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

Gane Index, November 2026 Edition. Named in 123 judge labels across 10 categories by 14 of 14 models. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/the-trade-desk

## Standing by category

| Category | Share | Rank | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| [Programmatic and display advertising](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/marketing/programmatic-and-display-advertising/index.md) | 7% | 4 | 33% | 54 |
| [Audio and podcast advertising](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/marketing/audio-and-podcast-advertising/index.md) | 2% | 7 | 13% | 15 |
| [Video advertising](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/marketing/video-advertising/index.md) | 2% | 8 | 29% | 31 |
| [Search and social advertising platforms](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/marketing/search-and-social-advertising-platforms/index.md) | 0% | 75 | 29% | 7 |
| [Native and content advertising](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/marketing/native-and-content-advertising/index.md) | 0% | 69 | 40% | 5 |
| [Retail media platforms](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/marketing/retail-media-platforms/index.md) | 0% | 108 | 25% | 4 |
| [Data management platforms](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/gtm-data/data-management-platforms/index.md) | 0% | 59 | 0% | 3 |
| [Identity resolution](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/gtm-data/identity-resolution/index.md) | 0% | 92 | 50% | 2 |
| [Channel partner and local marketing](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/partner/channel-partner-and-local-marketing/index.md) | 0% | 103 | 0% | 1 |
| [Mobile apps](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/marketing/mobile-apps/index.md) | 0% | 91 | 0% | 1 |

## What the models said for it

- "The Trade Desk is the clearest choice when an advertiser wants broad CTV, audio, and open-web access outside a single media ecosystem." (Perplexity Sonar, Programmatic)
- "Platforms with strong fraud protection (safer choices): The Trade Desk — Pre-bid filtering with IAS, DoubleVerify, and HUMAN Security" (DeepSeek V4 Flash, Programmatic)
- "Enterprise-Grade DSPs: *The Trade Desk, Google Display & Video 360 (DV360), Amazon DSP, Basis, StackAdapt, and Yahoo DSP*" (Gemini 3.5 Flash, Programmatic)
- "independents like The Trade Desk lead in transparency and CTV... for independence and CTV, go with The Trade Desk" (Grok 4.20, Programmatic)

## And against it

- "avoid purely small-business tools (e.g., basic AdEspresso) or ultra-enterprise ones (e.g., The Trade Desk) unless your ad spend is very high" (Grok 4.20, Paid ads)
- "Avoid for Limited Budgets ... Stick away from enterprise DSPs like The Trade Desk and Google DV360" (DeepSeek V4 Flash, Programmatic)
- "Avoid enterprise DSPs like The Trade Desk, Amazon DSP, or Criteo unless you have at least $10K–$50K/month" (Grok 4.20, Programmatic)
- "Platforms to Skip at Mid-Market - The Trade Desk / DV360 — powerful but built for enterprise budgets" (DeepSeek V4 Flash, Programmatic)

## By model

| Model | First choice | Alternative | Mention | Warning | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| GPT-5.4 mini | 2 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 9 |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | 2 | 0 | 4 | 7 | 13 |
| Perplexity Sonar | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 7 |
| Grok 4.20 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 17 |
| Mistral Small | 1 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 11 |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | 2 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 9 |
| Llama 4 Maverick | 0 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 5 |
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | 3 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 10 |
| Kimi K2 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 8 |
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | 1 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 9 |
| MiniMax M2.5 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 9 |
| GPT-6 Luna | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| Muse Glimmer 30B | 1 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 10 |

## Sources returned with these answers

The sites and pages cited by the answers that named The Trade Desk, from 351 of the 393 answers that named it (only the models that return a source list).

### Domains cited

- g2.com: 124
- demandbase.com: 123
- gane.ai/index: 98
- 6sense.com: 68
- heysid.com: 63
- guideflow.com: 58
- improvado.io: 58
- reddit.com: 53
- smartyads.com: 52
- stackadapt.com: 49

### Pages cited

- https://6sense.com/blog/best-b2b-programmatic-advertising-platforms: 64
- https://demandbase.com/blog/programmatic-advertising-platforms: 64
- https://improvado.io/blog/top-programmatic-platforms: 48
- https://magiclogix.com/theories/best-programmatic-platforms: 37
- https://smartyads.com/blog/programmatic-advertising-platforms: 36
- https://demandbase.com/blog/6-b2b-advertising-platforms-worth-considering-for-2026: 34
- https://demandbase.com/blog/best-ctv-advertising-platforms: 30
- https://influencermarketinghub.com/video-advertising/video-ad-platforms: 29

## The company

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

## In its own words

What The Trade Desk's own pages state, read 2026-09-28. Stated by the vendor, not checked by the index.

- Positioning: An objectively better way to advertise (https://thetradedesk.com/)
- For: advertisers (https://thetradedesk.com/)
- Customers named: Disney+ France, Spotify, Shokz, Jack Daniel’s, Tripadvisor, General Mills, Suzuki, Vileda

## What it publishes

Every page thetradedesk.com exposes, read 2026-09-29: 1022 addresses. By kind, pages and the last 90 days:

- blog: 335 pages, 1 in the last 90 days, latest 2026-09-09
- case study: 163 pages, 0 in the last 90 days, latest 2023-22-05
- webinar or virtual event: 7 pages, 0 in the last 90 days, latest 2025-17-11
- conference or event: 4 pages, 3 in the last 90 days, latest 2026-22-07
- report or ebook: 1 pages, 0 in the last 90 days, latest undated
- comparison: 2 pages, 0 in the last 90 days, latest 2022-11-05
- template or tool: 3 pages, 0 in the last 90 days, latest 2026-04-02
- glossary or explainer: 8 pages, 0 in the last 90 days, latest 2023-07-11
- podcast or video: 1 pages, 0 in the last 90 days, latest undated
- news or press: 243 pages, 8 in the last 90 days, latest 2026-09-06
- Recent: 2026-22-07 conference or event: The trade desk announces date of second quarter 2026 financial results and conference call https://www.thetradedesk.com/press-room/the-trade-desk-announces-date-of-second-quarter-2026-financial-results-and-conference-call
- Recent: 2026-22-04 conference or event: The trade desk announces date of first quarter 2026 financial results and conference call https://www.thetradedesk.com/press-room/the-trade-desk-announces-date-of-first-quarter-2026-financial-results-and-conference-call
- Recent: 2026-11-03 conference or event: Matthew henick at ctv world summit why tv os neutrality is the strategy for ventura https://www.thetradedesk.com/press-room/matthew-henick-at-ctv-world-summit-why-tv-os-neutrality-is-the-strategy-for-ventura
- Recent: 2026-09-09 blog: Instant intelligence nearly half of halloween shoppers start planning before october https://www.thetradedesk.com/insights/instant-intelligence-nearly-half-of-halloween-shoppers-start-planning-before-october
- Recent: 2026-09-06 news or press: Ventura tv os featured in tvrevs the tv os wars the battle for the living room https://www.thetradedesk.com/press-room/ventura-tv-os-featured-in-tvrevs-the-tv-os-wars-the-battle-for-the-living-room
- Recent: 2026-09-06 news or press: The trade desk appoints david haddad to board of directors https://www.thetradedesk.com/press-room/the-trade-desk-appoints-david-haddad-to-board-of-directors

## Record

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