# Financial modeling and scenario planning: what AI models recommend, November 2026

Gane Index, November 2026 Edition. Asked as "financial modeling software" and as "scenario planning tool for finance", six framings each, to fourteen models with search on, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/finance/planning/financial-modeling-and-scenario-planning

**Standing:** Microsoft Excel leads with 19% of first choices; verdict contested. 57 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| Rank | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [Microsoft Excel](https://www.gane.ai/index/finance/vendors/microsoft-excel/index.md) | 19% | 16% | 19 |
| 2 | [Datarails](https://www.gane.ai/index/finance/vendors/datarails/index.md) | 16% | 0% | 27 |
| 3 | [Google Sheets](https://www.gane.ai/index/finance/vendors/google-sheets/index.md) | 12% | 0% | 10 |
| 4 | [Pigment](https://www.gane.ai/index/finance/vendors/pigment/index.md) | 9% | 0% | 23 |
| 5 | [Workday Adaptive Planning](https://www.gane.ai/index/finance/vendors/workday-adaptive-planning/index.md) | 9% | 20% | 20 |
| 6 | [Prophix One](https://www.gane.ai/index/finance/vendors/prophix-one/index.md) | 7% | 0% | 14 |
| 7 | [Cube](https://www.gane.ai/index/finance/vendors/cube/index.md) | 5% | 0% | 26 |
| 10 | [Vena](https://www.gane.ai/index/finance/vendors/vena/index.md) | 2% | 5% | 22 |
| 11 | [Planful](https://www.gane.ai/index/finance/vendors/planful/index.md) | 2% | 5% | 21 |
| 12 | [Jirav](https://www.gane.ai/index/finance/vendors/jirav/index.md) | 2% | 13% | 15 |
| 104 | [Anaplan](https://www.gane.ai/index/finance/vendors/anaplan/index.md) | 0% | 60% | 25 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 104 products named; products with the same share are tied, and the order among them carries no meaning. The table lists those with at least 10 labels.

## Each model's first choice on the direct prompt

- Claude Haiku 4.5: Datarails; alternatives Cube, Drivetrain, Pigment, Planful
- GPT-5.4 mini: Pigment, Workday Adaptive Planning; alternatives Anaplan, Vena
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Mosaic; alternatives Cube, Datarails, Pigment, Vena
- Perplexity Sonar: Drivetrain; alternatives Abacum, Datarails, Limelight, Vena
- Grok 4.20: Datarails; alternatives Cube, Jirav, Quantrix Modeler
- Mistral Small: Datarails; alternatives Cube, Limelight, Vena
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Pigment; alternatives Aleph, Cube, Datarails, Prophix One
- Llama 4 Maverick: Aleph, Datarails, Limelight
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Datarails, Limelight; alternatives Aleph, Cube, Jedox, Vena
- Kimi K2: Cube, Datarails; alternatives Drivetrain, Jirav
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Datarails; alternatives OneStream, Pigment, Planful, Vena
- MiniMax M2.5: Workday Adaptive Planning; alternatives Cube, Vena
- GPT-6 Luna: Workday Adaptive Planning; alternatives Planful, Vena
- Muse Glimmer 30B: Datarails; alternatives Aleph, Cube, Limelight, Planful

## Sources the answers cite

67 of 84 answers came back with a source list, from 14 of 14 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- datarails.com: 24 answers, 34 citations
- getaleph.com: 15 answers, 22 citations
- fuelfinance.me: 15 answers, 17 citations
- reddit.com: 13 answers, 20 citations
- prophix.com: 12 answers, 20 citations
- golimelight.com: 12 answers, 16 citations
- abacum.ai: 10 answers, 15 citations
- centage.com: 10 answers, 11 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://datarails.com/blog/best-financial-modeling-software (24 answers)
- https://barchart.com/story/news/3006151/best (9 answers)
- https://fuelfinance.me/blog/financial-modeling-software (8 answers)
- https://golimelight.com/blog/best-financial-modeling-software (8 answers)
- https://autymate.com/blog/best-financial-modeling-software-in-2026-top-10-tools-with-pricing (7 answers)
- https://getaleph.com/answers/scenario-planning-software-finance-teams (7 answers)
- https://reddit.com/r/CFO/comments/1qq0m7e/what_scenario_planning_software_actually_works (7 answers)
- https://softwaresuggest.com/financial-modeling-software (7 answers)
- https://centage.com/product/scenario-planning (6 answers)
- https://hebbia.com/resources/best-financial-modeling-software (6 answers)

## Warned against

- Anaplan: 15 of 25 labels negative. "Skip These for a Mid-Sized B2B Company - Anaplan — Enterprise pricing (~$115K+) and 6+ month implementations are overkill" (DeepSeek V4 Flash, paraphrase prompt)
- Workday Adaptive Planning: 4 of 20 labels negative. "Skip enterprise platforms like Anaplan, OneStream, Oracle EPM, or Workday Adaptive Planning" (DeepSeek V4 Flash, budget prompt)
- OneStream: 3 of 5 labels negative. "Skip enterprise platforms like Anaplan, OneStream, Oracle EPM, or Workday Adaptive Planning" (DeepSeek V4 Flash, budget prompt)
- Microsoft Excel: 3 of 19 labels negative. "avoid for production models—use R, Python (pandas/statsmodels), or dedicated software like Stata/R for rigor" (Grok 4.20, negative prompt)

## Movement since October 2026

Floor: 10 points of share, measured on the calibration repeat.
Same leader: Microsoft Excel at 19%.

- Vena: 12% to 2%, −10. Cleared the floor by 0 points · rank 3 → 10 of 104.
- Pigment: 2% to 9%, +7. Inside the floor by 3 points · rank 15 → 4 of 104.
- Cube: 12% to 5%, −7. Inside the floor by 3 points · rank 2 → 7 of 104.
- Microsoft Excel: 14% to 19%, +5. Inside the floor by 5 points · rank 1 of 104, unchanged.
- Datarails: 11% to 16%, +5. Inside the floor by 5 points · rank 4 → 2 of 104.
- Mosaic: 0% to 4%, +4. Inside the floor by 6 points · rank 21 → 9 of 104.
- Drivetrain: 6% to 2%, −4. Inside the floor by 6 points · rank 6 → 16 of 104.
- Google Sheets: 9% to 12%, +3. Inside the floor by 7 points · rank 5 → 3 of 104.
- Workday Adaptive Planning: 6% to 9%, +3. Inside the floor by 7 points · rank 8 → 5 of 104.
- Abacum: 3% to 0%, −3. Inside the floor by 7 points · rank 10 → 23 of 104.
- Prophix One: 6% to 7%, +1. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 7 → 6 of 104.
- Planful: 3% to 2%, −1. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 9 → 11 of 104.

## Record

- Method: https://www.gane.ai/index/finance/methodology
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as Gane Index, November 2026 Edition, www.gane.ai/index/finance.