Small business▲+6Since September 2026: 6% → 12%, +6 points. Inside the 10-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.
12%from 6% in September 2026
Inside the floor by 4 pointsRank 10 → 4 of 103
11 categories · RankedMicrosoft Excel
157Judge labels
18First choices
109Negative labels
14 / 14Models named it
11Categories
October 2026 Edition. Every number here is derived from the raw labels under vendor table v2026-10.7, every buyer segment counted.
Best standing
14% in Financial modeling for mid-market buyers
Rank 1 of 77 in the mid-market standingaccepted challenger
0 of 14 models made it the first choice on the direct prompt; 24% of its 17 labels there were negative.
What the models named instead of Microsoft Excel →By buyer segmentStrongest at mid-market.
Small business2 of 106
14%22 labels
accepted challenger
Mid-market1 of 77
14%17 labels
accepted challenger
Enterprise122 of 125
0%7 labels
under the label threshold
In financial modeling · each standing computed within its segment · bars are 0 to 100 · the accent bar is the product's own best reading
Standing by category
Every category where a model named Microsoft Excel for a mid-market B2B company. Share is first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts; rank is within every product named in that category.
| Category | Function | Share | Rank | Negative rate | Labels | Quadrant | Since September 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Financial modeling and scenario planning | Planning and analysis | 14% | 1 of 77 | 24% | 17 | accepted challenger | ▲+2Since September 2026: 11% → 12%, +2 points. Inside the 10-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. |
| Cash flow forecasting | Treasury and cash | 2% | 24 of 101 | 71% | 7 | under 10 labels · led by Agicap at 13% | ▲+2Since September 2026: 0% → 2%, +2 points. Inside the 10-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. |
| Financial consolidation | Accounting and close | 0% | 100 of 102 | 67% | 6 | under 10 labels · led by Prophix at 24% | =heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 10-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. |
| Account reconciliation | Accounting and close | 0% | 82 of 82 | 100% | 5 | under 10 labels · led by FloQast at 33% | =heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 10-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. |
| Entity management | Equity and corporate | 0% | 81 of 81 | 100% | 5 | under 10 labels · led by Athennian at 41% | =heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 10-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. |
| Internal controls and SOX | Tax and compliance | 0% | 90 of 90 | 80% | 5 | under 10 labels · led by FloQast at 25% | =heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 10-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. |
| Financial reporting and dashboards | Planning and analysis | 0% | 102 of 105 | 75% | 4 | under 10 labels · led by Sage Intacct at 33% | =heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 10-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. |
| Board and investor reporting | Planning and analysis | 0% | 96 of 99 | 100% | 2 | under 10 labels · led by OnBoard at 26% | =heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 10-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. |
| Corporate tax provision | Tax and compliance | 0% | 100 of 102 | 100% | 2 | under 10 labels · led by Thomson Reuters ONESOURCE Tax Provision at 21% | ▼−2Since September 2026: 2% → 0%, −2 points. Inside the 10-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. |
| Accounting software | Accounting and close | 0% | 48 of 55 | 100% | 1 | under 10 labels · led by Sage Intacct at 44% | newNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 0% now. |
| Lease accounting | Accounting and close | 0% | 69 of 71 | 100% | 1 | under 10 labels · led by FinQuery at 29% | =heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 10-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. |
Movement
Since September 2026, Microsoft Excel held within the floor in all eleven categories: no change cleared 10 points.
Best category · Financial modeling · by segment
Mid-market▲+2Since September 2026: 11% → 12%, +2 points. Inside the 10-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.
12%from 11% in September 2026
Inside the floor by 8 pointsRank 4 → 3 of 75
Enterprise=heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 10-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.
0%from 0% in September 2026
Inside the floor by 10 pointsRank 90 → 108 of 111
All categories · Mid-market
| Category | September 2026 | Now | Change | Reading | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Corporate tax provision | 2% | 0% | ▼−2Since September 2026: 2% → 0%, −2 points. Inside the 10-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. | Within noise | Rank 10 → 100 of 102 |
| Cash flow forecasting | 0% | 2% | ▲+2Since September 2026: 0% → 2%, +2 points. Inside the 10-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. | Within noise | Rank 82 → 24 of 101 |
| Financial modeling | 11% | 12% | ▲+2Since September 2026: 11% → 12%, +2 points. Inside the 10-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. | Within noise | Rank 4 → 1 of 77 |
| Financial consolidation | 0% | 0% | =heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 10-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. | Within noise | Rank 92 → 100 of 102 |
| Account reconciliation | 0% | 0% | =heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 10-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. | Within noise | Rank 70 → 82 of 82 |
| Entity management | 0% | 0% | =heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 10-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. | Within noise | Rank 83 → 81 of 81 |
| Internal controls | 0% | 0% | =heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 10-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. | Within noise | Rank 70 → 90 of 90 |
| Financial reporting | 0% | 0% | =heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 10-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. | Within noise | Rank 131 → 102 of 105 |
| Board | 0% | 0% | =heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 10-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. | Within noise | Rank 87 → 96 of 99 |
| Accounting software | 0% | 0% | newNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 0% now. | New this edition | Rank 48 of 55, unchanged |
| Lease accounting | 0% | 0% | =heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 10-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. | Within noise | Rank 59 → 69 of 71 |
Shares here are read over the models both editions asked, so they can differ by a point or two from the standing above, which counts every model in this edition.
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 · The editions
By model
How each model treated Microsoft Excel across every prompt where it was named for a mid-market B2B company. Fourteen models, six prompts per category.ShowHide
By model
How each model treated Microsoft Excel across every prompt where it was named for a mid-market B2B company. Fourteen models, six prompts per category.
ShowHide| Model | First choice | Alternative | Mention | Negative | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| GPT-5.4 mini | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | 1 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 12 |
| Perplexity Sonar | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 5 |
| Grok 4.1 Fast | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 6 |
| Mistral Small | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 6 |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Llama 4 Maverick | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | 1 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 8 |
| Kimi K2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4 |
| MiniMax M2.5 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| GPT-6 Luna | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Muse Glimmer 30B | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
By framing
Which of the six questions produced the naming. By model says how often; this says asked what. The first-choice count on the right carries the marks of the models that produced it.
FramingLabels by classFirst choices
Direct5 labels1
Paraphrase2 labelsNone
Comparative7 labels2not counted in share
Budget-constrained39 labels17
Scale-constrained4 labelsNone
Negative100 labelsNone
First choiceAlternativeMentionNegative157 labels in all, every segment counted; 18 of the 20 first choices count toward share, since the comparative and negative framings do not. The bar is one segment per label class, to scale within the framing.
What the models said for it
Verbatim evidence the judge attached to positive labels.
“If you want to project a company's budget/revenue, use Excel for flexibility, or Cube to automate it.” Gemini 3.5 Flash · Financial modeling · comparative prompt · first choice
“If your company already pays for Microsoft 365, use Excel instead rather than buying another tool.” GPT-6 Luna · Financial modeling · budget prompt · first choice
“the best choice is usually Microsoft Excel if you need maximum flexibility at the lowest cost” Perplexity Sonar · Financial modeling · budget prompt · first choice
“If you're on a tight budget, start with free tools (Excel, Wave, Cash Flow Frog, or Lunos).” GLM 4.7 FlashX · Cash flow forecasting · budget prompt · first choice
And against it
Verbatim evidence attached to negative labels. A warning on a product with few labels is a warning; on a product with many, it is one voice among them.
“Excel-based financial reporting "opens a company to a wide range of risks from data integrity issues, security vulnerabilities and version-control problems."→avoid spreadsheets as a system of record” Muse Glimmer 30B · Financial reporting · negative prompt · hard negative
“Spreadsheets like Excel or Google Sheets: they are widely used, but they are prone to manual data-entry errors, formula mistakes, and stale data, which makes them risky” Perplexity Sonar · Cash flow forecasting · negative prompt · hard negative
“Avoid using shared Excel files where multiple users have "Edit" access simultaneously. This overwrites audit trails and allows unauthorized changes.” Qwen 3.7 Flash · Internal controls · negative prompt · hard negative
“many experts recommend phasing it out of primary reconciliation workflows due to its complexity, lack of scalability, and high risk of errors” Mistral Small · Account reconciliation · negative prompt · hard negative
Named alongside
The products named in the same answers as Microsoft Excel, over the 157 answers that named it. Took the first choice instead counts the answers where the other product was the first choice and Microsoft Excel was named but was not.ShowHide
Named alongside
The products named in the same answers as Microsoft Excel, over the 157 answers that named it. Took the first choice instead counts the answers where the other product was the first choice and Microsoft Excel was named but was not.
ShowHideProductSame answerTook the first choice insteadHead to head
A head-to-head page exists where both products are among a category's top eight. The other rows are the same fact without a page behind them, so they link to the product instead.
What carried it into the answer
The sites and pages cited by the answers that named Microsoft Excel. A fact about retrieval, not a lever on the model.
Citations exist only for the models that return a source list, five of the fourteen in this edition, so these counts come from 137 of the 157 answers that named Microsoft Excel and are not a share of its labels.
Domains cited
worldmetrics.org35
cubesoftware.com29
drivetrain.ai29
guideflow.com27
gitnux.org25
datarails.com24
g2.com24
prophix.com23
fathomhq.com21
reddit.com19
256 of the 256 domain citations in answers naming Microsoft Excel came from somebody else's page.
Pages cited
Pages are listed as the models cited them.
Search and answers
Where Microsoft Excel stands in Google search beside where it stands in the models' answers.ShowHide
Search and answers
Where Microsoft Excel stands in Google search beside where it stands in the models' answers.
ShowHideIn search
Google, US estimatesPosition for “modeling tools”
–
not in the top ten
Position for “financial modeling software”
–
not in the top ten
- Searches for its name, Google
- 135,000 a month (“microsoft excel”)
- AI search demand for its name, est.
- 4,387 a month
- Organic visits to its site
- about 145,358,109 a month
- Searches its site ranks for
- 2,421,769 · 793,520 in the top three
- Sites linking to it
- 2,904,433
- Paid Google search
- 56 searches its ads show for, about 705 clicks and $12,455 a month (estimate)
In answers
This editionShare of first choices
14%
rank 1 of 77 in financial modeling
First choices
18
across its categories
- Named in
- 157 answers
- Its own site cited
- in 137 of the answers that named it
Search figures are US estimates from DataForSEO, read September 28, 2026; AI search demand is its modeled, directional estimate, not a count of queries to any assistant. The answers are this edition's. Two measurements side by side: neither is read as the cause of the other.
What it publishes
ShowHide
What it publishes
ShowHideAddresses on microsoft.com
10,448
subdomains included
Content
146
counted in the table below
Documentation
10
Product · Integration
1,142 · 20
| Kind | Pages | Last 90 days | 2025-10 to 2026-09 | Latest | Categories named |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glossary or explainer | 44 | undated | |||
| Comparison | 30 | undated | |||
| News or press | 27 | 10 | 2026-09-28 | ||
| Blog | 25 | 4 | 2026-09-24 | ||
| Case study | 12 | undated | |||
| Conference or event | 5 | undated | |||
| Template or tool | 2 | undated | |||
| Report or ebook | 1 | 0 | 2025-12-02 |
Most recent
- 2026-09-28At nasa ai is helping scientists unlock discoveries hidden in decades of data news or press
- 2026-09-24Rockwell automation pairs ai with decades of shop floor know how so workers can solve glitches faster news or press
- 2026-09-24Run assert eval responsible ai agent risk discovery at runtime blog
- 2026-09-23On the issues blog
- 2026-09-22When disaster strikes ai helps responders reach people more quickly news or press
- 2026-09-21Microsoft datacenter academy helps launch tech careers news or press
How it is countedHide how it is counted
Every page microsoft.com exposes, subdomains included. Kind is read from the address and title. The last 90 days, the latest date and the twelve months count pages by when they were published, from the site's feeds, a date in the address, or the page's own publication date, read from up to a hundred of its most recently changed pages; a page that says only when it last changed is counted in its kind but not in when, so the recent counts are a floor, and a kind none of whose pages gives a publication date reads undated. An event counts as online when its address or title says so (webinar, on demand, virtual or online summit); a conference, summit, trade show, expo or roadshow that does not say so is counted as a conference or event, which on a vendor's site is mostly in person. Read September 29, 2026.
Names read as Microsoft Excel
What the judge wrote, as written, with how often. The vendor table decides that these count as Microsoft Excel; a claim can dispute any of them.
Excel 30Excel + Power BI/Office 365 1Excel/Google Sheets Templates 1Excel/spreadsheets 1
Follow Microsoft Excel
An email the morning each edition publishes: where this product moved, where it held, and by how much against the noise floor. One address, confirmed by a click; a stop link in every email.
Already following? Everything you follow, with a stop for each.
The company
Microsoft Excel is its own company.ShowHide
The company
Microsoft Excel is its own company.
ShowHideIn its own words
Stated by the vendor, not checked- Customers named
- LenovoVIVIDG&J Pepsi-Cola BottlersVirgin MoneyE.ONMilpark Education
- Not stated on the pages read
- Positioning, who it is for, price, starting price, free plan or trial, integrations, certifications, hosting
What Microsoft Excel's own pages state, read September 28, 2026: microsoft.com, microsoft.com/cs-cz/dynamics-365/pricing-overview, trust.microsoft.com, microsoft.com/cs-cz/dynamics-365/solutions/ai, microsoft.com/cs-cz/isv/marketplace. A claimed page can correct any of them.
Is this your product?
Claim this page
Claiming is free and changes nothing in the data. A claimed page shows a verified contact who is told when each edition publishes and when Microsoft Excel's standing changes by more than the noise floor; the right to propose corrections to the vendor table, meaning names the judge wrote that should or should not read as Microsoft Excel, applied by version and listed in the change log; and a one-line description supplied by the vendor and marked as such.
What a new claim receivesHide what a new claim receives
A new claim receives the current edition's vendor brief for Microsoft Excel by email, built from the raw record of the edition. It shows:
- where Microsoft Excel is named, by buyer and by framing, and which cells hold its first choices;
- the claims the models make when they name it, ranked, with the strongest and the weakest quoted;
- its vocabulary against the segment leader's, and the pages the models cited;
- who was chosen in the answers that did not name Microsoft Excel, and every reason the record gives;
- a battlecard for each top rival: the head-to-head split, why they win, and the reservation quoted against them;
- one page of published figures cleared to show a buyer.
Badges
Wins only: a badge exists where Microsoft Excel is ranked in a category's top three this edition. Three sizes, one file each, light and dark; the code is under each.ShowHide
Badges
Wins only: a badge exists where Microsoft Excel is ranked in a category's top three this edition. Three sizes, one file each, light and dark; the code is under each.
ShowHideAI models recommend Microsoft Excel first in Financial modeling and scenario planning this edition. Each badge says so in the buyer's words, names the edition, and links to the standing. The next edition issues a new badge; this one stays true as a record of October 2026.
Wide · 320 × 104 Website, beside other badges
Square · 240 × 240 LinkedIn, slides
Compact · 200 × 56 Email signature, footer
Badges read on light and dark pages. Alt text carries the claim, the category, the edition and the index, so it stays a citation where the image does not load.