September 2026 Edition, published · The permanent record of that edition, superseded since. The current standing is on the category page →
Index › IT › Developer platform › AI coding · September 2026 Edition

AI coding assistants

Asked as “AI coding assistant”, and as “AI pair programming tool”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. 48 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing · first-choice share
67%
Clear leader
67GitHub Copilot10Windsurf04Cline19others

67% 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 mid-market B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01GitHub Copilot67%13%70endorsed leader
02Windsurf10%19%27accepted challenger
03Cursor4%19%52accepted challenger
04Cline4%8%12accepted challenger
05Amazon Q Developer2%22%37accepted challenger
06Aider2%17%12accepted challenger
Show the two products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
08Claude Code Lab in the set0%20%30accepted challenger
07Tabnine0%5%39accepted 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.

Claude Code is made by Anthropic, whose model Claude Haiku 4.5 is in the set. On the four share prompts that model made it the first choice zero times of 4; the other eleven models zero times of 44. Lab treatment is defined on the method page; the row is marked, not excluded.

All fifteen head-to-head pages: the top six products, each against each

One product takes 67% of first choices here, so the chart would put seven 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. Zero products carry a negative rate above 25% in this category.

What they warned about

Eight of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Mistral Small and Llama 4 Maverick 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.
Cursor
19%
10 of 52 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“avoid standard free-tier or public instances of major AI coding assistants (such as GitHub Copilot standard, Cursor, or Windsurf)” Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt
GitHub Copilot
13%
9 of 70 labels negative · 7 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“You should generally avoid standard free-tier or public instances of major AI coding assistants (such as GitHub Copilot standard, Cursor, or Windsurf)” Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt
Claude Code
20%
6 of 30 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“Research found Claude Code silently ignored its own deny rules when commands exceeded 50 subcommands” Kimi K2, negative prompt
Windsurf
19%
5 of 27 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“avoid standard free-tier or public instances of major AI coding assistants (such as GitHub Copilot standard, Cursor, or Windsurf)” 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

64 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. 834 links across 306 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

27 answers · 27 citations · 11 models
24 answers · 29 citations · 11 models
vendor site · Augment Code18 answers · 32 citations · 7 models
18 answers · 18 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Daily17 answers · 19 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Zapier13 answers · 13 citations · 6 models
vendor site · G212 answers · 12 citations · 7 models
11 answers · 12 citations · 8 models
vendor site · GitHub10 answers · 20 citations · 6 models
10 answers · 10 citations · 8 models
10 answers · 10 citations · 8 models
8 answers · 17 citations · 5 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 “ai coding assistant”, “ai coding assistants”, “best ai coding assistant”. 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
GitHub github.com
GitHub Copilot 67%
67%2071,500,00031,47942,019,137 company$8114
Windsurf windsurf.com10%6660,5004,50121,6030
Cursor cursor.com4%164301,00022,500350,718$281196
Cline cline.bot4%2322,2008,72412,6583
Amazon Q amazon.com
Amazon Q Developer 2%
2%1099,9007381,681,997,879 company$106,125115
Aider aider.chat2%209,9005855,507
Gemini Code Assist2%6,600167
Replit replit.com
Replit AI 2%
2%159,900168251,888 company$62640
Augment Code augmentcode.com2%116,600199146,518201
Claude claude.com
Claude 2%, Claude Code 0%
2%925,000,00053,2403,090,945$1,889120

Google's top ten for the three searches hold 24 sites; 3 of them are among the sites the models cited here (augmentcode.com, axify.io, reddit.com). The first result for “ai coding assistant” is augmentcode.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 AI coding assistant for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which AI pair programming tool would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top AI coding assistants and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best AI coding assistant for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating an AI coding assistant. What should we look at?”Negative“Which AI coding assistants should I avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Claude, GitHub CopilotGitHub Copilot, WindsurfChangedClaude Code, Cursor
Two alternativesAider, GitHub Copilot
GitHub Copilot, Windsurf
Three alternativesAider, Cline, opencode
no first choicenothing named
GPT-5.4 miniGitHub Copilot
Two alternativesAmazon Q Developer, Cursor
GitHub CopilotHeld
One alternativeTabnine
GitHub Copilot
Five alternativesAmazon Q Developer, ChatGPT, Claude Code, Cursor, OpenAI Codex
GitHub Copilot
Two alternativesTabnine, Windsurf
no first choiceagainst: Cursor, GitHub Copilot
Gemini 3.5 FlashAugment Code
Two alternativesGitHub Copilot, Tabnine
against: Cursor
GitHub CopilotChanged
Two alternativesCursor, Tabnine
Cursor
Four alternativesClaude Code, Cline, Devin, GitHub Copilot
Cline
Six alternativesCursor, GitHub Copilot, Goose, Ollama, Windsurf, opencode
no first choice
Three alternativesClaude Code, Cursor, GitHub Copilot
against: ChatGPT, Claude, Claude Code, Cursor, Devin, Google Gemini, Kite, Windsurf
Perplexity SonarGitHub Copilot
Two alternativesCursor, Sourcegraph Cody
GitHub CopilotHeld
Four alternativesAmazon Q Developer, Claude Code, Cursor, Tabnine
GitHub Copilot
Four alternativesAmazon Q Developer, Claude Code, Cursor, Tabnine
GitHub Copilot
Four alternativesAmazon Q Developer, Cline, Replit AI, Tabnine
no first choiceagainst: Cursor, GitHub Copilot, JetBrains Junie, Roo Code
Grok 4.20GitHub Copilot
Four alternativesAmazon Q Developer, Cursor, Gemini Code Assist, Tabnine
GitHub CopilotHeld
Three alternativesAmazon Q Developer, Cursor, Tabnine
Cursor
Four alternativesClaude Code, GitHub Copilot, Tabnine, Windsurf
Windsurf
Four alternativesAmazon Q Developer, Cline, Continue, GitHub Copilot
GitHub Copilot
Two alternativesAmazon Q Developer, Cursor
against: Amazon Q Developer, Claude Code, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Replit AI
Mistral SmallCursor, GitHub Copilot
One alternativeClaude Code
GitHub CopilotChanged
Three alternativesAider, Amazon Q Developer, Cursor
GitHub Copilot
Four alternativesAmazon Q Developer, Replit AI, Sourcegraph Cody, Tabnine
GitHub Copilot
Two alternativesCursor, Windsurf
no first choicenothing named
DeepSeek V4 FlashGitHub Copilot
Three alternativesAmazon Q Developer, Cursor, Tabnine
GitHub CopilotHeld
One alternativeCursor
Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf
Three alternativesDevin, GitHub Copilot, Tabnine
against: AWS Kiro, Amazon Q Developer
Gemini Code Assist, GitHub Copilot
Six alternativesAider, Amazon Q Developer, Claude Code, Cline, Continue, opencode
against: Cursor, Tabnine
no first choiceagainst: Aider, Amazon Q Developer, Claude Code, Cline, GitHub Copilot, OpenAI Codex, Roo Code, Windsurf
Llama 4 MaverickCursor, GitHub Copilot
One alternativeClaude
GitHub CopilotChanged
One alternativeCursor
no first choiceGitHub Copilot, Google Gemini, Replit AI
Four alternativesAider, Cline, Windsurf, Zed
GitHub Copilot
One alternativeClaude Code
nothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashGitHub Copilot
One alternativeCursor
GitHub CopilotHeld
Two alternativesAmazon Q Developer, Tabnine
against: Cursor
GitHub Copilot
Four alternativesAmazon Q Developer, Claude Code, Cursor, Tabnine
Windsurf
One alternativeCline
against: GitHub Copilot
GitHub Copilot
Three alternativesAmazon Q Developer, JetBrains AI Assistant, Tabnine
against: Amazon Q Developer, Claude Code, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, JetBrains AI Assistant, OpenClaw, Windsurf
Kimi K2GitHub Copilot
Two alternativesTabnine, Windsurf
GitHub CopilotHeld
Three alternativesAmazon Q Developer, Cursor, Tabnine
GitHub Copilot
Five alternativesAmazon Q Developer, Claude Code, Cursor, Gemini Code Assist, Tabnine
Windsurf
One alternativeGitHub Copilot
against: Amazon Q Developer, Tabnine
no first choiceagainst: Amazon Q Developer, Claude Code, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Google Antigravity IDE, Replit Agent, Windsurf
GLM 4.7 FlashXGitHub Copilot
Three alternativesAmazon Q Developer, Cursor, Tabnine
GitHub CopilotHeld
Four alternativesAmazon Q Developer, Cursor, Tabnine, Windsurf
Cursor, GitHub Copilot
Six alternativesAmazon Q Developer, ChatGPT, Claude Code, Replit AI, Tabnine, Windsurf
Aider, Cline
Four alternativesContinue, GitHub Copilot, Tabby, Windsurf
no first choiceagainst: Aider, Amazon Q Developer, ChatGPT, Claude Code, Copilot Workspace, Cursor, Devin, GitHub Copilot, JetBrains Junie, Kiro.dev, OpenClaw, Roo Code, Windsurf, Zed
MiniMax M2.5GitHub Copilot
Three alternativesClaude, Claude Code, Cursor
GitHub CopilotHeld
Three alternativesClaude Code, Cursor, Windsurf
GitHub Copilot
Five alternativesAmazon Q Developer, Augment Code, Claude Code, Cursor, Tabnine
Amazon Q Developer
Three alternativesCursor, GitHub Copilot, Tabnine
no first choice
One alternativeGitHub Copilot
nothing 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 08:42no06 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 09:03yes46 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 08:29yes1626 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 08:53yes207 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 08:25yes1815 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 09:09yes54 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 08:34yes2018 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 08:39yes52 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 08:31yes1030 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 08:19yes10137 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 09:01yes12113 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 08:38yes518 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 08:53no05 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 08:36yes34 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 08:54yes1421 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 08:53yes206 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 08:54yes209 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 08:27yes55 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 09:12yes1921 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 08:48yes53 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 09:04yes550 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 09:10yes1536 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 08:53yes1419 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 08:34yes518 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 08:42yes98 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 08:30yes910 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 09:04yes1731 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 08:20yes209 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 08:39yes149 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 09:09yes1010 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 08:37yes1819 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 08:45yes53 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 08:31yes523 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 08:57yes1540 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 08:46yes10141 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 08:30yes1438 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 08:45yes99 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 08:26no03 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 08:45yes2524 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 08:30yes205 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 08:32yes1910 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 08:20yes138 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 08:27yes915 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 09:09yes73 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 08:38yes522 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 08:34yes2027 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 09:03yes2481 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 08:18no011 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 08:17no06 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 08:25no07 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 08:28yes1025 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 09:02yes207 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 08:32yes159 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 08:37no06 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 08:38yes916 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 08:19yes53 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 08:52no039 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 08:23yes923 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 08:47yes1447 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 08:42yes515 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 09:03yes1610 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 08:56yes55 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 09:12yes1826 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 08:53yes205 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 08:49yes3915 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 08:54yes58 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 09:10yes3031 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 08:54yes52 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 08:41yes548 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 08:23yes2562 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 09:12yes2789 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 08:48yes514 s

Noise floor in this category

Flips between the edition run and its calibration repeat. Six prompts per model is a small sample; the index-wide floor is the number to trust.

ShowHide
Claude Haiku 4.5
3 of 4 flipped
GPT-5.4 mini
0 of 4 flipped
Gemini 3.5 Flash
3 of 4 flipped
Perplexity Sonar
1 of 4 flipped
Grok 4.20
2 of 6 flipped
Mistral Small
2 of 4 flipped
DeepSeek V4 Flash
2 of 5 flipped
Llama 4 Maverick
3 of 4 flipped
Qwen 3.7 Flash
2 of 6 flipped
Kimi K2
3 of 6 flipped
GLM 4.7 FlashX
2 of 4 flipped
MiniMax M2.5
1 of 4 flipped

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
Amazon Q read as Amazon Q Developer
Copilot read as GitHub Copilot
GitHub read as GitHub Copilot
JetBrains AI read as JetBrains AI Assistant
Replit read as Replit AI
Unresolved, counted raw
ChatGPT Business with Codex
Goose
Kiro.dev
Kite
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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