September 2026 Edition, published · The permanent record of that edition, superseded since. The current standing is on the category page →
Index › Finance › Spend and procurement › Corporate cards › Small business · September 2026 Edition

Corporate cards for small business buyers

Asked as “corporate card program”, and as “business credit card with spend controls”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 42 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing · first-choice share
74%
Clear leader
74Ramp07BILL Spend & Expense07Capital One Spark Cash Plus12others

74% of first choices, clear leader.

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 twelve models, for a small B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Ramp74%7%60endorsed leader
02BILL Spend & Expense7%0%39accepted challenger
03Airwallex5%0%12accepted challenger
04Brex2%23%56accepted challenger
Show the two products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
06American Express Corporate Card0%26%19criticized challenger
05Rho0%0%14accepted challenger
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.
Head to headHead-to-head pages are published for mid-market buyers, so these open on mid-market figures, not small business.
All fifteen head-to-head pages: the top six products, each against each

One product takes 74% of first choices here, so the chart would put five 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 twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash and Kimi K2 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.
Brex
23%
13 of 56 labels negative · 9 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“If you are a traditional or bootstrapped small business, avoid fintech platforms built heavily around venture-capital-funded models.” Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt
American Express Corporate Card
26%
5 of 19 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“Avoid "Traditional" Bank Cards: Most major banks (Chase, Amex, Capital One) charge annual fees” Qwen 3.7 Flash, budget prompt
Ramp
7%
4 of 60 labels negative · 4 of 12 models
“Some newer SaaS corporate card programs (like Ramp) require businesses to maintain substantial cash balances in a U.S. bank account, which may not be feasible for all small businesses.” Mistral Small, negative prompt
WEX
100%
3 of 3 labels negative · 3 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“WEX: Currently holding very low ratings (e.g., ~1.4/5 stars on Trustpilot), users frequently cite frustration with inaccessible customer service” Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt

What they cite

Twelve of the twelve models returned a source list in this edition: four return the pages they cited and eight the search results they consulted.

Sites the answers cite

65 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 12 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 1010 links across 207 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

43 answers · 79 citations · 10 models
vendor site · Rippling33 answers · 53 citations · 10 models
32 answers · 47 citations · 10 models
vendor site · Ramp31 answers · 66 citations · 11 models
vendor site · Brex26 answers · 47 citations · 8 models
21 answers · 21 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Airwallex20 answers · 21 citations · 8 models
vendor site · Expensify20 answers · 21 citations · 11 models
17 answers · 20 citations · 10 models
16 answers · 21 citations · 8 models
vendor site · Payhawk16 answers · 16 citations · 9 models
vendor site · ITILITE15 answers · 16 citations · 7 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 corporate card program”, “corporate card program”, “corporate card programs”. 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
Ramp ramp.com74%916246,00049,733770,056$13,5111202
BILL bill.com
BILL Spend & Expense 7%
7%3312,740,0001,063,0011,783,039 company$199,231119
Capital One Spark capitalone.com
Capital One Spark Cash Plus 7%, Capital One Business Cards 0%, Capital One Spark 1% Classic 0%, Capital One Spark Cash Select 0% and 1 more
7%92,4001222,535,395 company$64,35399
Airwallex airwallex.com5%26027,100416420,414$56,832452
Brex brex.com2%52460,5001,190328,914$12,238811
Chase chase.com
Chase Ink Business Unlimited 2%, Chase Ink Business Preferred 0%, Chase Ink Business Cash 0%
2%66,120,000327,91852,427,131 company$69,752119
U.S. Bank Triple Cash Rewards Visa® Business Card usbank.com2%21,547,254$38,387524
Rho rho.co0%15274,0007,366182,562$4162
Mercury mercury.com0%182368,000130,988301,244$284,81125
Rippling rippling.com
Rippling Spend 0%
0%124301,00017,886712,399 company$42,013115

Google's top ten for the three searches hold 20 sites; 5 of them are among the sites the models cited here (airwallex.com, brex.com, ramp.com, reddit.com, use.expensify.com). The first result for “best corporate card program” is brex.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 corporate card program for a small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which business credit card with spend controls would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top corporate card programs for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best corporate card program for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating a corporate card program. What should we look at?”Negative“Which corporate card programs should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5no first choiceBrex, RampChanged
One alternativeU.S. Bank Triple Cash Rewards Visa® Business Card
Ramp
Three alternativesAirwallex, Rho, Rippling Spend
against: Brex
BILL Spend & Expense
Three alternativesAmerican Express Blue Business Cash, Chase Ink Business Unlimited, Ramp
no first choiceagainst: Brex
GPT-5.4 miniRamp
Three alternativesAmerican Express Corporate Card, Brex, Expensify
Capital One Spark Cash PlusChanged
Two alternativesBrex, Ramp
Ramp
Three alternativesAirbase, American Express Business cards, Brex
Ramp
One alternativeAmerican Express Corporate Purchasing Card
against: Amex Corporate Platinum, Corporate Gold Card, Corporate Green Card
no first choiceagainst: American Express Corporate Card, Stripe Corporate Card
Gemini 3.5 FlashRamp
Five alternativesAirwallex, American Express Business Gold, BILL Spend & Expense, Brex, Chase Ink Business Preferred
RampHeld
Three alternativesAirwallex, BILL Spend & Expense, Brex
Ramp
Five alternativesAirwallex, American Express Corporate Card, BILL Spend & Expense, Brex, Chase Ink
BILL Spend & Expense, Ramp
Two alternativesAmerican Express Blue Business Cash, Chase Ink Business Unlimited
against: Brex
Ramp
Three alternativesAirwallex, BILL Spend & Expense, Wise Business
against: American Express Corporate Card, Chase
against: American Express Business Platinum, Brex, Capital One Spark, Ramp
Perplexity SonarRamp
Four alternativesAirwallex, American Express Corporate Card, BILL Spend & Expense, Brex
RampHeld
One alternativeCapital on Tap
Ramp
Four alternativesBILL Spend & Expense, Brex, Rho, Rippling Spend
U.S. Bank Triple Cash Rewards Visa® Business Card
Three alternativesChase Ink Business Unlimited, Ramp, Rippling Spend
against: Brex
no first choicenothing named
Grok 4.20Ramp
Three alternativesBILL Spend & Expense, Brex, Rho
RampHeld
Three alternativesBILL Spend & Expense, Brex, Capital One Spark Cash Plus
BILL Spend & Expense, Ramp
One alternativeRho
against: American Express Business Gold, Brex
Ramp
Three alternativesBILL Spend & Expense, Chase Ink Business Unlimited, Rho
against: Brex
Ramp
Three alternativesBILL Spend & Expense, Brex, Rho
against: American Express Corporate Card, J.P. Morgan Commercial Cards
against: AXIS, American Express Blue Business Plus, Amex Corporate Platinum, Brex, Capital One Spark Cash Plus, Chase Ink, Corpay, HDFC, ICICI, Ramp, WEX
Mistral SmallRamp
Two alternativesBrex, Mercury
RampHeld
One alternativeBrex
Ramp
Five alternativesBILL Spend & Expense, Brex, Expensify, Rho, Rippling Spend
Ramp
One alternativeBILL Spend & Expense
no first choiceagainst: Brex, Ramp
DeepSeek V4 FlashRamp
Two alternativesBILL Spend & Expense, Brex
RampHeld
Three alternativesBILL Spend & Expense, Brex, Chase Ink Business Preferred
against: American Express Blue Business Plus
Ramp
Five alternativesBILL Spend & Expense, Brex, Mercury, Navan, Rho
Ramp
Two alternativesBILL Spend & Expense, Chase Ink Business Cash
Ramp
Three alternativesBILL Spend & Expense, Brex, Rippling Spend
against: American Express Corporate Card, Chase Ink
against: American Express Business Platinum, Bank of America Business Advantage, Brex, Capital One Spark Cash Plus, CorTrust Bank Visa Business Credit Card, First PREMIER Bank, Ramp, U.S. Bank business cards
Llama 4 MaverickRampBILL Spend & ExpenseChangedRamp
Four alternativesAirwallex, BILL Spend & Expense, Brex, Rho
Ramp
Two alternativesBILL Spend & Expense, Expensify
no first choicenothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashRamp
Three alternativesAirwallex, American Express Corporate Card, Brex
Capital One Spark Cash PlusChanged
Two alternativesAmerican Express Corporate Card, Brex
Ramp
Two alternativesBILL Spend & Expense, Brex
Ramp
One alternativeBILL Spend & Expense
against: American Express Corporate Card, Brex, Capital One, Chase
no first choiceagainst: Citi Commercial Cards, Corpay, WEX, Wells Fargo
Kimi K2Ramp
Two alternativesBrex, Mercury
Capital One Spark Cash PlusChanged
Five alternativesAmerican Express Business Gold, Brex, Chase Ink Business Preferred, Mercury, Ramp
Ramp
Three alternativesBILL Spend & Expense, Brex, Rho
Ramp
Two alternativesBILL Spend & Expense, Brex
Ramp
Two alternativesBrex, Mercury
against: American Express Business Gold, Brex, Capital One Spark Cash Plus
GLM 4.7 FlashXRamp
Two alternativesAmerican Express Corporate Card, Brex
RampHeld
Two alternativesBrex, Mercury
Ramp
Five alternativesAirwallex, American Express Corporate Card, BILL Spend & Expense, Brex, Rho
Airwallex
Three alternativesBILL Spend & Expense, Ramp, Rho
against: Brex
no first choiceagainst: Atlantica, Bread, Citi Commercial Cards, Credit One, First Progress, Indigo Card, J.P. Morgan Commercial Cards, Luxury Card, Mission Lane, OpenSky, Petal, Premier Bank, Synchrony, WEX
MiniMax M2.5Ramp
Two alternativesBrex, Capital One Spark Miles
RampHeld
Three alternativesAmerican Express Business Platinum, Brex, Capital One Spark Cash Plus
Ramp
Three alternativesAirbase, BILL Spend & Expense, Brex
Airwallex, Chase Ink Business Unlimited
Three alternativesAmerican Express Blue Business Plus, Capital One Spark 1% Classic, Ramp
no first choicenothing named
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.
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 18:47no05 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:29yes35 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 21:17yes1654 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 18:45yes205 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 17:53yes4519 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:22yes149 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 20:03yes3035 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 19:58yes52 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 18:54no029 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 18:38yes1329 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 20:48yes1982 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 18:22no058 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 20:41yes187 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 19:44yes57 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 19:28yes1923 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 18:57yes205 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 19:05yes3016 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 21:02yes1710 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 18:57yes2740 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 21:01yes53 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 18:44no028 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 20:10yes1851 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 19:17yes25170 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 17:55yes945 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 20:11yes159 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 18:13yes57 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:58yes1022 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 18:05yes209 s
ComparativeGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 20:20yes4317 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:36yes56 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 20:17yes2424 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 18:24yes53 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 18:51yes1433 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:57yes1058 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 20:59yes1057 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 21:01yes518 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 20:38yes98 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 21:04yes25 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 21:57yes1256 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 20:33yes205 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 20:37yes2917 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 20:48yes54 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-17 20:03yes3036 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 20:46yes64 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 19:18yes1031 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 18:37yes1334 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:10yes919 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 20:29yes829 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 18:55no07 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 18:30no06 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 19:36yes1319 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 20:08yes208 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 20:10yes1311 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:58no05 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 19:14yes1018 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 18:50yes54 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 18:07yes528 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:11yes1540 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 19:25yes1534 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 18:51yes521 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 20:41yes178 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:58yes510 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 19:00yes2030 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 19:46yes208 s
Negative framingGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 19:26yes4117 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 18:04yes55 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 21:09yes2923 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 18:29yes53 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 19:06yes1034 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 18:26yes3035 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 17:57yes26107 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 20:29yes2432 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
American Express read as American Express Corporate Card
American Express (Amex) read as American Express Corporate Card
American Express Business read as American Express Corporate Card
American Express Business Platinum Card read as American Express Business Platinum
Amex read as American Express Corporate Card
Amex Business read as American Express Corporate Card
Citi read as Citi Commercial Cards
Divvy read as BILL Spend & Expense
Divvy (BILL Spend & Expense) read as BILL Spend & Expense
JPMorgan read as J.P. Morgan Commercial Cards
JPMorgan Chase read as J.P. Morgan Commercial Cards
Rippling read as Rippling Spend
Stripe read as Stripe Corporate Card
Unresolved, counted raw
AXIS
Bread (formerly Comenity)
Capital on Tap
Corporate Gold Card
Corporate Green Card
Expensify Visa Commercial Card
First PREMIER Bank
First Progress
HDFC
ICICI
Slash Platinum Visa® Card
U.S. Bank business cards
US Bank Leverage Business Credit Card
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
← Contractor paymentsCorporate travel managem →