# Lightcast Open Skills: how AI models rank it, November 2026

Gane Index, November 2026 Edition. Named in 18 judge labels across 1 category by 12 of 14 models. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/lightcast-open-skills

## Standing by category

| Category | Share | Rank | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| [Skills intelligence](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/performance/skills-intelligence/index.md) | 9% | 5 | 11% | 18 |

## What the models said for it

- "my default for a mid-sized B2B company would be Lightcast as the external reference taxonomy, with a small company-specific layer" (GPT-6 Luna, Skills intelligence)
- "Skills taxonomy: Lightcast Open Skills as the reference taxonomy, customized to your roles and terminology." (Perplexity Sonar, Skills intelligence)
- "Best Overall for Data & API-First Integration: Lightcast (Skills API & Open Taxonomy)" (Gemini 3.5 Flash, Skills intelligence)
- "Recommended Skills Taxonomy: Lightcast Skills Taxonomy" (Kimi K2, Skills intelligence)

## And against it

- "Avoid These if Budget is a Constraint ... Lightcast ... priced via quote only and typically target enterprises" (DeepSeek V4 Flash, Skills intelligence)
- "Avoid for mid-market: ... or Lightcast—they're often overkill" (Grok 4.20, Skills intelligence)

## By model

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

## Sources returned with these answers

The sites and pages cited by the answers that named Lightcast Open Skills, from 39 of the 43 answers that named it (only the models that return a source list).

### Domains cited

- marketintelligencetools.com: 23
- gane.ai/index: 18
- disprz.ai: 17
- github.com: 12
- techwolf.ai: 11
- hrtechsaas.com: 10
- muchskills.com: 10
- resources.rework.com: 10
- g2.com: 9
- lightcast.io: 9 (its own site)

### Pages cited

- https://marketintelligencetools.com/rankings/skills-intelligence-platforms: 23
- https://disprz.ai/blog/skills-gap-analysis-software: 15
- https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/performance/skills-intelligence/2026-09/enterprise: 9
- https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/performance/skills-intelligence/enterprise: 9
- https://featuredcustomers.com/software/skills-intelligence-software: 8
- https://hrtechsaas.com/blog/skills-intelligence-software: 8
- https://docebo.com/learning-network/blog/skills-intelligence-platforms: 7
- https://github.com/ishandutta2007/Awesome-Skills-Intelligence-Platform: 7

## In its own words

What Lightcast Open Skills's own pages state, read 2026-09-28. Stated by the vendor, not checked by the index.

- Positioning: delivers clarity by allowing everyone to speak the same language; an extensive library that catalogs over 34,000 skills and is updated monthly, providing a standardized and universally understood language for describing and analyzing workforce capabilities (https://lightcast.io/taxonomies)
- For: HR departments, educational institutions, workforce developers (https://lightcast.io/taxonomies)
- Price stated: free of charge (https://lightcast.io/taxonomies/skills-taxonomy)
- Free plan or trial: See all 34,000+ skills in the Lightcast taxonomy right here, for free. ... When you register to use Lightcast Skills, we'll set you up with full access, free of charge. (https://lightcast.io/taxonomies/skills-taxonomy)
- Integrations claimed: 150 (https://lightcast.io/taxonomies)

## Record

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