GTM AI Index
September 2026 Edition · The permanent record of this edition. The unqualified address always carries the latest edition.
Index › Sales › Sales intel › Small business › September 2026 Edition

Sales intelligence and contact data for small business buyers

Asked as “B2B contact data and sales intelligence platform”, and as “B2B prospecting database”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 47 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
Apollo.io
Consensus
94% of first choices, consensus.
ShowinginAll 73 categories in the September 2026 Edition →

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.
Small businessApollo.io94%ConsensusThis pageMid-marketApollo.io76%Clear leaderStanding →EnterpriseZoomInfo67%Clear leaderStanding →

01The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a small B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Apollo.io94%9%69endorsed leader
02Lusha2%10%63accepted challenger
03Cognism2%40%35criticized challenger
Show the seven products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
10ZoomInfo0%83%58criticized challenger
096sense0%77%13criticized challenger
08Demandbase0%75%12criticized challenger
07Seamless.AI0%53%19criticized challenger
06RocketReach0%25%16criticized challenger
05LeadIQ0%7%15accepted challenger
04UpLead0%3%33accepted challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its vendor page.
Head to head
Apollo.io vs ZoomInfoApollo.io vs UpLeadZoomInfo vs UpLead

One product takes 94% of first choices here, so the chart would put nine 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. Six products carry a negative rate above 25% in this category. Jump to the standing

02What they warned about

Ten of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5 and MiniMax M2.5 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.
ZoomInfo
83%
48 of 58 labels negative · 11 of 12 models · 18 hard negative
“ZoomInfo — the biggest "contract trap" risk ... For most small teams, you'll pay more for data you could get cheaper elsewhere, and you risk getting locked into a renewal contract.” DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt
Cognism
40%
14 of 35 labels negative · 9 of 12 models · 5 hard negative
“**Why avoid:** Also enterprise-priced ($15,000+/yr) with minimal ROI for small businesses” MiniMax M2.5, negative prompt
6sense
77%
10 of 13 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 7 hard negative
“one guide explicitly says not to buy it without someone owning the platform most of the time” Perplexity Sonar, negative prompt
Seamless.AI
53%
10 of 19 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 7 hard negative
“it is one of the most complained-about platforms among small businesses... Deceptive Contract Lock-ins” Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt

03What they cite

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

Sites the answers cite

22 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 4 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 6 of those lists are Google grounding redirects that name no site and are left out of the counts. 184 links across 73 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page. The other 8 models searched through a gateway that returned no source list on this edition.

pipeline.zoominfo.com
vendor site · ZoomInfo9 answers · 13 citations · 2 models
salesmotion.io
vendor site · Salesmotion6 answers · 10 citations · 2 models
amplemarket.com
vendor site · Amplemarket6 answers · 7 citations · 2 models
salesgenie.com
vendor site · Salesgenie6 answers · 6 citations · 2 models
lusha.com
vendor site · Lusha5 answers · 11 citations · 2 models
apollo.io
vendor site · Apollo.io5 answers · 8 citations · 2 models
alpharun.com
4 answers · 4 citations · 2 models
bookyourdata.com
vendor site · BookYourData4 answers · 4 citations · 2 models
cleanlist.ai
vendor site · Cleanlist4 answers · 4 citations · 2 models
demandbase.com
vendor site · Demandbase4 answers · 4 citations · 1 model
monday.com
vendor site · Monday.com4 answers · 4 citations · 2 models
reddit.com
vendor site · Reddit4 answers · 4 citations · 1 model

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.

salesgenie.com/blog/top-b2b-contact-database-providers
5 answers · 2 models
alpharun.com/blog/sales-intelligence-tools
4 answers · 2 models
amplemarket.com/blog/best-sales-intelligence-platforms-2026
4 answers · 2 models
bookyourdata.com/blog/b2b-sales-intelligence-tools
4 answers · 2 models
monday.com/blog/crm-and-sales/sales-intelligence-tools
4 answers · 2 models
pipeline.zoominfo.com/sales/top-sales-intelligence-tools
4 answers · 2 models
brightdata.com/blog/web-data/best-b2b-data-providers
3 answers · 1 model
cleanlist.ai/blog/2026-04-20-best-b2b-contact-database-software
3 answers · 1 model
findymail.com/blog/best-b2b-contact-databases
3 answers · 1 model
kayako.com/blog/best-sales-intelligence-tools-b2b-contact-data
3 answers · 1 model

04How 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.
ModelDirect“What is the best B2B contact data and sales intelligence platform for a small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which B2B prospecting database would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top sales intelligence and contact data platforms for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best B2B contact data and sales intelligence platform for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating a B2B contact data and sales intelligence platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which sales intelligence and contact data platforms should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Apollo.io
Five alternativesCognism, D&B Hoovers, Lead411, LeadIQ, Lusha
Apollo.io, KasprChangedagainst: ZoomInfoApollo.io
Four alternativesClay, Cognism, Lusha, ZoomInfo
Apollo.io
Three alternativesBookYourData, Lead411, UpLead
no first choiceagainst: 6sense, Apollo.io, Lusha, SalesIntel, ZoomInfo
GPT-5.4 miniApollo.io
Three alternativesCognism, Lusha, UpLead
against: ZoomInfoApollo.ioHeld
Two alternativesCognism, Lusha
against: ZoomInfoApollo.io
Five alternativesCognism, Crunchbase, Lusha, Seamless.AI, ZoomInfo
Apollo.io
One alternativeLusha
against: Cognism, ZoomInfono first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashApollo.io
Five alternativesCognism, HubSpot Breeze Intelligence, Kaspr, Lusha, UpLead
against: ZoomInfoApollo.ioHeld
Two alternativesLusha, UpLead
against: Cognism, ZoomInfoApollo.io
Three alternativesClay, Lusha, UpLead
against: Cognism, ZoomInfoApollo.io
Two alternativesKaspr, UpLead
against: Cognism, ZoomInfoApollo.io
Three alternativesClay, Cognism, Lusha
against: ZoomInfoagainst: 6sense, Bombora, Demandbase, Seamless.AI, ZoomInfo
Perplexity SonarApollo.io
Three alternativesLusha, Saleshandy, Skrapp
Apollo.ioHeld
Four alternativesHunter, Lusha, Skrapp, Unify
against: ZoomInfoApollo.io
Four alternativesHunter, LeadIQ, Lusha, UpLead
against: Cognism, ZoomInfoApollo.io
Three alternativesLusha, Saleshandy Lead Finder, UpLead
no first choiceagainst: 6sense, Apollo.io, Demandbase, Gong, Seamless.AI, ZoomInfo
Grok 4.1 FastApollo.io
Two alternativesCognism, LinkedIn Sales Nav
against: ZoomInfoApollo.ioHeld
Two alternativesLusha, UpLead
against: ZoomInfoApollo.io
Four alternativesLeadIQ, Lusha, RocketReach, UpLead
against: Seamless.AI, ZoomInfoApollo.io
Four alternativesLead411, Lusha, Saleshandy Lead Finder, UpLead
against: ZoomInfoApollo.io, Cognism
One alternativeLusha
against: ZoomInfoagainst: 6sense, Cognism, Demandbase, SalesIntel, Seamless.AI, ZoomInfo
Mistral SmallApollo.io
Four alternativesKaspr, Lusha, Saleshandy, UpLead
Apollo.ioHeld
Three alternativesLusha, RocketReach, UpLead
Apollo.io
Four alternativesLeadIQ, Lusha, Salesmotion, Seamless.AI
against: 6sense, Cognism, Demandbase, Gong, ZoomInfoApollo.io
Two alternativesLusha, UpLead
Apollo.io
Five alternativesCraft.co, LeadIQ, Lusha, Seamless.AI, UpLead
against: ZoomInfoagainst: Lusha, RocketReach, SalesIntel, Seamless.AI, ZoomInfo
DeepSeek V4 FlashApollo.io
Two alternativesLusha, UpLead
against: 6sense, Cognism, Demandbase, ZoomInfoApollo.ioHeld
Four alternativesHunter, Lusha, Skrapp.io, UpLead
against: ZoomInfoApollo.io
Three alternativesClay, Lusha, UpLead
against: 6sense, Cognism, ZoomInfoApollo.io
Two alternativesLusha, Snov.io
against: ZoomInfoApollo.io
Three alternativesCognism, LeadIQ, Lusha
against: 6sense, Demandbase, ZoomInfoagainst: Apollo.io, Kaspr, Lusha, RocketReach, Seamless.AI, ZoomInfo
Llama 4 MaverickApollo.io
Three alternativesDealfront, Lusha, ZoomInfo
Apollo.ioHeld
Three alternativesLusha, Skrapp, ZoomInfo
Apollo.io
Three alternativesHunter, Lusha, Salesmotion
Apollo.io
Three alternativesDealfront, LeadIQ, Saleshandy
no first choicenothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashApollo.io
Three alternativesLusha, RocketReach, UpLead
against: ZoomInfoApollo.ioHeld
Two alternativesLusha, RocketReach
against: ZoomInfoApollo.io
Two alternativesAmplemarket, Lusha
against: ZoomInfoApollo.io
One alternativeLusha
against: UpLead, ZoomInfoApollo.io
One alternativeLusha
against: ZoomInfoagainst: Apollo.io, RocketReach, ZoomInfo
Kimi K2Apollo.io
Two alternativesCognism, Lusha
against: ZoomInfoApollo.ioHeld
One alternativeLusha
against: ZoomInfoApollo.io
Three alternativesLeadIQ, Lusha, RocketReach
against: 6sense, Demandbase, Seamless.AI, ZoomInfoApollo.io
Three alternativesHunter, Lusha, Saleshandy Lead Finder
against: Cognism, LeadIQ, ZoomInfoApollo.io
Two alternativesLusha, UpLead
against: ZoomInfoagainst: Apollo.io, Lusha, RocketReach, Seamless.AI, ZoomInfo
GLM 4.7 FlashXApollo.io
Two alternativesLusha, Seamless.AI
against: Cognism, ZoomInfoApollo.ioHeld
One alternativeLusha
against: Cognism, ZoomInfoApollo.io
Three alternativesLeadIQ, Lusha, Seamless.AI
Apollo.io
Three alternativesLusha, RocketReach, UpLead
Apollo.io
Three alternativesCognism, LeadIQ, Lusha
against: Apollo.io, Cognism, Demandbase, Lusha, Seamless.AI, ZoomInfo
MiniMax M2.5Apollo.io
One alternativeAmplemarket
against: ZoomInfoApollo.io, LushaChangedApollo.io
Four alternativesLinkedIn Sales Navigator, Lusha, Salesmotion, UpLead
against: 6sense, Demandbase, ZoomInfoApollo.ioagainst: ZoomInfoApollo.io
Two alternativesCognism, ZoomInfo
against: Cognism, LinkedIn Sales Nav, Lusha, Seamless.AI, ZoomInfo
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

05The 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
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 05:07yes79 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 03:51yes55 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 03:51yes2024 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 01:09yes205 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 00:23yes06 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 04:42yes06 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 02:51yes028 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 04:27yes02 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 23:28yes027 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 00:48yes027 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 03:54yes053 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 01:43yes016 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 01:24yes67 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 02:20yes35 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 04:59yes717 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 04:32yes205 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 02:13yes06 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 03:42yes04 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 02:38yes041 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 02:12yes02 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 23:55yes034 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 01:59yes019 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 02:53yes030 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 03:27yes011 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 03:45yes710 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 03:05yes57 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 04:29yes1827 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 04:39yes2021 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 04:35yes017 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 04:05yes09 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-14 23:01yes024 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 02:45yes02 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 23:42yes025 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 00:06yes038 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 01:24yes076 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 02:55yes016 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 03:32yes89 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 03:15yes45 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 00:45yes1724 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 03:09yes206 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 03:03yes08 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 02:02yes07 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 00:04yes037 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 04:34yes02 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 04:27yes028 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 01:54yes0167 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 03:18yes038 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 03:10yes027 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-14 23:40no07 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 01:19no07 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-14 23:25yes1423 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 02:35yes209 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 03:33yes07 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 04:28no06 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-14 23:38yes027 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 02:44yes02 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 23:22yes040 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 03:03yes042 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 01:15yes027 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 03:30yes017 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-14 23:50yes1410 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 02:49yes56 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 02:21yes2322 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 03:19yes207 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-14 23:35yes07 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 02:17yes015 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 02:52yes030 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 02:29yes01 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 03:57yes049 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 03:30yes057 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 23:07yes055 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 05:00yes020 s

Normalization in this category

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

Category-scoped readings
None. Every name in this category resolved on its own.
Unresolved, counted raw
Craft.co
Lessie
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.

Also in sales

The other categories of this function, with the leader in each.
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