# Data warehouses: what AI models recommend, September 2026

Gane Index, September 2026 Edition. Asked as "cloud data warehouse" and as "analytical data warehouse platform", six framings each, to twelve models with search on, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/it-data/data-warehouses/2026-09

This is the permanent record of the September 2026 Edition, published September 17, 2026 and superseded since. The current standing: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/it-data/data-warehouses/index.md

**Standing:** Snowflake leads with 47% of first choices; verdict clear leader. 45 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| Rank | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [Snowflake](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/snowflake/index.md) | 47% | 28% | 65 |
| 2 | [Google BigQuery](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/google-bigquery/index.md) | 44% | 16% | 67 |
| 3 | [ClickHouse Cloud](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/clickhouse-cloud/index.md) | 2% | 14% | 22 |
| 7 | [Amazon Redshift](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/amazon-redshift/index.md) | 0% | 24% | 62 |
| 8 | [Databricks SQL](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/databricks-sql/index.md) | 0% | 23% | 47 |
| 9 | [Microsoft Fabric Data Warehouse](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/microsoft-fabric-data-warehouse/index.md) | 0% | 8% | 13 |
| 10 | [Azure Synapse Analytics](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/azure-synapse-analytics/index.md) | 0% | 21% | 24 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 39 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: no first choice; alternatives Firebolt
- GPT-5.4 mini: Snowflake; alternatives Amazon Redshift, Databricks SQL, Google BigQuery
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Snowflake; alternatives Amazon Redshift, Google BigQuery, Microsoft Fabric Data Warehouse
- Perplexity Sonar: Snowflake; alternatives Amazon Redshift, Azure SQL Database, Databricks SQL, Google BigQuery
- Grok 4.20: Snowflake; alternatives Amazon Redshift, Google BigQuery
- Mistral Small: Google BigQuery, Snowflake
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Snowflake; alternatives Amazon Redshift, Google BigQuery
- Llama 4 Maverick: Snowflake; alternatives Azure SQL Database, Google BigQuery
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Snowflake; alternatives Amazon Redshift, Google BigQuery, Microsoft Fabric Data Warehouse
- Kimi K2: Google BigQuery; alternatives Amazon Redshift, Snowflake
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Google BigQuery; alternatives Amazon Redshift, Microsoft Fabric Data Warehouse, Snowflake
- MiniMax M2.5: Snowflake; alternatives Amazon Redshift, Azure Synapse Analytics, Databricks SQL, Google BigQuery

## Sources the answers cite

65 of 72 answers came back with a source list, from 12 of 12 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- clickhouse.com: 30 answers, 45 citations
- atlan.com: 22 answers, 22 citations
- fortegrp.com: 20 answers, 20 citations
- scnsoft.com: 19 answers, 20 citations
- motherduck.com: 18 answers, 23 citations
- domo.com: 18 answers, 18 citations
- reddit.com: 15 answers, 27 citations
- blog.dataddo.com: 13 answers, 13 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://atlan.com/best-cloud-data-warehouses (21 answers)
- https://clickhouse.com/resources/engineering/top-5-cloud-data-warehouses (21 answers)
- https://fortegrp.com/insights/best-cloud-data-warehouse (20 answers)
- https://domo.com/learn/article/best-data-warehouse-platforms (17 answers)
- https://scnsoft.com/data/data-warehouse/cloud (17 answers)
- https://blog.dataddo.com/best-cloud-data-warehouse-solutions-and-how-to-choose-the-right-one (13 answers)
- https://clickhouse.com/blog/cloud-data-warehouses-cost-performance-comparison (13 answers)
- https://motherduck.com/learn/top-10-data-warehouse-platforms-2026 (12 answers)
- https://tech-insider.org/redshift-vs-snowflake-vs-bigquery-2026 (11 answers)
- https://techplained.com/snowflake-vs-bigquery-vs-databricks (11 answers)

## Warned against

- Amazon Redshift: 15 of 62 labels negative. "provisioning (always-on) solutions like Redshift can quietly rack up bills when idle" (DeepSeek V4 Flash, budget prompt)
- Snowflake: 18 of 65 labels negative. "Avoid Snowflake for tight budgets" (DeepSeek V4 Flash, budget prompt)
- Google BigQuery: 11 of 67 labels negative. "BigQuery can be great, but on-demand query pricing can surprise teams if you don't put quotas and guardrails in place." (GPT-5.4 mini, negative prompt)
- Databricks SQL: 11 of 47 labels negative. "only if your roadmap is heavily ML/AI-driven ... but DBU pricing is unpredictable, and it's the most operationally expensive of the four" (DeepSeek V4 Flash, paraphrase prompt)

## Record

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