# Infrastructure as code: what AI models recommend, October 2026

Gane Index, October 2026 Edition. Asked as "infrastructure-as-code tool" and as "IaC platform for provisioning cloud resources", six framings each, to fourteen models with search on, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/cloud/infrastructure-as-code/2026-10

This is the permanent record of the October 2026 Edition, published October 1, 2026 and superseded since. The current standing: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/cloud/infrastructure-as-code/index.md

**Standing:** Terraform leads with 57% of first choices; verdict clear leader. 54 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| Rank | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [Terraform](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/terraform/index.md) | 57% | 24% | 85 |
| 2 | [OpenTofu](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/opentofu/index.md) | 35% | 0% | 54 |
| 3 | [Ansible](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/ansible/index.md) | 4% | 24% | 38 |
| 5 | [Pulumi](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/pulumi/index.md) | 0% | 3% | 74 |
| 6 | [AWS CDK](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/aws-cdk/index.md) | 0% | 11% | 37 |
| 7 | [AWS CloudFormation](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/aws-cloudformation/index.md) | 0% | 30% | 57 |
| 8 | [Azure Bicep](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/azure-bicep/index.md) | 0% | 22% | 40 |
| 9 | [Crossplane](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/crossplane/index.md) | 0% | 9% | 23 |
| 10 | [Spacelift](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/spacelift/index.md) | 0% | 18% | 11 |
| 54 | [Google Cloud Deployment Manager](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/google-cloud-deployment-manager/index.md) | 0% | 45% | 11 |
| 57 | [Chef](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/chef/index.md) | 0% | 75% | 12 |
| 58 | [Puppet](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/puppet/index.md) | 0% | 73% | 15 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 58 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: Terraform; alternatives AWS CDK, AWS CloudFormation
- GPT-5.4 mini: OpenTofu; alternatives Azure Bicep, CloudFormation/CDK, Pulumi, Terraform
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: OpenTofu; alternatives Pulumi, Scalr, Spacelift, env0
- Perplexity Sonar: Terraform; alternatives AWS CDK, AWS CloudFormation, OpenTofu, Pulumi
- Grok 4.20: Terraform; alternatives AWS CloudFormation, Ansible, OpenTofu, Pulumi
- Mistral Small: Terraform; alternatives Crossplane, Pulumi
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: OpenTofu, Terraform; alternatives Pulumi
- Llama 4 Maverick: Terraform; alternatives AWS CDK, Crossplane, Pulumi
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Terraform; alternatives OpenTofu, Pulumi
- Kimi K2: Terraform; alternatives AWS CDK, Crossplane, Pulumi
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Terraform; alternatives AWS CloudFormation, OpenTofu, Pulumi
- MiniMax M2.5: Terraform; alternatives AWS CloudFormation, Ansible, Pulumi
- GPT-6 Luna: Terraform with HCP Terraform; alternatives AWS CDK, OpenTofu, Pulumi
- Muse Glimmer 30B: OpenTofu, Terraform; alternatives AWS CDK, AWS CloudFormation, Atlantis, Pulumi

## Sources the answers cite

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

- pulumi.com: 55 answers, 103 citations
- guideflow.com: 30 answers, 30 citations
- spacelift.io: 27 answers, 32 citations
- checkthat.ai: 25 answers, 32 citations
- cortex.io: 19 answers, 19 citations
- dev.to: 14 answers, 16 citations
- docs.aws.amazon.com: 14 answers, 15 citations
- firefly.ai: 14 answers, 15 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://guideflow.com/blog/infrastructure-as-code-tools (30 answers)
- https://pulumi.com/blog/infrastructure-as-code-tools (27 answers)
- https://checkthat.ai/answers/what-are-the-best-infrastructure-as-code-tools (23 answers)
- https://cortex.io/post/best-infrastructure-as-code-iac-tools (19 answers)
- https://pulumi.com/blog/best-terraform-alternatives (16 answers)
- https://pulumi.com/docs/iac/comparisons/terraform (15 answers)
- https://openxcell.com/blog/infrastructure-as-code-tools (14 answers)
- https://facets.cloud/blog/top-8-infrastructure-as-code-iac-tools (13 answers)
- https://gartsolutions.com/infrastructure-as-code-tools (13 answers)
- https://spacelift.io/blog/infrastructure-as-code-tools (13 answers)

## Warned against

- Terraform: 20 of 85 labels negative. "Multi-cloud IaC | OpenTofu (not Terraform)" (Kimi K2, negative prompt)
- AWS CloudFormation: 17 of 57 labels negative. "Avoid starting new projects with: Chef, CloudFormation (unless AWS-only and happy)" (DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt)
- Puppet: 11 of 15 labels negative. "using them to provision cloud-native resources ... is a massive anti-pattern" (Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt)
- Chef: 9 of 12 labels negative. "⚠️ Avoid starting new projects with: Chef, CloudFormation (unless AWS-only and happy), Google Deployment Manager, CDKTF, or SaltStack" (DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt)

## Movement since September 2026

Floor: 11 points of share, measured on the calibration repeat.
Same leader: Terraform at 61%.

- Terraform: 46% to 61%, +15. Cleared the floor by 4 points · rank 1 of 51, unchanged.
- Pulumi: 7% to 0%, −7. Inside the floor by 4 points · rank 3 → 4 of 51.
- OpenTofu: 39% to 34%, −5. Inside the floor by 6 points · rank 2 of 51, unchanged.
- Ansible: 0% to 5%, +5. Inside the floor by 6 points · rank 6 → 3 of 51.
- AWS CDK: 2% to 0%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 5 of 51, unchanged.
- Crossplane: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 9 → 6 of 51.
- Azure Bicep: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 8 → 7 of 51.
- AWS CloudFormation: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 7 → 8 of 51.
- Spacelift: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 10 → 9 of 51.
- Chef: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 38 → 50 of 51.
- Puppet: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 39 → 51 of 51.

## Record

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