Finance AI Index
September 2026 Edition · The permanent record of this edition. The unqualified address always carries the latest edition.
Index › Treasury and cash › September 2026 Edition

Business banking

Asked as “business bank account for a company”, and as “banking platform for a startup”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. 40 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
Mercury and Bluevine
Contested
20% of first choices, contested.
ShowinginAll 41 categories in the September 2026 Edition →

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.
Small businessMercury33%ContestedStanding →Mid-marketMercury20%ContestedThis pageEnterpriseRho20%ContestedStanding →

01The 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
01Mercury20%7%43accepted challenger
02Bluevine20%9%34accepted challenger
03Chase Business Banking12%14%42accepted challenger
04Rho12%0%12accepted challenger
05Brex8%8%24accepted challenger
06Novo5%5%19accepted challenger
07U.S. Bank2%6%16accepted challenger
08Bank of America2%22%27accepted challenger
09Axos Bank2%0%10accepted challenger
Show the four products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
12Citibank0%55%11criticized challenger
13Wells Fargo0%47%19criticized challenger
10Relay0%14%29accepted challenger
11Airwallex0%0%12accepted challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its vendor page.
Head to head
Mercury vs BluevineMercury vs Chase Business BankingBluevine vs Chase Business Banking

Recommended versus criticized

Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.

Criticized challengerCriticized default
Negative label rate →
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative40%
Key
01Mercury20%
02Bluevine20%
03Chase Business Banking12%
04Rho12%
05Brex8%
06Novo5%
07U.S. Bank2%
08Bank of America2%
09Axos Bank2%
10Relay0%
11Airwallex0%
12Citibank0%
13Wells Fargo0%

02What they warned about

Two of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. GPT-5.4 mini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Grok 4.1 Fast, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash, Kimi K2, GLM 4.7 FlashX and MiniMax M2.5 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.
Wells Fargo
47%
9 of 19 labels negative · 7 of 12 models · 6 hard negative
“Consistently ranked near the bottom of major customer satisfaction indexes, Wells Fargo carries historical baggage from massive regulatory scandals” Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt
Citibank
55%
6 of 11 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 4 hard negative
“Citibank has struggled with a tarnished reputation... customer complaints frequently focusing on the bank's outdated technology and confusing online banking system” Claude Haiku 4.5, negative prompt
Bank of America
22%
6 of 27 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“Bank of America has the most complaints of any bank in the U.S., with customers reporting poor customer service, long wait times, excessive fees” Claude Haiku 4.5, negative prompt
Chase Business Banking
14%
6 of 42 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“Avoid traditional banks (e.g., Chase) for mid-sized startups—they lack fintech speed/tools.” Grok 4.1 Fast, paraphrase prompt

03What they cite

Citations exist only for the models that return a source list: twelve of the twelve in this edition, and all six flagship models on the expanded tier.

Sites the answers cite

62 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. 5 of those lists are Google grounding redirects that name no site and are left out of the counts. 843 links across 230 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

nerdwallet.com
35 answers · 48 citations · 10 models
airwallex.com
vendor site · Airwallex30 answers · 40 citations · 10 models
forbes.com
28 answers · 39 citations · 10 models
finder.com
24 answers · 42 citations · 8 models
relayfi.com
22 answers · 35 citations · 10 models
handelsblatt.com
22 answers · 23 citations · 9 models
rho.co
vendor site · Rho21 answers · 37 citations · 10 models
found.com
vendor site · Found20 answers · 22 citations · 10 models
bluevine.com
vendor site · Bluevine17 answers · 23 citations · 10 models
techrepublic.com
15 answers · 18 citations · 6 models
wise.com
13 answers · 17 citations · 8 models
backbase.com
vendor site · Backbase13 answers · 13 citations · 8 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.

handelsblatt.com/geschaeftskonto/vergleich
22 answers · 9 models
relayfi.com/blog/best-online-business-bank-accounts-2026-guide
20 answers · 9 models
airwallex.com/en-us/blog/compare-business-bank-accounts
18 answers · 10 models
forbes.com/financial-services/best-business-checking-accounts
17 answers · 8 models
nerdwallet.com/business/banking/best/types
16 answers · 10 models
found.com/resources/business-banking/best-business-bank-accounts-small-busi…
14 answers · 8 models
backbase.com/blog/top-business-banking-platform-providers
13 answers · 8 models
forbes.com/advisor/banking/best-business-bank-accounts
11 answers · 9 models
rho.co/blog/best-online-business-bank-accounts
11 answers · 7 models
finder.com/business-banking
10 answers · 7 models

04How 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.
ModelDirect“What is the best business bank account for a company for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which banking platform for a startup would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top business banking providers and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best business bank account for a company for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating a business bank account for a company. What should we look at?”Negative“Which business banking providers should I avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Brex
Three alternativesAirwallex, Chase Business Banking, U.S. Bank
BrexHeld
Two alternativesBluevine, Mercury
no first choice
Eight alternativesAirwallex, Bank of America, Bluevine, Brex, Chase Business Banking, Mercury, Novo, Relay
U.S. Bank
Four alternativesBluevine, Novo, Relay, TAB Bank's Business Checking Account
no first choiceagainst: Bank of America, Citibank, Wells Fargo
GPT-5.4 miniChase Business Banking
Three alternativesBank of America, TD Bank, U.S. Bank
MercuryChanged
Three alternativesBluevine, Brex, Ramp
no first choiceno first choiceno first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashRho
Six alternativesBank of America, Brex, Chase Business Banking, Fifth Third Bank, Mercury, PNC Bank
Mercury, RhoChanged
Two alternativesBrex, Ramp
Bank of America, Chase Business Banking, Mercury
Four alternativesBluevine, Grasshopper, Novo, Relay
Novo
Five alternativesBluevine, Chase Business Banking, Found, Mercury, Relay
no first choiceagainst: Bank of America, Bluevine, Brex, Citibank, Evolve Bank & Trust, Mercury, Novo, Synapse Financial Technologies, Wells Fargo, Wise Business
Perplexity SonarRho
Three alternativesBluevine, Brex, Relay
RhoHeld
Three alternativesBrex, Chase Business Banking, Mercury
no first choice
Ten alternativesAxos Bank, Bluevine, Capital One, Chase Business Banking, Grasshopper, Live Oak, Mercury, Novo, Relay, U.S. Bank
Bluevine
Four alternativesAmerican Express Business Checking, Found, Novo, Relay
against: Chase Business Banking, Mercuryno first choiceagainst: Bank of America, Citibank, NatWest Bankline, Wells Fargo
Grok 4.1 FastBank of America, Chase Business Banking
Three alternativesBrex, PNC Bank, Rho
against: Wells FargoMercuryChanged
Three alternativesBrex, Relay, Rho
against: Chase Business BankingBluevine, Mercury, Novo, Starling Bank
Seven alternativesAirwallex, Brex, Chase Business Banking, Monzo, Relay, Revolut Business, Tide
Bluevine, Novo
Two alternativesStarling Bank, Tide
against: Chase Business Bankingno first choice
Four alternativesBank of America, Bluevine, Chase Business Banking, Mercury
against: Bank of America, Capital One, Citibank, Lloyds, PNC Bank, Santander, TSB, Wells Fargo
Mistral SmallAxos Bank, PNC Bank
Three alternativesFirst Internet Bank, Revolut Business, Wise Business
MercuryChanged
Three alternativesBluevine, Brex, Rho
Revolut BusinessBluevine, Wise Business
Two alternativesAirwallex, Qonto
no first choiceagainst: Wise Business
DeepSeek V4 FlashBrex
Seven alternativesBank of America, Chase Business Banking, HSBC, Mercury, Relay, U.S. Bank, Wells Fargo
RhoChanged
One alternativeMercury
against: Brexno first choice
Eight alternativesAirwallex, Bank of America, Bluevine, Chase Business Banking, Mercury, Novo, Relay, U.S. Bank
NBKC
Four alternativesAxos Bank, Found, Mercury, U.S. Bank
no first choiceagainst: Barclays, Bluevine, HSBC, Lloyds, Mercury, NatWest, Relay, Royal Bank of Scotland, The Co-operative Bank
Llama 4 Maverickno first choiceMercuryChanged
One alternativeBluevine
no first choiceno first choiceno first choiceagainst: Credit One, Synchrony Bank, Tide, Wells Fargo
Qwen 3.7 FlashBluevine
Three alternativesAirwallex, Chase Business Banking, Relay
MercuryChanged
Three alternativesAspiration, Relay, Rho
Chase Business Banking
Three alternativesBank of America, Bluevine, Novo
Bluevine
Five alternativesAirwallex, American Express Business Checking, Mercury, Relay, Wise Business
against: Chase Business Banking, Wells Fargono first choiceagainst: Citibank, Citizens Bank, Credit One, Relay, Synchrony Bank, Wells Fargo
Kimi K2Chase Business Banking, Mercury
Two alternativesBrex, First Internet Bank
MercuryChanged
Four alternativesBrex, Centime, HighRadius, Ramp
no first choice
Six alternativesBank of America, Bluevine, Chase Business Banking, Mercury, Relay, Wells Fargo
Bluevine, NBKC, Starling Bank
Two alternativesFound, Mercury
no first choiceagainst: Bank of America, Bluevine, Capital One, Chase Business Banking, Citibank, Credit One, Fifth Third Bank, Relay, U.S. Bank, Wells Fargo
GLM 4.7 FlashXChase Business Banking
Three alternativesAirwallex, Qonto, Wise Business
BluevineChanged
Four alternativesBrex, Column, Mercury, Relay
no first choiceNBKC
Four alternativesBluevine, Mercury, Novo, Relay
no first choiceagainst: Bank of America, Chase Business Banking, NatWest, RBC, Relay, Santander
MiniMax M2.5Chase Business Banking
Nine alternativesAirwallex, Bank of America, Barclays, HSBC, Mercury, NatWest, Rho, Silicon Valley Bank, Wells Fargo
no first choiceChangedno first choiceBluevine
Five alternativesFound, Huntington Business Checking 100, Mercury, Relay, U.S. Bank
no first choicenothing named
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

05The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency. Full answer text is in the free responses file. Download the record
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 17:53yes98 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:49yes57 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:47yes2025 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 18:05yes188 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 21:08yes3218 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 18:04yes2134 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 18:21yes2928 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 18:03yes52 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 21:05yes843 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 21:06yes1347 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 19:37yes2786 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 18:25yes931 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 18:20yes99 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 18:34yes45 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:25yes2025 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 20:28yes176 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 19:22yes2714 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 20:14yes1611 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-17 19:17yes2549 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 19:22yes53 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 21:09yes1442 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:25yes1549 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 19:37yes2954 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 18:29yes1794 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 20:56yes98 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 18:42yes611 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 19:32yes1222 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 19:29yes207 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 19:37yes2719 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:48yes99 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 18:41yes1015 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 19:59yes53 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 19:46no033 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:48yes1030 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 21:08no033 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 20:35yes930 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 20:18yes98 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 19:02no03 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 19:03yes918 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 17:53yes206 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 21:05yes2415 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 21:02yes97 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 18:07yes710 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 21:00yes53 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 18:01yes1445 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 20:54yes1525 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:47yes1698 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:44yes1238 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 18:25no06 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 17:57no07 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:21no012 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 18:25yes2010 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 20:31yes1512 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 20:20no08 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 20:08yes1021 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 20:32yes54 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 20:18yes935 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 18:29yes1539 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 19:18yes1424 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 18:07no06 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 18:09yes199 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 18:37no06 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 21:55yes2052 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 18:48yes207 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 18:33yes4117 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:02yes56 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-17 20:34yes2869 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 19:42yes53 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 19:05yes541 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 17:59yes1527 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:22yes2779 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 20:12no07 s

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

Category-scoped readings
American Express read as American Express Business Checking
Axos read as Axos Bank
Bank of America Business Advantage read as Bank of America
Chase read as Chase Business Banking
Chase Business read as Chase Business Banking
Citi read as Citibank
Citi Business read as Citibank
Credit One Bank read as Credit One
Grasshopper Bank read as Grasshopper
J.P. Morgan read as Chase Business Banking
JPMorgan read as Chase Business Banking
JPMorgan Chase read as Chase Business Banking
Lloyds Bank read as Lloyds
NBKC Bank read as NBKC
Navy Federal read as Navy Federal Credit Union
PNC read as PNC Bank
Unresolved, counted raw
10x Banking
Alliant Credit Union
Allica
America First Credit Union
Column
Commerce Bank
FIS Modern Banking Platform
Finastra Essence
IntraFi (formerly ICS/CDARS)
KeyBank
Lemonio
Local Credit Unions
Metro Bank Business
Mettle
NatWest Bankline
PenFed Credit Union
Regions Bank
Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS)
TAB Bank's Business Checking Account
USAA
Virgin Money M
Zempler Business Go
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.

Also in treasury and cash

The other categories of this function, with the leader in each.
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