# Compensation benchmarking data: what AI models recommend, October 2026

HR AI Recommendation Index, October 2026 Edition. Asked as "salary benchmarking data provider" and as "compensation survey data", six framings each, to fourteen models with search on, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. Page: https://hr-ai-index.com/rewards/compensation-benchmarking-data/

**Standing:** Pave (tied with Payscale) leads with 19% of first choices; verdict contested. 58 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| # | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pave | 19% | 4% | 27 |
| 2 | Payscale | 19% | 14% | 35 |
| 3 | SalaryCube | 10% | 8% | 12 |
| 4 | Salary.com CompAnalyst | 9% | 4% | 24 |
| 5 | Ravio | 7% | 4% | 26 |
| 6 | Comprehensive.io | 7% | 0% | 10 |
| 7 | Radford | 5% | 50% | 28 |
| 8 | Mercer Total Remuneration Survey | 3% | 52% | 33 |
| 9 | WTW | 2% | 58% | 12 |
| 10 | Figures | 0% | 0% | 13 |
| 11 | Gartner | 0% | 0% | 12 |
| 12 | APQC | 0% | 0% | 10 |

## Each model's first choice on the direct prompt

- Claude Haiku 4.5: Payscale; alternatives Comprehensive, Lattice, Pave, SalaryCube
- GPT-5.4 mini: Payscale; alternatives Mercer Total Remuneration Survey, Radford, WTW
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Pave; alternatives Figures, Payscale, Ravio, RepVue
- Perplexity Sonar: Ravio; alternatives CompUp, Pave, Payfactors, Payscale Ascent
- Grok 4.1 Fast: SalaryCube; alternatives Payscale, Salary.com CompAnalyst
- Mistral Small: Ravio, SalaryCube; alternatives CompUp, Figures
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Payscale; alternatives Pave, Salary.com CompAnalyst
- Llama 4 Maverick: no first choice
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Lattice; alternatives Comprehensive, Deel HR, Pave, SalaryCube
- Kimi K2: Payscale, SalaryCube; alternatives Figures, Pave, Ravio, Salary.com CompAnalyst
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Pave, Payscale Ascent; alternatives Figures, Salary.com CompAnalyst
- MiniMax M2.5: SalaryCube; alternatives CompUp, Lattice, Salary.com CompAnalyst
- GPT-6 Luna: Pave; alternatives Mercer Total Remuneration Survey, Payscale, Radford
- Muse Glimmer 30B: SalaryCube; alternatives Pave, Salary.com CompAnalyst

## Sources the answers cite

74 of 84 answers came back with a source list, from 14 of 14 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- ravio.com: 49 answers, 134 citations
- worldmetrics.org: 28 answers, 66 citations
- comprehensive.io: 28 answers, 35 citations
- peoplemanagingpeople.com: 28 answers, 28 citations
- pin.com: 24 answers, 24 citations
- salarycube.com: 23 answers, 49 citations
- deel.com: 23 answers, 25 citations
- gitnux.org: 22 answers, 42 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://ravio.com/blog/compensation-benchmarking-companies (35 answers)
- https://peoplemanagingpeople.com/services/best-compensation-benchmarking-companies (28 answers)
- https://pin.com/blog/salary-benchmarking-tools (24 answers)
- https://comprehensive.io/content/best-compensation-benchmarking-data-sources (23 answers)
- https://deel.com/blog/salary-benchmarking-tools (19 answers)
- https://worldmetrics.org/service/corporate-benchmarking (16 answers)
- https://ravio.com/blog/the-best-tools-for-salary-benchmarking (15 answers)
- https://captivateiq.com/blog/compensation-benchmarking-software (14 answers)
- https://worldmetrics.org/service/it-benchmarking (13 answers)
- https://ravio.com/blog/best-compensation-management-software (12 answers)

## Warned against

- Mercer Total Remuneration Survey: 17 of 33 labels negative. "Avoid: Traditional survey providers like Mercer, Korn Ferry, or Willis Towers Watson" (GLM 4.7 FlashX, paraphrase prompt)
- Radford: 14 of 28 labels negative. ""Why you should avoid traditional providers (Mercer, Radford, Willis Towers Watson)"" (Muse Glimmer 30B, negative prompt)
- Glassdoor: 10 of 10 labels negative. "Avoid providers that rely heavily on employee self-reporting (like Glassdoor data) or scraped job postings, which are often inflated or inaccurate." (Qwen 3.7 Flash, scale prompt)
- Willis Towers Watson: 5 of 9 labels negative. "Avoid: Traditional survey providers like Mercer, Korn Ferry, or Willis Towers Watson" (GLM 4.7 FlashX, paraphrase prompt)

## Movement since September 2026

Floor: 13 points of share, measured on the calibration repeat.
Same leader: Payscale at 22%.

- Ravio: 0% to 8%, +8. Inside the floor by 5 points · rank 19 → 4 of 138.
- SalaryCube: 4% to 10%, +6. Inside the floor by 7 points · rank 6 → 3 of 138.
- Comprehensive.io: 12% to 8%, −4. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 3 → 5 of 138.
- Salary.com CompAnalyst: 2% to 6%, +4. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 9 → 6 of 138.
- Mercer Total Remuneration Survey: 6% to 2%, −4. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 5 → 17 of 138.
- Radford: 4% to 6%, +2. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 7 of 138, unchanged.
- Payscale: 24% to 22%, −2. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 1 of 138, unchanged.
- Pave: 20% to 20%, ±0. Inside the floor by 13 points · rank 2 of 138, unchanged.
- Figures: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 13 points · rank 20 → 18 of 138.
- Gartner: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 13 points · rank 21 → 19 of 138.
- WTW: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 13 points · rank 28 → 137 of 138.
- Glassdoor: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 13 points · rank 134 → 138 of 138.

## Record

- Method: https://hr-ai-index.com/methodology/
- Raw judge labels and full responses: https://hr-ai-index.com/data/
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as HR AI Recommendation Index, October 2026 Edition, hr-ai-index.com.