AI Indexes
GTM AI Index
October 2026 Edition · The permanent record of this edition. The unqualified address always carries the latest edition.
Index › Revenue operations › October 2026 Edition

Billing and subscription management

Asked as “subscription billing platform”, and as “recurring billing and subscription management tool”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. 48 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, fourteen models each.
Standing · first-choice share
60%
Clear leader
60Chargebee15Stripe Billing12Maxio12others

60% of first choices, clear leader.

Since September 2026▲+2Since September 2026: 60% → 62%, +2 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.Chargebee held the lead, +2 points on 60%, inside the 11-point floor.

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.

The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all fourteen models, for a mid-market B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrantSince September 2026
01Chargebee60%17%65endorsed leader▲+2Since September 2026: 60% → 62%, +2 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.60% → 62%
02Stripe Billing15%15%61accepted challenger▼−8Since September 2026: 20% → 12%, −8 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.20% → 12%
03Maxio12%12%40accepted challenger▲+12Since September 2026: 0% → 12%, +12 points. Past the 11-point floor: movement. Read over the models both editions asked.0% → 12%
04Zoho Billing4%0%11accepted challenger▼−1Since September 2026: 6% → 5%, −1 point. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.6% → 5%
Show the four products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
08Zuora0%50%38criticized challenger▼−2Since September 2026: 2% → 0%, −2 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.2% → 0%
05Recurly0%14%43accepted challenger▼−2Since September 2026: 2% → 0%, −2 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.2% → 0%
06Paddle0%14%29accepted challenger=heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.0% → 0%
07Metronome0%10%10accepted challenger=heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.0% → 0%

The floor is 11 points of share, measured: how far the models move a leader on their own when the same questions are asked twice with nothing changed. A larger change is movement; a smaller one is noise, and both are shown. Movement is read over the twelve models both editions asked; GPT-6 Luna, Muse Glimmer 30B joined this edition and are in the standing but not yet in the comparison. How the floor is measured

Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its product page.
All six head-to-head pages: the top four products, each against each

One product takes 60% of first choices here, so the chart would put seven markers in one corner and one at the far edge. The two measurements it plots are columns in the standing above: share, and the negative label rate. One product carries a negative rate above 25% in this category.

What they warned about

Seven of fourteen models held their first choice under the paraphrase. GPT-5.4 mini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity Sonar, Mistral Small, Llama 4 Maverick, MiniMax M2.5 and GPT-6 Luna changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
Zuora
50%
19 of 38 labels negative · 10 of 14 models · 4 hard negative
“Unless you have a massive IT department and six figures to spend on integration consultants, avoid Zuora.” Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt
Chargebee
17%
11 of 65 labels negative · 10 of 14 models · 2 hard negative
“Chargebee — Highest number of recurring complaints ... the most consistent negative feedback across user review sites.” DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt
Stripe Billing
15%
9 of 61 labels negative · 7 of 14 models
“Stripe Billing is excellent for developers, but it is often advised that non-technical companies or those with complex finance needs avoid building their stack solely on top of it.” Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt
Recurly
14%
6 of 43 labels negative · 6 of 14 models
“Recurly is a strong tool technically, but it is known for aggressive sales tactics and opaque pricing structures.” Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt

What they cite

Citations exist only for the models that return a source list: fourteen of the fourteen in this edition, and all six flagship models on the expanded tier.

Sites the answers cite

76 of 84 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 14 of 14 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 1022 links across 223 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page. 2 of the 252 answers across every segment cited this index's own page for the category; the method page measures whether that reading tilts an answer.

vendor site · Younium30 answers · 35 citations · 12 models
vendor site · Rework27 answers · 36 citations · 9 models
27 answers · 27 citations · 10 models
25 answers · 50 citations · 12 models
vendor site · Guideflow24 answers · 30 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Solvimon23 answers · 25 citations · 11 models
vendor site · Solidgate23 answers · 23 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Maxio22 answers · 28 citations · 7 models
vendor site · Hyperline22 answers · 27 citations · 9 models
21 answers · 27 citations · 12 models
19 answers · 25 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Chargebee19 answers · 23 citations · 8 models

Pages the answers cite

The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.

Search against answers

Each company's standing in the answers beside its site's footprint in Google search, one row a site: the products the models named on it with their shares, and the share they add up to; monthly searches on Google, and DataForSEO's estimate of AI search demand (modeled from search signals, directional, not a count of queries to any assistant), for the most-searched of the company's and its products' names (the name is in each row's hover text); estimated monthly organic visits to the site; and its best position in Google's top ten for “best subscription billing platform”, “subscription billing platform”. US estimates from DataForSEO and Google's Ads Transparency Center. A small company's site, or a mid-sized company's site for its flagship, is marked company; a product on a large parent's site (Google, Microsoft) has no site figures. A column with no figures for this category is left out, and an empty cell means none were seen, not none exist. Two measurements side by side: neither is read as the cause of the other.
Company and productsShareOwn site citedName searches, GoogleAI search demand, est.Organic visitsPaid search a month, est.Google ads, last 30 daysBest Google position
Chargebee chargebee.com60%1805,40014069,891$1,889827
Stripe stripe.com
Stripe Billing 15%, Stripe 2%
17%166823,000102,7413,226,782$3,6211021
Maxio maxio.com12%1052,4004932,891$51859
Zoho parent site
Zoho Billing 4%
4%4118,10029
Younium younium.com4%2011001,70011
Wave wave.video2%50368,000253,21854,9261
Recurly recurly.com0%1223,60010522,718$12,207172
Paddle paddle.com0%8460,50069,116172,07931
Billsby billsby.com0%2717011,447
Lemon Squeezy lemonsqueezy.com0%269,9004197,1740

Google's top ten for the two searches hold 16 sites; 4 of them are among the sites the models cited here (chargebee.com, solidgate.com, withorb.com, zoneandco.com). The first result for “best subscription billing platform” is salesforce.com.

How they answered

Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
ShowHide
ModelDirect“What is the best subscription billing platform for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which recurring billing and subscription management tool would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top subscription billing platforms and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best subscription billing platform for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating a subscription billing platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which subscription billing platforms should I avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Chargebee
Two alternativesMaxio, Stax Bill
ChargebeeHeld
Two alternativesMaxio, Recurly
no first choiceagainst: Stripe BillingZoho Billing
Two alternativesBillsby, FreshBooks
no first choiceagainst: Maxio, Patreon, PayPal's subscription services, Stripe Billing
GPT-5.4 miniChargebee, Maxio
Two alternativesRecurly, Stripe Billing
against: Zuora
ChargebeeChanged
Two alternativesRecurly, Stripe Billing
no first choiceStripe Billing
Two alternativesPaddle, Zoho Billing
against: Chargebee, Recurly
no first choiceagainst: 2Checkout / Verifone, Altegio, Chargebee, Recharge
Gemini 3.5 FlashChargebee
Five alternativesHyperline, Maxio, Solvimon, Stripe Billing, ZoneBilling
against: Metronome
Chargebee, MaxioChanged
Two alternativesPaddle, Stripe Billing
no first choice
Six alternativesChargebee, Maxio, Paddle, Recurly, Stripe Billing, Zuora
Chargebee
Four alternativesHelcim, Lemon Squeezy, Paddle, Zoho Billing
against: Stripe
no first choice
Seven alternativesChargebee, Maxio, Metronome, Orb, Recurly, Solvimon, Stripe Billing
against: Zuora
against: Chargebee, Chargify, Lemon Squeezy, Maxio, Paddle, Stripe Billing, Zuora
Perplexity SonarChargebee
Two alternativesMaxio, Younium
against: Zuora
MaxioChanged
Two alternativesStripe Billing, Zuora
no first choice
Seven alternativesChargebee, Maxio, Orb, Paddle, Recurly, Stripe Billing, Zuora
Zoho Billing
Three alternativesBillsby, Helcim, Stripe Billing
no first choiceagainst: Braintree, Chargebee, Recurly, Stripe Billing, Zuora
Grok 4.1 FastChargebee
Two alternativesMaxio, Stripe Billing
against: Zuora
ChargebeeHeld
Three alternativesMaxio, Recurly, Stripe Billing
against: Zuora
Stripe Billing
Five alternativesChargebee, Maxio, Paddle, Recurly, Zuora
Stripe Billing
Three alternativesChargebee, Wave, Zoho Billing
Chargebee
Four alternativesMaxio, Recurly, Stripe Billing, Zuora
against: Chargebee, FastSpring, Paddle, Zuora
Mistral SmallChargebee
One alternativeStripe Billing
against: Zuora
no first choiceChangedno first choiceStripe Billing
Two alternativesBillsby, Wave
no first choiceagainst: FastSpring
DeepSeek V4 FlashChargebee
Two alternativesMaxio, Stripe Billing
against: Zuora
ChargebeeHeld
Three alternativesMaxio, Recurly, Stripe Billing
against: Zuora
no first choiceagainst: ZuoraChargebee
Three alternativesBillsby, Paddle, Stripe Billing
no first choiceagainst: Chargebee, Maxio, Paddle.com, Recurly, Zuora
Llama 4 MaverickChargebee
One alternativeOrdway
YouniumChanged
Two alternativesOneBill, SubscriptionFlow
no first choiceChargebee
Two alternativesPabbly, Stripe Billing
no first choicenothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashChargebee
Two alternativesMaxio, Stripe Billing
against: Zuora
ChargebeeHeld
One alternativeRecurly
against: Zuora
no first choice
Six alternativesChargebee, Orb, Paddle, Recurly, Stripe Billing, Zuora
Stripe
Three alternativesGoCardless, Lemon Squeezy, Zoho Billing
no first choiceagainst: Chargebee, Paddle, Recurly, Stripe Billing
Kimi K2Chargebee
Four alternativesMaxio, Paddle, Recurly, Stripe Billing
ChargebeeHeld
One alternativeMaxio
against: Recurly, Stripe Billing
no first choiceChargebee
Three alternativesBillsby, PayPal Invoicing, Stripe Billing
Maxio, Younium
Three alternativesChargebee, Ordway, Recurly
against: Stripe Billing
against: Chargebee, Maxio
GLM 4.7 FlashXChargebee
Three alternativesMaxio, Recurly, Stripe Billing
against: Zuora
ChargebeeHeld
Three alternativesRecurly, Stripe Billing, SubscriptionFlow
against: OneBill
Stripe Billing
Four alternativesChargebee, Paddle, Recurly, Zuora
Stripe Billing
Six alternativesAppstle Subscriptions, Chargebee, Gumroad, Lemon Squeezy, PayWhirl, Zoho Billing
no first choiceagainst: Google Payments, Recharge Subscriptions, SAP Subscription Billing, SubscriptionFlow, Substack
MiniMax M2.5Chargebee
Two alternativesMaxio, Younium
Chargebee, MaxioChanged
Two alternativesRecurly, Zuora
no first choiceStripe Billing, Wave
One alternativeBold
no first choiceagainst: Chargebee, Doxo
GPT-6 LunaChargebee
Two alternativesMaxio, Stripe Billing
against: Zuora
MaxioChanged
Two alternativesChargebee, Stripe Billing
Stripe Billing
Five alternativesChargebee, Maxio, Paddle, Recurly, Zuora
Stripe Billing
Two alternativesChargebee for Startups, Paddle
no first choiceagainst: Chargebee, Paddle, Stripe Billing, Zuora
Muse Glimmer 30BChargebee
Four alternativesMaxio, Recurly, Stripe Billing, Zuora
ChargebeeHeld
Three alternativesMaxio, Recurly, SubscriptionFlow
against: Zuora
Chargebee, Recurly
Four alternativesMaxio, Paddle, Stripe Billing, Zuora
Stripe Billing
Five alternativesBillsby, Chargebee, Lemon Squeezy, Paddle, Zoho Billing
no first choiceagainst: Chargebee, Maxio, Recurly, Stripe Billing
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency. Full answer text is in the free responses file. Download the record
Eighty-four rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 09:18yes99 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 11:05yes34 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 08:05yes1019 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 13:39yes203 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 13:51yes2411 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 09:04yes108 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 07:59yes2030 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 10:03yes51 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 10:06yes1030 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 10:43yes1823 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 11:31yes1882 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 13:43yes1121 s
Direct recommendationGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-01 09:43yes412 s
Direct recommendationMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-01 12:49yes1524 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 08:29yes1714 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 12:52yes37 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 12:54yes1221 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 10:03yes204 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 08:32yes257 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 11:16no01 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 08:31yes2429 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 13:11yes53 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 13:28yes1331 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 08:19yes2020 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 11:10yes1047 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 10:03yes925 s
ParaphraseGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-01 11:56yes318 s
ParaphraseMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-01 09:48yes1515 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 13:11yes97 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 10:39yes56 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 13:55yes620 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 11:55yes204 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 08:34yes197 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 10:40yes58 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 08:47yes2537 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 10:34yes51 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 08:37yes523 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 11:43yes1524 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 07:45yes1915 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 07:44yes513 s
ComparativeGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-01 12:17yes621 s
ComparativeMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-01 09:50yes1331 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 12:33yes97 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 08:03no03 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 10:02yes2324 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 11:10yes204 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 11:25yes2512 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 08:48yes59 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 09:50yes2518 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 11:53yes51 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 12:15no027 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 08:19yes1014 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 10:49yes2271 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 10:43yes522 s
Budget constrainedGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-01 08:01yes316 s
Budget constrainedMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-01 08:19yes1536 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 11:33no07 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 08:06no09 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 08:51yes1227 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 12:37yes196 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 07:55yes147 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 12:35no010 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 14:14yes2479 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 07:37yes52 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 09:59no032 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 09:43yes1035 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 11:19yes1432 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 08:16no09 s
Scale constrainedGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-01 13:52yes218 s
Scale constrainedMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-01 11:09yes1419 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 12:20yes188 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 09:08yes55 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 13:43yes2026 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 07:48yes193 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 14:02yes2521 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 10:19yes54 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 12:03yes2575 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 09:53yes53 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 10:49yes2542 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 09:44yes2422 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 10:35yes2386 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 10:38yes1830 s
Negative framingGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-01 11:06yes418 s
Negative framingMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-01 14:13yes1523 s

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

ShowHide
Category-scoped readings
PayPal read as PayPal Subscriptions
Unresolved, counted raw
Altegio
Chargebee for Startups
Doxo
GoCardless
Google Payments (payments.google.com)
Paddle.com
PayPal's subscription services
Recharge Subscriptions
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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