When asked for the best AI search engine, 6 AI assistants named 2 brands between them this month. Perplexity was named most often, followed by Algolia. No brand was named by every assistant that answered.
Who named whom
| Brand | ChatGPT | Perplexity | Claude | Grok | DeepSeek | Cohere | Named by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Perplexity | · | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | · | 4 of 6 |
| Algolia | ✓ | · | · | · | ✓ | ✓ | 3 of 6 |
Share of voice
What each assistant said
ChatGPT
Named one brand, in this order: Algolia.
Selecting the best AI search engine for a small business depends on a variety of factors, including budget, specific needs, and the types of searches required.
Perplexity
Named one brand, in this order: Perplexity.
For a small business, the best choice is usually Perplexity if you want an AI search engine for research, competitive analysis, and fact-checking because it is repeatedly ranked as a top overall option and is praised for source-cited answers.
Claude
Named one brand, in this order: Perplexity.
Here are some top options to consider:
Grok
Named one brand, in this order: Perplexity.
DeepSeek
Named 2 brands, in this order: Perplexity, Algolia.
There's no single "best" AI search engine for a small business — it depends on what you need it for.
Cohere
Named one brand, in this order: Algolia.
Choosing the best AI-powered search engine for a small business depends on your specific needs, such as budget, features, and integration capabilities.
The questions asked
- What is the best AI search engine for a small business?
Asked between 2026-09-26 and 2026-09-26. Not answering this month: Gemini, Mistral.
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See the GEO suiteHow this was measured
Each month we ask every assistant the same plain buyer questions, worded the way a person shopping for this kind of product would ask them, with no brand suggested in the question except where the question itself names the market leader to find alternatives to. Each assistant answers in a fresh session with no earlier conversation, so an answer reflects what the assistant says to anyone who asks, not what it was steered towards.
From each answer we keep the product and company names it recommends. A name counts only when it appears in the answer as a proper name, is not a heading such as "Best for" or "Pricing", and is confirmed by a second assistant naming it too, by a website the answer cites, or by being the market leader named in the question. Share of voice is each brand's share of all brand mentions in the category this month. Assistants that could not answer this month are listed as not answering, never counted as naming nobody.
Cite this page
https://mentionfox.com/ai-recommends/ai-search-engines