AI Indexes
Finance AI Index
September 2026 Edition, published September 17, 2026 · The permanent record of that edition, superseded since. The current standing is on the category page →
Index › Tax and compliance › Sales tax automation › Enterprise › September 2026 Edition

Sales tax automation for enterprise buyers

Asked as “sales tax compliance software”, and as “sales tax calculation and filing tool”, on behalf of an enterprise B2B company. 56 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing · first-choice share
48%
Clear leader
48Vertex30Avalara AvaTax09TaxJar12others

48% of first choices, clear leader.

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.

The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for an enterprise B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Vertex48%8%76endorsed leader
02Avalara AvaTax30%21%77endorsed leader
03TaxJar9%58%36criticized challenger
04Thomson Reuters ONESOURCE4%3%33accepted challenger
05Sovos2%9%53accepted challenger
06Stripe Tax2%54%13criticized challenger
Show the two products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
08Anrok0%32%19criticized challenger
07CCH SureTax0%0%10accepted challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its product page.
All ten head-to-head pages: the top five products, each against each

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
C07
08
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative60%
Key
01Vertex48%
02Avalara AvaTax30%
03TaxJar9%
04Thomson Reuters ONESOURCE4%
05Sovos2%
06Stripe Tax2%
07CCH SureTax0%
08Anrok0%

What they warned about

Three of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Grok 4.1 Fast, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Llama 4 Maverick, 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.
TaxJar
58%
21 of 36 labels negative · 13 of 12 models · 11 hard negative
“Key Tools/Categories to Avoid or Approach Cautiously: 1. **TaxJar (now part of Stripe)**: ... declining support quality, inconsistent module integration” Grok 4.1 Fast, negative prompt
Avalara AvaTax
21%
16 of 77 labels negative · 9 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“**Avoid or heavily scrutinize:** Avalara (support/pricing issues)” Kimi K2, negative prompt
TaxCloud
88%
7 of 8 labels negative · 7 of 12 models · 5 hard negative
“Avoid US-only / SMB-first tools for global footprints. The reporting features are better suited to growing mid-market brands than large global enterprises for platforms such as TaxCloud.” Muse Glimmer 30B, negative prompt
Anrok
32%
6 of 19 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“**Avoid transaction-based traps**: TaxJar/Stripe Tax/Anrok are cheaper starters” Grok 4.1 Fast, budget prompt

What they cite

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

Sites the answers cite

78 of 84 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 14 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 1105 links across 162 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

vendor site · TaxCloud54 answers · 107 citations · 12 models
vendor site · Guideflow50 answers · 89 citations · 12 models
vendor site · Taxwire45 answers · 60 citations · 12 models
vendor site · Avalara43 answers · 93 citations · 13 models
vendor site · Zamp43 answers · 71 citations · 12 models
vendor site · G230 answers · 31 citations · 11 models
vendor site · Galvix25 answers · 27 citations · 12 models
vendor site · Thomson Reuters23 answers · 35 citations · 10 models
vendor site · G220 answers · 39 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Commenda20 answers · 34 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Worldmetrics20 answers · 30 citations · 8 models
vendor site · Anrok20 answers · 24 citations · 7 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.

Search against answers

Each company's standing in the answers beside its site's footprint in Google search, one row a site: the products the models named on it with their shares, and the share they add up to; monthly searches on Google, and DataForSEO's estimate of AI search demand (modeled from search signals, directional, not a count of queries to any assistant), for the most-searched of the company's and its products' names (the name is in each row's hover text); estimated monthly organic visits to the site; and its best position in Google's top ten for “best sales tax compliance software”, “sales tax compliance software”, “sales tax tools”. US estimates from DataForSEO and Google's Ads Transparency Center. A small company's site, or a mid-sized company's site for its flagship, is marked company; a product on a large parent's site (Google, Microsoft) has no site figures. A column with no figures for this category is left out, and an empty cell means none were seen, not none exist. Two measurements side by side: neither is read as the cause of the other.
Company and productsShareOwn site citedName searches, GoogleAI search demand, est.Organic visitsPaid search a month, est.Google ads, last 30 daysBest Google position
Vertex vertexinc.com48%226110,00013,80732,080$3,975696
Avalara avalara.com
Avalara AvaTax 30%, Avalara Select 0%
30%19327,1007032,604,517 company$21,4701081
TaxJar taxjar.com9%1746,60063181,783$119552
Sphere getsphere.com5%13
Thomson Reuters thomsonreuters.com
Thomson Reuters ONESOURCE 4%
4%9259053,055,379 company$3131203
Sovos sovos.com
Sovos 2%, Sovos Compliance Cloud 0%
2%803,60022095,95193
Stripe parent site
Stripe Tax 2%
2%79823,000102,741
CCH SureTax0%700
Zamp zamp.com0%322,90026224,260$5888
Anrok anrok.com0%663,6004312,295$1,852855

Google's top ten for the three searches hold 15 sites; 5 of them are among the sites the models cited here (anrok.com, avalara.com, galvix.com, tax.thomsonreuters.com, taxcloud.com). The first result for “best sales tax compliance software” is avalara.com.

How 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.
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ModelDirect“What is the best sales tax compliance software for an enterprise B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which sales tax calculation and filing tool would you recommend to a large B2B company with thousands of employees?”Comparative“What are the top enterprise-grade sales tax tools and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best sales tax compliance software for a large company that needs predictable total cost across thousands of users?”Scale-constrained“We are a 5,000 person company with SSO, SOC 2 and procurement review requirements evaluating a sales tax compliance software. What should we look at?”Negative“Which sales tax tools should a large enterprise avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Avalara AvaTax
Four alternativesSovos, Taxwire, Vertex, Zamp
no first choiceChangedVertex
Three alternativesAvalara AvaTax, Sovos, Thomson Reuters ONESOURCE
Sphereagainst: Avalara AvaTax, Vertexno first choiceagainst: Avalara AvaTax, Sovos, TaxCloud, TaxJar, Vertex
GPT-5.4 miniVertex
Two alternativesAvalara AvaTax, Sovos
Avalara AvaTaxChangedno first choiceVertex
One alternativeAvalara AvaTax
against: TaxJar
no first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashVertex
Seven alternativesAnrok, Avalara AvaTax, Commenda, Kintsugi, Sovos, Taxwire, Zamp
Avalara AvaTax, VertexChanged
Three alternativesAnrok, Sovos, Thomson Reuters ONESOURCE Determination
Vertex
Four alternativesAnrok, Avalara AvaTax, Sovos, Thomson Reuters ONESOURCE
Vertex
Two alternativesCereTax, Zamp
against: Avalara AvaTax
Sovos, Vertex
Two alternativesAnrok, Avalara AvaTax
against: Anrok, Avalara AvaTax, Lemon Squeezy, Magento, Numeral, Paddle, Shopify Tax, TaxCloud, TaxJar, WooCommerce
Perplexity SonarVertex
Two alternativesAvalara AvaTax, Thomson Reuters ONESOURCE
VertexHeld
Three alternativesAvalara AvaTax, CCH SureTax, Thomson Reuters ONESOURCE
Vertex
Four alternativesAvalara AvaTax, CCH SureTax, Sovos, Thomson Reuters ONESOURCE
Avalara AvaTax
Two alternativesThomson Reuters ONESOURCE, Vertex
Vertex
Four alternativesAnrok, Avalara AvaTax, Sovos, Thomson Reuters ONESOURCE
against: Anrok, TaxCloud, TaxJar
Grok 4.1 FastVertex
Three alternativesAvalara AvaTax, Sovos, Wolters Kluwer's CCH SureTax
Avalara AvaTax, VertexChanged
One alternativeSovos
against: Stripe Tax, TaxJar, TaxValet
Avalara AvaTax, Vertex
Three alternativesCCH SureTax, Sovos, Thomson Reuters ONESOURCE
against: Stripe Tax, TaxJar
Vertex
One alternativeSovos
against: Anrok, Avalara AvaTax, Stripe Tax, TaxJar
Avalara AvaTax
Three alternativesSovos, Thomson Reuters ONESOURCE, Vertex
against: TaxJar
against: Avalara AvaTax, Numeral, TaxCloud, TaxJar
Mistral SmallAvalara AvaTax, Vertex
One alternativeSovos
Avalara AvaTax, VertexHeldAvalara AvaTax
Three alternativesCommenda, Sovos, Vertex
TaxJaragainst: Avalara AvaTax, Vertexno first choicenothing named
DeepSeek V4 FlashVertex
Two alternativesAvalara AvaTax, Sovos
Avalara AvaTaxChanged
One alternativeVertex
Avalara AvaTax
Four alternativesCereTax, Sovos Intelligent Compliance Cloud, Thomson Reuters ONESOURCE, Vertex
Vertex
One alternativeAvalara AvaTax
against: Sovos
Avalara AvaTax
Four alternativesCCH SureTax, Sovos, Thomson Reuters ONESOURCE, Vertex
against: TaxJar
against: Anrok, ChatGPT, Quaderno, Stripe Tax, TaxGPT, TaxJar
Llama 4 MaverickStripe Tax, TaxJar, VertexTaxJarChanged
Two alternativesAvalara AvaTax, Stripe Tax
no first choiceTaxJar, Thomson Reuters ONESOURCEno first choiceagainst: TaxCloud, TaxJar
Qwen 3.7 FlashAvalara AvaTax, Vertex
Three alternativesSAI360, TaxJar, Waystar
against: Thomson Reuters ONESOURCE
Avalara AvaTax, VertexHeld
Two alternativesSovos Compliance Suite, Thomson Reuters ONESOURCE
Avalara AvaTax, Vertex
Two alternativesCommenda, Sovos
Sphere
Two alternativesAvalara AvaTax, Vertex
no first choiceagainst: Avalara AvaTax, Numeral, Simly, Sovos, Stripe Tax, TaxJar, Vertex
Kimi K2Avalara AvaTax
Three alternativesCCH SureTax, Sovos, Vertex
VertexChanged
Two alternativesSovos, Thomson Reuters ONESOURCE
against: Avalara AvaTax
Avalara AvaTax
Five alternativesAnrok, Sovos, TaxJar, Thomson Reuters ONESOURCE, Vertex
Vertex
Three alternativesSovos, Thomson Reuters ONESOURCE, Zamp
against: Avalara AvaTax, Stripe Tax, TaxJar
Avalara AvaTax
Two alternativesSovos, Vertex
against: TaxJar
against: Avalara AvaTax, TaxJar
GLM 4.7 FlashXno first choiceThomson Reuters ONESOURCEChanged
Three alternativesAvalara AvaTax, Sovos Compliance Cloud, Vertex Cloud
Avalara AvaTax, Vertex
Five alternativesAnrok, Sovos, TaxJar, Wolters Kluwer, Zamp
TaxJaragainst: Avalara AvaTax, Vertexno first choiceagainst: Avalara AvaTax, Sovos, TaxJar
MiniMax M2.5Avalara AvaTax, Vertex
Three alternativesFonoa, Sovos, Thomson Reuters ONESOURCE
Avalara AvaTaxChanged
One alternativeVertex Cloud
against: TaxJar
Avalara AvaTax
Three alternativesSovos, Thomson Reuters ONESOURCE, Vertex
Avalara AvaTax
Three alternativesSovos, Thomson Reuters ONESOURCE, Vertex
no first choiceagainst: Anrok, Avalara AvaTax, Numeralagainst: Avalara AvaTax, TaxCloud, TaxJar
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

The 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-4-5-202510012026-10-01 11:11yes96 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 09:13yes39 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 07:53yes2227 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 08:55yes204 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 10:48yes2411 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 09:05yes109 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 10:55yes2338 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 09:56yes52 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 10:01no030 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 09:32yes1016 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 09:18yes1348 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 11:00yes818 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 08:50no04 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 08:19yes24 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 11:03yes1324 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 10:43yes203 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 09:57yes239 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 08:14yes137 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 10:32yes2427 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 08:40yes52 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 09:23yes520 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 09:26yes2025 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 07:45yes1518 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 09:22no030 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 07:37yes98 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 08:20yes811 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 09:43yes1526 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 10:24yes184 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 08:27yes2311 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 11:14yes129 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 11:01yes2160 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 08:55yes52 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 10:35yes1044 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 09:38yes2026 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 07:48yes1526 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 09:51yes1942 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 10:14yes1611 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 08:13yes47 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 08:02yes1727 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 09:49yes204 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 08:21yes2211 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 08:36yes53 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 10:27yes2255 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 07:36yes52 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 10:43yes1862 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 09:03yes2231 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 10:06yes23124 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 08:21yes1853 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 09:51yes1811 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 11:14no09 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 10:03yes1124 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 09:00yes2310 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 11:30yes2012 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 11:02no06 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 10:20yes2447 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 07:59yes52 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 09:30no027 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 08:11yes2435 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 08:37yes1822 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 08:27yes519 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 09:29yes1612 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 09:16yes56 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 10:11yes1727 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 10:49yes193 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 11:18yes208 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 07:56yes59 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 10:52yes2152 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 11:06yes53 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 10:04yes544 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 11:17yes2423 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 10:56yes2440 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 08:18yes1640 s

Normalization in this category

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

ShowHide
Category-scoped readings
Avalara read as Avalara AvaTax
Avalara (AvaTax Enterprise & CertCapture) read as Avalara AvaTax
Avalara (AvaTax Enterprise) read as Avalara AvaTax
Avalara (AvaTax) read as Avalara AvaTax
Avalara (by Thomson Reuters) read as Avalara AvaTax
ONESOURCE read as Thomson Reuters ONESOURCE
Shopify (Shopify Tax) read as Shopify Tax
Thomson Reuters read as Thomson Reuters ONESOURCE
Thomson Reuters (ONESOURCE) read as Thomson Reuters ONESOURCE
Vertex O Series read as Vertex
Vertex O Series (or Vertex Cloud) read as Vertex
Wolters Kluwer CCH SureTax read as CCH SureTax
Unresolved, counted raw
Kintone
Magento (native tables)
SAP Document and Reporting Compliance
Simly
SmartExempt
Sovos Compliance Suite
Sovos Intelligent Compliance Cloud
Thomson Reuters ONESOURCE Determination
Vertex Cloud
Waystar
WooCommerce
tax.com
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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