# The Trade Desk: how AI models rank it, September 2026

GTM AI Recommendation Index, September 2026 Edition. Named in 89 judge labels across 7 categories by 12 of 12 models. Page: https://gtm-ai-index.com/vendors/the-trade-desk/

## Standing by category

| Category | Share | Rank | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Programmatic and display advertising | 11% | 3 | 41% | 56 |
| Video advertising | 0% | 21 | 38% | 24 |
| Native and content advertising | 0% | 57 | 25% | 4 |
| Retail, proximity and IoT marketing | 0% | 128 | 100% | 2 |
| Channel partner and local marketing | 0% | 92 | 0% | 1 |
| Identity resolution | 0% | 117 | 0% | 1 |
| Search and social advertising platforms | 0% | 105 | 0% | 1 |

## What the models said for it

- "The Trade Desk is often a strong starting point because it excels at ABM, offers granular targeting, has competitive pricing with lower minimum commitments" (Claude Haiku 4.5, Programmatic)
- "The Trade Desk is the largest independent DSP on the market... champion of the "open web," offering unbiased attribution." (Gemini 3.5 Flash, Programmatic)
- "The Trade Desk and DV360 are the main choices when you want broad reach across many publishers and premium CTV." (Perplexity Sonar, Programmatic)
- "focus on platforms suited for $250K–$1.5M+ annual ad spend, like The Trade Desk, StackAdapt, DV360, or Amazon DSP" (Grok 4.1 Fast, Programmatic)

## And against it

- "Avoid DV360/Trade Desk/Amazon DSP: High mins ($25K–$50K/month), fees make them unviable below that." (Grok 4.1 Fast, Programmatic)
- "Avoid Demandbase or The Trade Desk unless your budget is comfortably into six figures annually" (Kimi K2, Programmatic)
- "Platforms to Avoid (for Mid-Market) | The Trade Desk | Requires ~$20K+/month minimum" (Kimi K2, Programmatic)
- "Avoid: Enterprise DSPs like The Trade Desk (minimum ~$20K/month)" (Kimi K2, Proximity)

## The company

Trade Desk; http://www.thetradedesk.com/; Ventura, United States; founded 2009; public, TTD on Nasdaq. From Wikidata, fetched 2026-09-14.

## Record

- Method: https://gtm-ai-index.com/methodology/
- Raw judge labels and full responses: https://gtm-ai-index.com/data/
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as GTM AI Recommendation Index, September 2026 Edition, gtm-ai-index.com.