# Expense management: what AI models recommend, September 2026

Finance AI Recommendation Index, September 2026 Edition. Asked as "expense management software" and as "employee expense reporting tool", six framings each, to twelve models with search on, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. Page: https://finance-ai-index.com/spend/expense-management/

**Standing:** Ramp leads with 34% of first choices; verdict contested. 47 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| # | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ramp | 34% | 6% | 52 |
| 2 | Zoho Expense | 17% | 3% | 31 |
| 3 | Spendesk | 11% | 0% | 16 |
| 4 | Rippling Spend | 9% | 0% | 24 |
| 5 | BILL Spend & Expense | 9% | 14% | 28 |
| 6 | Expensify | 4% | 16% | 50 |
| 7 | Navan | 4% | 0% | 29 |
| 8 | SAP Concur | 2% | 32% | 40 |
| 9 | Airbase | 2% | 0% | 10 |
| 10 | Brex | 0% | 10% | 29 |
| 11 | Emburse | 0% | 19% | 16 |

## Each model's first choice on the direct prompt

- Claude Haiku 4.5: Navan; alternatives Ramp, SAP Concur
- GPT-5.4 mini: Rippling Spend; alternatives Navan, SAP Concur
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Ramp; alternatives Airbase, Brex, Navan, Rippling Spend
- Perplexity Sonar: Ramp; alternatives Airbase, Expensify, Navan, SAP Concur
- Grok 4.1 Fast: Ramp; alternatives Navan, SAP Concur
- Mistral Small: Spendesk; alternatives Emburse, Procurify, Ramp
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Ramp; alternatives Airwallex, Brex, Navan, SAP Concur
- Llama 4 Maverick: no first choice
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Ramp; alternatives Navan, SAP Concur, Spendesk
- Kimi K2: Navan, Ramp; alternatives Expensify, Rippling Spend
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Ramp; alternatives Expensify, Navan, Paylocity, SAP Concur
- MiniMax M2.5: Rippling Spend; alternatives Airbase, Emburse, Navan, SAP Concur

## 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:

- learn.g2.com: 43 answers, 58 citations
- gartner.com: 43 answers, 43 citations
- ofx.com: 23 answers, 23 citations
- airwallex.com: 20 answers, 23 citations
- g2.com: 18 answers, 44 citations
- bill.com: 18 answers, 23 citations
- ramp.com: 17 answers, 35 citations
- technologyadvice.com: 16 answers, 16 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://gartner.com/reviews/market/expense-management-software (43 answers)
- https://learn.g2.com/best-expense-management-software (32 answers)
- https://ofx.com/en-us/blog/best-expense-management-software-solutions (23 answers)
- https://learn.g2.com/expense-management-software-for-mid-market-teams (18 answers)
- https://airwallex.com/en-us/blog/best-expense-management-software (16 answers)
- https://technologyadvice.com/blog/accounting/best-expense-management-software (16 answers)
- https://bill.com/blog/best-expense-management-software (13 answers)
- https://geekflare.com/guides/best-expense-management-software (13 answers)
- https://pcmag.com/picks/the-best-expense-tracking-software (12 answers)
- https://forbes.com/advisor/business/software/best-business-expense-tracker-apps (11 answers)

## Warned against

- SAP Concur: 13 of 40 labels negative. "The most frequently criticized option among users, with consistent themes across G2 and Trustpilot" (DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt)
- Expensify: 8 of 50 labels negative. "A mixed picture — it rates well overall (4.5/5 on G2), but has had a notable drop in sentiment since the "New Expensify" redesign" (DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt)
- BILL Spend & Expense: 4 of 28 labels negative. "75+ reviews cite integration issues; 50+ mention fraud concerns" (Kimi K2, negative prompt)
- Emburse: 3 of 16 labels negative. "Customer service is the dominant complaint — "the absolute worst," email-only" (DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt)

## Record

- Method: https://finance-ai-index.com/methodology/
- Raw judge labels and full responses: https://finance-ai-index.com/data/
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as Finance AI Recommendation Index, September 2026 Edition, finance-ai-index.com.