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Finance AI Index
Index › Treasury and cash › Business bill pay › Small business › October 2026 Edition

Business bill pay for small business buyers

Asked as “bill pay platform for businesses”, and as “vendor payments software”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 59 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, fourteen models each.
Standing · first-choice share
42%
Clear leader
42Melio25BILL22Ramp10others

42% of first choices, clear leader.

Since September 2026▼−15Since September 2026: 57% → 42%, −15 points. Past the 10-point floor: movement. Read over the models both editions asked.Melio held the lead, −15 points on 57%, past the floor.

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 fourteen models, for a small B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrantSince September 2026
01Melio42%10%63endorsed leader▼−15Since September 2026: 57% → 42%, −15 points. Past the 10-point floor: movement. Read over the models both editions asked.57% → 42%
02BILL25%31%68criticized challenger▲+5Since September 2026: 23% → 28%, +5 points. Inside the 10-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.23% → 28%
03Ramp22%2%58accepted challenger▲+13Since September 2026: 11% → 24%, +13 points. Past the 10-point floor: movement. Read over the models both editions asked.11% → 24%
04QuickBooks Bill Pay3%11%19accepted challenger=heldSince September 2026: 2% → 2%, ±0 points. Inside the 10-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.2% → 2%
Show the one product at 0%, ordered by negative rate
05Tipalti0%29%21criticized challenger=heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 10-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.0% → 0%

The floor is 10 points of share, measured: how far the models move a leader on their own when the same questions are asked twice with nothing changed. A larger change is movement; a smaller one is noise, and both are shown. Movement is read over the twelve models both editions asked; GPT-6 Luna, Muse Glimmer 30B joined this edition and are in the standing but not yet in the comparison. How the floor is measured

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 fifteen head-to-head pages: the top six 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
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative60%
Key
01Melio42%
02BILL25%
03Ramp22%
04QuickBooks Bill Pay3%
05Tipalti0%

What they warned about

Three of fourteen models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Perplexity Sonar, Grok 4.1 Fast, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Qwen 3.7 Flash, Kimi K2, GLM 4.7 FlashX, GPT-6 Luna and Muse Glimmer 30B 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.
BILL
31%
21 of 68 labels negative · 13 of 14 models · 12 hard negative
“These patterns are the main reason many SMB advisors now flag BILL for caution, especially around cash-flow sensitivity, account freezes and support responsiveness.” Muse Glimmer 30B, negative prompt
Melio
10%
6 of 63 labels negative · 6 of 14 models · 3 hard negative
“Who should avoid it: Businesses with non-traditional addresses (like virtual offices)... anyone who cannot afford to have their operating cash frozen” Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt
Tipalti
29%
6 of 21 labels negative · 5 of 14 models · 1 hard negative
“Avoid BILL.com or Tipalti for now; their minimum costs ($45-$99+/month) are too high” Qwen 3.7 Flash, budget prompt
AvidXchange
80%
4 of 5 labels negative · 4 of 14 models · 2 hard negative
“AvidXchange is a niche AP automation provider that lacks integrated tools for managing a company's complete financial operations.” Llama 4 Maverick, negative prompt

What they cite

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

Sites the answers cite

77 of 84 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 14 of 14 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 1030 links across 172 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page. 7 of the 252 answers across every segment cited this index's own page for the category; the method page measures whether that reading tilts an answer.

vendor site · Ramp56 answers · 129 citations · 14 models
vendor site · BILL48 answers · 110 citations · 13 models
vendor site · Rippling31 answers · 49 citations · 11 models
vendor site · Slash31 answers · 35 citations · 12 models
vendor site · Tipalti26 answers · 37 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Bluevine25 answers · 28 citations · 12 models
25 answers · 28 citations · 11 models
19 answers · 19 citations · 10 models
vendor site · Melio18 answers · 25 citations · 8 models
vendor site · Accounting Seed18 answers · 18 citations · 10 models
17 answers · 22 citations · 8 models
17 answers · 17 citations · 9 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 bill pay platform for businesses”, “bill pay platform for businesses”, “bill pay platforms”. 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
Melio melio.com
Melio 42%, Melio Go 2%
44%27733,10049236,039$1,429603
BILL bill.com
BILL 25%, BILL AP/AR 2%
27%4442,740,0001,063,0011,783,039$199,2311191
Ramp ramp.com22%1042246,00049,733770,056$13,511120
QuickBooks parent site
QuickBooks Bill Pay 3%, QuickBooks Payments 0%
3%591,000,00054,681
QuickBooks quickbooks.ninja
QuickBooks Online 2%
2%6211,000,00054,681253 company
Stripe stripe.com2%361823,000102,7413,226,782$3,6211026
Slash slash.com0%17135,00027,532202,2668
Tipalti tipalti.com0%51718,100381213,652$83,363120
Xero xero.com
Xero Bills 0%
0%1290,5004,6101,200,289 company$500119
Veem veem.com0%15

Google's top ten for the three searches hold 20 sites; 6 of them are among the sites the models cited here (accountingseed.com, bill.com, founderscpa.com, melio.com, rippling.com, wise.com). The first result for “best bill pay platform for businesses” is efficient.app.

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 bill pay platform for businesses for a small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which vendor payments software would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top bill pay platforms for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best bill pay platform for businesses for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating a bill pay platform for businesses. What should we look at?”Negative“Which bill pay platforms should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5no first choiceBILLChanged
Two alternativesMelio, Stampli
Melio, Ramp
Two alternativesBILL, Xero Bills
against: Tipalti
Melio
Three alternativesForwardly, QuickBooks Bill Pay, Ramp
no first choiceagainst: BILL, Melio
GPT-5.4 miniBILL
Two alternativesMelio, Tipalti
BILL, MelioChanged
One alternativeRamp
Melio
Three alternativesAirbase, BILL, Ramp
Ramp
One alternativeBILL
no first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashMelio
Four alternativesBILL, QuickBooks Bill Pay, Ramp, Tipalti
MelioHeld
Five alternativesBILL, GoCardless, Ramp, Resolve Pay, Stripe
against: PayPal, Square
Melio
Four alternativesBILL, MakersHub, Plooto, Ramp
Melio
Two alternativesRamp, Rho
against: BILL
Melio, Ramp
One alternativeAirwallex
against: AvidXchange, BILL, QuickBooks Bill Pay, Tipalti
against: BILL, formerly Bill.com, Bank of America, Chase, Melio, Plooto, QuickBooks Bill Pay, Wells Fargo
Perplexity SonarBILL
Three alternativesMelio, Ramp, Tipalti
BILL, MelioChanged
One alternativePlooto
Melio
Three alternativesBILL, Ramp, Tipalti
Melio, Rampagainst: BILLno first choiceagainst: AvidXchange, BILL, Brex, Generic bank bill pay, Melio, Tipalti
Grok 4.1 FastMelio
Two alternativesBILL, Ramp
BILLChanged
Two alternativesMelio, Veem
BILL
Three alternativesMelio, Ramp, Slash
against: Tipalti
Ramp
Two alternativesMelio, QuickBooks Bill Pay
against: BILL
BILL, Melio, Rampagainst: BILL, Intuit QuickBooks Bill Pay, Plastiq, Tipalti
Mistral SmallBILL
Two alternativesMelio, Ramp
StripeChanged
Two alternativesBILL, Veem
against: PayPal
BILL
Three alternativesRamp, Slash, Tipalti
Melio
One alternativeRamp
no first choiceagainst: AvidXchange, BILL, Brex
DeepSeek V4 FlashRamp
Three alternativesBILL, Melio, Rippling Spend
MelioChanged
Two alternativesBILL, Ramp
BILL
Four alternativesMelio, Ramp, Slash, Xero Bills
Ramp
Two alternativesMelio, QuickBooks Bill Pay
BILL
Four alternativesMelio, Mercury, QuickBooks Bill Pay, Ramp
against: BILL, Gusto Bill Pay, Melio, Stripe Billing
Llama 4 MaverickBILL
Two alternativesBilltrust, Tipalti
BILLHeld
Two alternativesFueler, Veem
no first choiceRamp
Three alternativesBILL, Brex, Slash
no first choice
Three alternativesFinexio, QuickBooks Bill Pay, Xero Bills
against: Corcentric
against: AvidXchange, BILL, Brex
Qwen 3.7 FlashMelio
Three alternativesBILL, QuickBooks Payments, Ramp
QuickBooks OnlineChanged
Three alternativesBILL, Square Invoices, Stripe Connect
Ramp
Two alternativesBILL, Melio
Ramp
Two alternativesMelio, Mercury Bill Pay
against: BILL, Tipalti
no first choiceagainst: BILL
Kimi K2Ramp
Two alternativesBILL, Melio
MelioChanged
One alternativeRamp
against: BILL
Melio, Ramp
One alternativePlooto
against: BILL
Melio, Ramp
One alternativeWise Business
against: BILL
Melio, Ramp
Two alternativesBILL, QuickBooks Bill Pay
against: BILL, Melio, Plastiq
GLM 4.7 FlashXBILL
Two alternativesMelio, Ramp
Melio, QuickBooks Bill PayChanged
Two alternativesBILL AP/AR, Zoho Books
Melio, Ramp
Five alternativesBILL, Plooto, QuickBooks Bill Pay, Tipalti, Yooz
Melio
Three alternativesBank Bill Pay, Expensify, Ramp
no first choiceagainst: BILL, Bluevine
MiniMax M2.5BILL, Melio
Three alternativesQuickBooks Payments, Ramp, Tipalti
BILL, MelioHeld
Three alternativesRamp, Tipalti, Veem
Melio
Three alternativesBILL, Ramp, Tipalti
Melio
Three alternativesBank Bill Pay, QuickBooks Bill Pay, Xero Bills
no first choiceagainst: BILL, Doxo, Ramp
GPT-6 LunaMelio, QuickBooks Bill Pay
One alternativeRamp
MelioChanged
Three alternativesBILL, QuickBooks Bill Pay, Ramp
QuickBooks Bill Pay
Three alternativesBILL, Melio, Ramp
Melio Go
Two alternativesQuickBooks Online, Ramp
no first choiceagainst: BILL, Doxo, Melio
Muse Glimmer 30BBILL, Melio
One alternativeRamp
BILL AP/ARChanged
One alternativeMelio
BILL
Four alternativesMelio, QuickBooks Bill Pay, Ramp, Xero Bills
Melio, Ramp
One alternativeZoho BillPay
against: BILL
no first choiceagainst: BILL, BillGO, Inc.
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
Eighty-four rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 09:07no04 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 08:58yes45 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 09:39yes2325 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 08:42yes204 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 10:38yes229 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 09:50yes54 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 09:50yes2137 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 10:57yes52 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 09:25yes530 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 08:15yes1619 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 10:36yes24121 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 08:01yes1217 s
Direct recommendationGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-01 08:52yes312 s
Direct recommendationMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-01 07:46yes1125 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 08:57yes99 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 09:17yes44 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 09:04yes1524 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 10:00yes194 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 09:12yes248 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 09:13yes53 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 09:23yes2234 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 09:04yes52 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 07:54no036 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 11:01yes2023 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 10:30yes19115 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 08:29yes543 s
ParaphraseGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-01 07:31yes417 s
ParaphraseMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-01 09:07yes1520 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 11:11yes99 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 10:58yes56 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 11:13yes2027 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 10:09yes185 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 08:15yes2010 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 08:39yes88 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 11:21yes1940 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 08:59yes52 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 10:33yes933 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 10:31yes1529 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 09:19yes2292 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 10:38yes1222 s
ComparativeGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-01 10:07yes429 s
ComparativeMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-01 08:39yes1437 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 10:51yes99 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 11:21yes24 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 10:56yes2426 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 10:48yes183 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 11:15yes239 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 09:54yes96 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 08:45yes2331 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 07:42yes51 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 09:08yes527 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 09:07yes1519 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 09:16yes2331 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 08:47yes1020 s
Budget constrainedGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-01 09:33yes314 s
Budget constrainedMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-01 09:01yes1235 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 11:09no06 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 07:40no05 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 07:36yes2236 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 08:14yes185 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 09:08yes146 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 08:26no07 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 08:58yes2233 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 11:04yes53 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 09:29no029 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 10:29yes1322 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 11:08yes1388 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 07:32yes516 s
Scale constrainedGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-01 08:36yes217 s
Scale constrainedMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-01 08:18no03 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 07:32yes1813 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 10:58yes55 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 09:04yes2227 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 09:50yes194 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 10:36yes2112 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 11:01yes54 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 10:44yes2236 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 10:53yes52 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 08:20yes925 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 10:46yes2529 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 09:54yes2396 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 08:09yes1924 s
Negative framingGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-01 08:15yes326 s
Negative framingMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-01 08:37yes2237 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
BILL.com read as BILL
BILL.com (now BILL) read as BILL
Bill.com read as BILL
Bill.com (BILL) read as BILL
Bill.com (now BILL) read as BILL
Bill.com (now called BILL) read as BILL
Divvy read as BILL Spend & Expense
Ramp Bill Pay read as Ramp
Xero read as Xero Bills
Unresolved, counted raw
BillGO, Inc.
BillPay
Divpay
Finexio
Generic bank bill pay
Gusto Bill Pay (powered by Melio)
Intuit QuickBooks Bill Pay
Melio's free tier
R211
Stripe-based bill pay tools
U.S. Bank Bill Pay for Business
Xero Money / Payment Requests
Zoho BillPay
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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