validcube

AI visibility index · AI assistant apps · snapshot 1 September 2026

Which AI app the assistants recommend

35 buyer questions across 5 assistants. Same method as the other indexes, with one twist: here the assistants are ranking their own category. Four of them are themselves apps in it. ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini sit near the top. Mistral's own Le Chat registers too, and only Mistral names it.

The fourth snapshot. Captured 1 September 2026 across 5 assistants, one month after the last. The chart below tracks all four months. How this works.
Number = share of an assistant's answers that named the app (%). Score = average of the 5 grounded assistants. ▲/▼ = rank change vs last month. +/− next to Score = point change vs last month.
# App ChatGPT Claude Gemini Mistral Google AI · web Score
1 —
51
46
46
34
83
52 +6
  • ChatGPT
    51
  • Claude
    46
  • Gemini
    46
  • Mistral
    34
  • Google AI · web
    83
2 —
34
37
46
31
67
43 +2

Name collision: "Claude" is also a common word or a bigger brand, so matches are checked in context.

  • ChatGPT
    34
  • Claude
    37
  • Gemini
    46
  • Mistral
    31
  • Google AI · web
    67
3 —
37
31
43
31
50
39 +5

Name collision: "Gemini" is also a common word or a bigger brand, so matches are checked in context.

  • ChatGPT
    37
  • Claude
    31
  • Gemini
    43
  • Mistral
    31
  • Google AI · web
    50
4 —
14
11
46
23
67
32 ±0

Name collision: "Perplexity" is also a common word or a bigger brand, so matches are checked in context.

  • ChatGPT
    14
  • Claude
    11
  • Gemini
    46
  • Mistral
    23
  • Google AI · web
    67
5 —
20
17
14
11
17
16 -3

Name collision: "Microsoft Copilot" is also a common word or a bigger brand, so matches are checked in context.

  • ChatGPT
    20
  • Claude
    17
  • Gemini
    14
  • Mistral
    11
  • Google AI · web
    17
6 ▲3
3
6
3
3
0
3 ±0
  • ChatGPT
    3
  • Claude
    6
  • Gemini
    3
  • Mistral
    3
  • Google AI · web
    0
7 ▲5
3
3
0
3
0
2 +1
  • ChatGPT
    3
  • Claude
    3
  • Gemini
    0
  • Mistral
    3
  • Google AI · web
    0
8 —
0
3
3
3
0
2 -1

Name collision: "Jasper" is also a common word or a bigger brand, so matches are checked in context.

  • ChatGPT
    0
  • Claude
    3
  • Gemini
    3
  • Mistral
    3
  • Google AI · web
    0
9 ▲5
0
3
3
3
0
2 +1

Name collision: "Pi" is also a common word or a bigger brand, so matches are checked in context.

  • ChatGPT
    0
  • Claude
    3
  • Gemini
    3
  • Mistral
    3
  • Google AI · web
    0
10 ▲3
0
6
3
3
0
2 +1
  • ChatGPT
    0
  • Claude
    6
  • Gemini
    3
  • Mistral
    3
  • Google AI · web
    0
11
3
0
3
0
0
1

Name collision: "Poe" is also a common word or a bigger brand, so matches are checked in context.

  • ChatGPT
    3
  • Claude
    0
  • Gemini
    3
  • Mistral
    0
  • Google AI · web
    0
12 ▼2
0
0
0
6
0
1 -2
  • ChatGPT
    0
  • Claude
    0
  • Gemini
    0
  • Mistral
    6
  • Google AI · web
    0
13 ▼7
0
0
0
3
0
1 -4

Name collision: "Le Chat" is also a common word or a bigger brand, so matches are checked in context.

  • ChatGPT
    0
  • Claude
    0
  • Gemini
    0
  • Mistral
    3
  • Google AI · web
    0
14 ▼3
0
0
3
0
0
1 ±0

Name collision: "Grok" is also a common word or a bigger brand, so matches are checked in context.

  • ChatGPT
    0
  • Claude
    0
  • Gemini
    3
  • Mistral
    0
  • Google AI · web
    0

Google AI is a single web capture of the AI Overview for 6 of the prompts, not the full set, so treat its column as directional. Every other assistant runs the full prompt set once each.

How the numbers moved

One snapshot is a photo. The index is the film. Each monthly run adds a column here, so a climb or a slide shows up as a line, not a number you have to remember.

Score over time · top 6
JunJulAugSepChatGPT52  +6Claude43  +2Gemini39  +5Perplexity32  ±0Microsoft Copilot16  -3Character.AI3  ±0

Does an assistant pick itself?

The sharp question this category asks: when you ask ChatGPT for the best AI app, does it name ChatGPT? When Gemini answers, does it lead with Gemini? Self-preference is read from the open "best AI app" prompts, where no brand is seeded into the question. It extends the engine-bias finding from the other categories. There is no single "AI answer", and here the answer may depend on who you ask in the most literal way.

The surface keeps its incentive

Google's AI Overview, the box hundreds of millions of people see, has the clearest incentive of any surface here to prefer its own Gemini. It does not. Across the six open best-AI-app prompts it names ChatGPT most often (five of six), with Claude and Perplexity next and Gemini in only half, roughly the order the chat models reach. A month it did lean toward Claude, the month before toward Gemini. The self-preference never sticks.