namedEach cell is one answer, Teads on the left and Taboola on the right.

The direct prompt

The plain question, one answer per model, grouped by where Teads and Taboola stood in it.

Teads first, Taboola not the choice

1 of 12 modelsTaboola was named in the answer but not as the choice, or not at all.
Claude Haiku 4.5Teads alternatives: AdRoll ABM, Demandbase, StackAdapt, ZoomInfo

Neither was the first choice, one was named

8 of 12 modelsThe answer put something else first and named one of the two as an alternative.
GPT-5.4 miniLinkedIn Sponsored Content alternatives: StackAdapt, Taboola, Teads
Gemini 3.5 FlashStackAdapt alternatives: AdRoll ABM, Dianomi, LinkedIn Sponsored Content, Taboola, Teads
Perplexity SonarStackAdapt alternatives: LinkedIn Ads/Campaign Manager, MGID, Nativo, Revcontent, Taboola, Teads
Grok 4.1 FastRevcontent alternatives: MGID, StackAdapt, Taboola
Mistral SmallStackAdapt alternatives: MGID, Revcontent, Teads
DeepSeek V4 FlashStackAdapt alternatives: MGID, Revcontent, Taboola, Teads
Qwen 3.7 FlashRevcontent alternatives: Nativo, StackAdapt, Teads
Kimi K2StackAdapt alternatives: AdRoll ABM, Revcontent, Teads

Neither was named

3 of 12 modelsThe answer made no first choice from these two in this category.
Llama 4 MaverickAbmatic AI alternatives: AdRoll ABM, Revcontent
GLM 4.7 FlashXStackAdapt alternatives: AdRoll ABM, Revcontent
MiniMax M2.5StackAdapt alternatives: AdRoll ABM, MGID, Revcontent

Bold names in an answer are the products the judge labeled a first choice; a model naming several gives each of them that label. The full answer text for every row is in the record.

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment and they are never added together. The figures above are the mid-market standing, which is the one the category orders by.
Small business
Taboola leads by four points.
Taboola8%#5 of 9
Teads4%#6 of 9
The full small business standing →
Mid-marketThe figures above
The order flips: Teads leads at mid-market.
Teads14%#3 of 8
Taboola11%#5 of 8
The full mid-market standing →
Enterprise
The order flips: Taboola leads at enterprise.
Taboola15%#2 of 10
Teads9%#4 of 10
The full enterprise standing →

What the models said about Teads

Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Six of eight in this category shown.

“Platforms to Avoid on a Tight Budget: Outbrain... Running ads with less than this often yields poor results.” Gemini 3.5 Flash · budget prompt · hard negative
“Avoid Taboola, Outbrain (now Teads), StackAdapt, and other premium platforms” DeepSeek V4 Flash · budget prompt · hard negative
“Avoid premium platforms (Taboola, Outbrain) until you validate ROAS” Grok 4.1 Fast · budget prompt · hard negative
“I'd recommend starting with Outbrain Engage for both native advertising and content recommendation widgets” Mistral Small · paraphrase prompt · first choice
“If I had to pick one default recommendation for B2B, I’d lean Outbrain for lead-gen/content-driven campaigns” GPT-5.4 mini · paraphrase prompt · first choice
“Teads offers a cleaner, more brand-safe user experience. It provides a full-funnel approach” Gemini 3.5 Flash · comparative prompt · first choice

What the models said about Taboola

Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Six of seven in this category shown.

“Many advertisers report 100% bot traffic with 100% bounce rates ... Rating: 2.7/5 on Trustpilot (rated "Poor")” GLM 4.7 FlashX · negative prompt · hard negative
“Avoid premium platforms (Taboola, Outbrain) until you validate ROAS” Grok 4.1 Fast · budget prompt · hard negative
“Outbrain and Taboola are the largest players, but evaluate whether their audience matches your target (they skew more consumer/publisher-focused)” Claude Haiku 4.5 · paraphrase prompt · soft negative
“Reach: 1.4 billion unique users/month across 10,000+ premium publishers - Strength: Largest content discovery platform by recommendation volume” Mistral Small · comparative prompt · first choice
“Taboola is the largest independent content discovery engine on the web... Unmatched Scale: Taboola offers massive reach” Gemini 3.5 Flash · comparative prompt · first choice
“Taboola and Outbrain are the most widely used... Taboola is the biggest of all the native advertising platforms” Claude Haiku 4.5 · comparative prompt · first choice
Also compared

Comparisons are drawn for the top eight products in each category, each against each. The output is the models' output; nothing here is a recommendation by the index.