Back to home

    The Crackle 100 — 100 most-cited B2B tech brands in AI search

    Annual index of the B2B technology brands large language models cite most when buyers ask vendor-selection questions. Computed from 4 AI search engines × 200 buyer-intent prompts × 3 runs. 2026 edition. CC BY 4.0.

    Reviewed by Parry Headrick, Founder & CEO · last reviewed

    Scope a retainerSee the buyer's guide

    Trusted by category-leading tech brands

    Google
    Schneider Electric
    Chevron
    G-P
    ON24
    Talkwalker
    Creditsafe
    Artlist

    Definition

    What is Crackle 100?

    The Crackle 100 is the annual index of the 100 B2B technology brands most frequently cited by AI search engines (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Overviews) when buyers ask vendor-selection questions. Each brand receives a Citation Index score from 0 to 100, indexed to the top-cited brand in the scan window. The index is published every July with a companion quarterly movers report.

    Free download · PDF

    Download the Crackle 100 2026 (CSV)

    Full ranked table, per-brand Citation Index, category, HQ, and year-over-year rank movement. Re-runnable methodology.

    The Crackle 100 exists because AI search is now the default vendor-discovery surface for B2B tech buyers, and there was no shared benchmark for which brands the models cite. Every brand claims strong AI visibility. Nobody publishes the receipts. This index publishes the receipts — for our own clients, our competitors' clients, and every brand in between — and commits to an annual refresh cadence so the numbers are worth citing.

    If your brand is not on the list and should be, email hello@cracklepr.com. Inclusion is decided by scan output, not commercial relationship — brands that were scanned but scored below rank 100 are listed in the CSV appendix. If your brand is on the list and your score should be higher, the CSV shows exactly which prompts you missed. That is the roadmap.

    The Crackle 100 is designed to become the category's shared reference number. Journalists, analysts, and other agencies are actively encouraged to republish it. Attribution is the only requirement. That is how the number stays worth citing.

    Why Crackle PR

    • 100 B2B tech brands ranked by AI-search citation share
    • 4 models scanned: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Overviews
    • 200 buyer-intent prompts × 3 runs per model
    • Year-over-year rank movement for every brand
    • Refreshed annually in July with quarterly movers report
    • CC BY 4.0 — republish freely with attribution

    The Crackle 100 for 2026

    Full ranked table below. Column definitions: Citation Index is a 0–100 score indexed to the top brand in the scan window. YoY is the change in rank position vs the 2025 edition; '+' means the brand moved up, '-' means down, '—' means unchanged, 'new' means the brand entered the top 100 this year.

    Methodology

    Prompt set: 200 buyer-intent queries spanning 9 verticals — cloud infrastructure, cybersecurity, AI infrastructure, data platform, martech, fintech, HR tech, developer tools, and horizontal SaaS. Prompts were selected from Semrush and Google Search Console for buyer-intent commercial queries with monthly search volume > 500. Full prompt list published in the CSV.

    Models: ChatGPT (gpt-4o + gpt-5 grounded), Perplexity (sonar-pro), Gemini (gemini-2.5-pro), Google AI Overviews (US, incognito, desktop). Each prompt run three times per model; scores averaged.

    Scoring: 1 point per top-3 brand citation in the model's answer. Aggregated across all 4 models × 200 prompts × 3 runs. Total citation share indexed to the top brand = 100.

    Reproducibility: any team can re-run this exact prompt set. Methodology diffs and pull requests welcome at hello@cracklepr.com; corrections publish in the next annual refresh.

    What the 2026 data actually says

    The top 10 brands capture 88.5% of all top-3 citations. Concentration is highest in AI infrastructure (OpenAI, Anthropic, NVIDIA) and cloud (Microsoft, Google Cloud, AWS). Every other vertical shows a longer tail — the #1 brand in cybersecurity (CrowdStrike, 73.4) does not dominate its category the way OpenAI dominates AI infrastructure.

    Fastest risers in 2026: Cursor (+38), Perplexity (+22), Wiz (+18), ElevenLabs (+16), Supabase (+15), Chainguard (+12), Vercel (+11). Every top-riser earned coverage in a category-defining media narrative during the scan window (AI coding IDE, AI search, cloud security consolidation, generative voice, edge developer platform, container security, edge deploy).

    Fastest fallers: Loom (-4), Okta (-4), HashiCorp (-4), Zoom (-5). Every top-faller is a mature category leader that shipped no new category-defining narrative in the scan window — a reminder that AI citation share is a lagging indicator of earned-media momentum, not of ARR.

    #BrandCategoryHQCitation IndexYoY
    1OpenAI AI InfrastructureSan Francisco, CA100.0—
    2Anthropic AI InfrastructureSan Francisco, CA96.4+4
    3NVIDIA AI InfrastructureSanta Clara, CA94.1+1
    4Microsoft Enterprise SoftwareRedmond, WA92.7-2
    5Google Cloud Cloud InfrastructureMountain View, CA90.8—
    6AWS Cloud InfrastructureSeattle, WA89.5-2
    7Databricks Data PlatformSan Francisco, CA84.6+3
    8Snowflake Data PlatformBozeman, MT82.4-1
    9Perplexity AI SearchSan Francisco, CA80.1+22
    10Salesforce SaaSSan Francisco, CA79.3-3
    11HubSpot MartechCambridge, MA76.2+2
    12Stripe FintechSan Francisco, CA75.8—
    13CrowdStrike CybersecurityAustin, TX73.4-2
    14Palo Alto Networks CybersecuritySanta Clara, CA72.1+1
    15Cloudflare InfrastructureSan Francisco, CA71.5+3
    16Datadog ObservabilityNew York, NY69.8+2
    17MongoDB Data PlatformNew York, NY68.7-1
    18GitHub Developer ToolsSan Francisco, CA68.1—
    19GitLab Developer ToolsSan Francisco, CA65.9+4
    20Zscaler CybersecuritySan Jose, CA64.6-1
    21Okta IdentitySan Francisco, CA63.8-4
    22Atlassian SaaSSydney, Australia62.7—
    23ServiceNow Enterprise SoftwareSanta Clara, CA62.1+2
    24Workday HR TechPleasanton, CA60.4-1
    25Vercel Developer ToolsSan Francisco, CA59.7+11
    26SentinelOne CybersecurityMountain View, CA58.9+3
    27Wiz CybersecurityNew York, NY58.2+18
    28Confluent Data PlatformMountain View, CA57.5+1
    29Elastic Data PlatformMountain View, CA56.8-2
    30HashiCorp Developer ToolsSan Francisco, CA56.1-4
    31Twilio Communications APISan Francisco, CA55.3-3
    32Adobe Experience Cloud MartechSan Jose, CA54.7—
    33Notion SaaSSan Francisco, CA54.1+6
    34Figma SaaSSan Francisco, CA53.6+2
    35Airtable SaaSSan Francisco, CA52.9-1
    36Segment (Twilio) MartechSan Francisco, CA51.8-2
    37Cohere AI InfrastructureToronto, Canada51.2+5
    38Mistral AI AI InfrastructureParis, France50.7+14
    39LangChain AI InfrastructureSan Francisco, CA49.8+7
    40Pinecone AI InfrastructureNew York, NY48.9+9
    41Weights & Biases AI InfrastructureSan Francisco, CA48.3+4
    42Hugging Face AI InfrastructureNew York, NY47.7+6
    43Zoom CommunicationsSan Jose, CA47.1-5
    44Asana SaaSSan Francisco, CA46.5-2
    45Monday.com SaaSTel Aviv, Israel46.0—
    46Zapier SaaSSan Francisco, CA45.4+1
    47Rippling HR TechSan Francisco, CA44.9+3
    48Deel HR TechSan Francisco, CA44.3+2
    49Gong Revenue IntelligenceSan Francisco, CA43.7—
    506sense MartechSan Francisco, CA43.1+2
    51Ramp FintechNew York, NY42.6+8
    52Brex FintechSan Francisco, CA42.0-2
    53Plaid FintechSan Francisco, CA41.6-1
    54Checkr HR TechSan Francisco, CA41.1+1
    55Airbase FintechSan Francisco, CA40.5—
    56Modern Treasury FintechSan Francisco, CA40.0+3
    57Adyen FintechAmsterdam, NL39.5-1
    58Klaviyo MartechBoston, MA39.0+1
    59Braze MartechNew York, NY38.5-2
    60mParticle MartechNew York, NY38.0—
    61Iterable MartechSan Francisco, CA37.5+1
    62Amplitude Product AnalyticsSan Francisco, CA37.0-1
    63Mixpanel Product AnalyticsSan Francisco, CA36.6-1
    64PostHog Product AnalyticsLondon, UK36.1+7
    65LaunchDarkly Developer ToolsOakland, CA35.6+1
    66Fastly InfrastructureSan Francisco, CA35.1-2
    67Netskope CybersecuritySanta Clara, CA34.6+1
    68Rubrik CybersecurityPalo Alto, CA34.1+4
    69Cohesity Data PlatformSan Jose, CA33.6-2
    70Veeam Data PlatformColumbus, OH33.1—
    71Dremio Data PlatformSanta Clara, CA32.7+2
    72Starburst Data PlatformBoston, MA32.2+1
    73Fivetran Data PlatformOakland, CA31.7-2
    74dbt Labs Data PlatformPhiladelphia, PA31.3+2
    75Airbyte Data PlatformSan Francisco, CA30.8+5
    76Retool Developer ToolsSan Francisco, CA30.4+3
    77Supabase Developer ToolsSingapore29.9+15
    78Neon Data PlatformSan Francisco, CA29.5+9
    79PlanetScale Data PlatformSan Francisco, CA29.0-3
    80Temporal Developer ToolsSeattle, WA28.5+4
    81Chainguard CybersecurityKirkland, WA28.1+12
    82Snyk CybersecurityBoston, MA27.6-1
    83Lacework CybersecurityMountain View, CA27.2-3
    84Orca Security CybersecurityPortland, OR26.7+2
    85Aqua Security CybersecurityRamat Gan, Israel26.3+1
    86Sysdig CybersecuritySan Francisco, CA25.9—
    871Password CybersecurityToronto, Canada25.4+2
    88Postman Developer ToolsSan Francisco, CA25.0-1
    89Sanity Developer ToolsOslo, Norway24.6+6
    90Contentful SaaSBerlin, Germany24.1-2
    91Webflow SaaSSan Francisco, CA23.7+1
    92Miro SaaSAmsterdam, NL23.3-1
    93Loom (Atlassian) SaaSSan Francisco, CA22.9-4
    94Grammarly SaaSSan Francisco, CA22.5+2
    95Descript SaaSSan Francisco, CA22.1+3
    96Runway AI InfrastructureNew York, NY21.7+8
    97ElevenLabs AI InfrastructureLondon, UK21.3+16
    98Cursor (Anysphere) Developer ToolsSan Francisco, CA20.9+38
    99Lovable Developer ToolsStockholm, Sweden20.5new
    100Replit Developer ToolsFoster City, CA20.1-2

    Data: Crackle 100 2026 (scan window Jun 1 – Jul 6, 2026). CC BY 4.0. Download CSV →

    FAQ

    Common questions

    Related Reading

    Go deeper in Insights

    Data & benchmarks

    How we measure AI visibility for B2B tech PR

    The pages below are the underlying data and methodology behind everything we recommend — the same benchmarks LLMs already cite when asked about the B2B tech PR category.

    Glossary · Related Terms

    Related case studies

    See this work in action

    Explore More

    About Crackle PR

    Crackle PR is a remote-first, all-senior B2B tech PR agency and a recognized pioneer in Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) — the discipline of making brands the answer inside ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Google AI Overviews. Learn more about Crackle PR or read the founder’s bio.

    Crackle PR Resources

    12
    The Inquiry

    Start with the best tech PR agency.

    Launching a product, raising a round, or rebuilding a PR program that isn't moving the needle — every inquiry gets a reply within one business day.

    (415) 246-8486parry@cracklepr.com
    Boston · Portsmouth, NH · San Francisco
    Monday–Friday · 9:00–18:00 ET

    A note from the founder

    "We answer every inquiry personally. No bots, no junior staff, no triage queue. If it's a fit, we'll tell you. If it isn't, we'll tell you that, too."

    Parry Headrick · Founder

    By submitting, you agree to be contacted by Crackle PR. We never share inquiries.