Business banking · September 2026 Edition
Mercury vs U.S. Bank
One of twelve models named Mercury first on the direct prompt; zero named U.S. Bank. Mercury was named by twelve of the twelve models and U.S. Bank by eight and Mercury carries 43 labels and U.S. Bank 16, so the shares are not directly comparable.
Named in seven categories this edition.
Named in three categories this edition.
First-choice share20%2%Of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, 0 to 100.
Negative rate7%6%Negative labels as a share of the product's labels, 0 to 100.
Rank in category#1#7A position in a field of 13; printed, not drawn.
Labels4316A count; the two differ.
The two percentage rows are drawn on one 0 to 100 track, Mercury reading right to left. Rank and label count are printed, not drawn.Chase Business Banking was named alongside these two in nine of the twelve direct answers. Mercury vs Bluevine · Mercury vs Chase Business Banking · Mercury vs Rho
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; rank is within the category; every quote names the model and the prompt it came from. Both figures come from the business banking page.
By framing
How many of the twelve models made each the first choice, per way of asking, and how many argued against it.
MercuryFirst choices, of twelve modelsU.S. Bank
Direct10
Paraphrase70
Comparative20
Budget-constrained011 against Mercury
Scale-constrained00
Negative102 against Mercury · 1 against U.S. Bank
Bars are first choices, 0 to 12 each sideModels that argued againstA model can name both, so the two sides of a row do not sum to twelve.
Every model, every framing
The seventy-two answers behind the chart above, one cell each: where Mercury and U.S. Bank stood in it.
| Model | Direct | Paraphrase | Comparative | Budget-constrained | Scale-constrained | Negative |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | | | | | ||
| GPT-5.4 mini | | | ||||
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | | | | | | |
| Perplexity Sonar | | | | |||
| Grok 4.1 Fast | | | | | ||
| Mistral Small | | |||||
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | | | | | | |
| Llama 4 Maverick | | |||||
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | | | | |||
| Kimi K2 | | | | | | |
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | | | ||||
| MiniMax M2.5 | | |
Mercury U.S. Bank first choice named as an alternative argued againstblank: not namedEach cell is one answer, Mercury on the left and U.S. Bank on the right.The direct prompt
The plain question, one answer per model, grouped by where Mercury and U.S. Bank stood in it.
Mercury first, U.S. Bank not the choice
1 of 12 modelsU.S. Bank was named in the answer but not as the choice, or not at all.Kimi K2Chase Business Banking, Mercury alternatives: Brex, First Internet Bank
Neither was the first choice, one was named
5 of 12 modelsThe answer put something else first and named one of the two as an alternative.Claude Haiku 4.5Brex alternatives: Airwallex, Chase Business Banking, U.S. Bank
GPT-5.4 miniChase Business Banking alternatives: Bank of America, TD Bank, U.S. Bank
Gemini 3.5 FlashRho alternatives: Bank of America, Brex, Chase Business Banking, Fifth Third Bank, Mercury, PNC Bank
DeepSeek V4 FlashBrex alternatives: Bank of America, Chase Business Banking, HSBC, Mercury, Relay, U.S. Bank, Wells Fargo
MiniMax M2.5Chase Business Banking alternatives: Airwallex, Bank of America, Barclays, HSBC, Mercury, NatWest, Rho, Silicon Valley Bank, Wells Fargo
Neither was named
6 of 12 modelsThe answer made no first choice from these two in this category.Perplexity SonarRho alternatives: Bluevine, Brex, Relay
Grok 4.1 FastBank of America, Chase Business Banking alternatives: Brex, PNC Bank, Rho
Mistral SmallAxos Bank, PNC Bank alternatives: First Internet Bank, Revolut Business, Wise Business
Llama 4 Maverickno first choice
Qwen 3.7 FlashBluevine alternatives: Airwallex, Chase Business Banking, Relay
GLM 4.7 FlashXChase Business Banking alternatives: Airwallex, Qonto, Wise Business
Bold names in an answer are the products the judge labeled a first choice; a model naming several gives each of them that label. The full answer text for every row is in the record.
By buyer segment
The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment and they are never added together. The figures above are the mid-market standing, which is the one the category orders by.
Small business
Mercury leads by thirty-three points.
Mercury33%#1 of 11U.S. Bank0%#– of 11Mid-marketThe figures above
Mercury leads by eighteen points.
Mercury20%#1 of 13U.S. Bank2%#7 of 13Enterprise
What the models said about Mercury
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Six of seven in this category shown.
“Frequent account freezes/closure, slow support, funds held 60+ days | 15.4 negative reviews/month (4x industry average)” DeepSeek V4 Flash · negative prompt · hard negative
“neobanks (such as Mercury, Bluevine, or Novo) rely heavily on automated fraud-detection algorithms” Gemini 3.5 Flash · negative prompt · soft negative
“does not support physical branches or cash deposits” Perplexity Sonar · budget prompt · soft negative
“I'd usually recommend Mercury if your priority is a modern, startup-friendly banking platform” GPT-5.4 mini · paraphrase prompt · first choice
“For most mid-market B2B companies today, Mercury or Chase are the safest starting points” Kimi K2 · direct prompt · first choice
“Mercury, which is considered the best overall digital business banking platform for startups” Llama 4 Maverick · paraphrase prompt · first choice
What the models said about U.S. Bank
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Four of four in this category shown.
“Caution: Accused of opening unauthorized accounts, rated poorly across review platforms” Kimi K2 · negative prompt · soft negative
“U.S. Bank Business Essentials stands out as one of the only free business checking accounts offered by a big brick-and-mortar bank” Claude Haiku 4.5 · budget prompt · first choice
“expands on basic business options, offering the ability to grow money through money market accounts and CDs” Claude Haiku 4.5 · direct prompt · alternative
“Best if you're in U.S. Bank's middle-market sweet spot: U.S. Bank Commercial Banking” GPT-5.4 mini · direct prompt · alternative
Also compared
Mercury vs BluevineMercury vs Chase Business BankingMercury vs RhoMercury vs BrexMercury vs NovoMercury vs Bank of AmericaBluevine vs U.S. BankChase Business Banking vs U.S. BankRho vs U.S. BankBrex vs U.S. BankNovo vs U.S. BankU.S. Bank vs Bank of AmericaAll twenty-eight head-to-head pages and the full business banking standing
Comparisons are drawn for the top eight products in each category, each against each. The output is the models' output; nothing here is a recommendation by the index.