Compensation benchmarking data · October 2026 Edition
Payscale vs Radford
Four of fourteen models named Payscale first on the direct prompt; zero named Radford. Payscale was named by fourteen of the fourteen models and Radford by twelve and Payscale carries 35 labels and Radford 28, so the shares are not directly comparable.
Named in three categories this edition.
Radford
criticized challengerNamed in three categories this edition.
First-choice share19%5%Of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, 0 to 100.
Negative rate14%50%Negative labels as a share of the product's labels, 0 to 100.
Rank in category#2#7A position in a field of 13; printed, not drawn.
Labels3528A count; the two differ.
The two percentage rows are drawn on one 0 to 100 track, Payscale reading right to left. Rank and label count are printed, not drawn.Pave was named alongside these two in nine of the fourteen direct answers. Pave vs Payscale · Pave vs Radford · Payscale vs SalaryCube
Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts over all fourteen models, for a mid-market B2B company; rank is within the category; every quote names the model and the prompt it came from. Both figures come from the compensation benchmarking data page.
By framing
How many of the fourteen models made each the first choice, per way of asking, and how many argued against it.
PayscaleFirst choices, of fourteen modelsRadfordDirect403 against Radford
Paraphrase521 against Payscale · 3 against Radford
Comparative00
Budget-constrained211 against Payscale · 2 against Radford
Scale-constrained001 against Payscale · 2 against Radford
Negative002 against Payscale · 4 against Radford
Bars are first choices, 0 to 14 each sideModels that argued againstA model can name both, so the two sides of a row do not sum to fourteen.
Across every category in the October 2026 Edition, Payscale and Radford were named in the same answer sixty-four times, of the 247 answers naming Payscale and the 97 naming Radford. In those answers Radford took the first choice nine times and Payscale twelve.
Every model, every framing
The eighty-four answers behind the chart above, one cell each: where Payscale and Radford stood in it.
| Model | DirectRA | ParaphraseRA | ComparativeRA | Budget-constrainedRA | Scale-constrainedRA | NegativeRA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | | | | |||
| GPT-5.4 mini | RA | RA | ||||
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | | RA | RA | | RA | |
| Perplexity Sonar | | | RA | |||
| Grok 4.1 Fast | | RA | | |||
| Mistral Small | RA | RA | ||||
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | RA | RA | RA | |||
| Llama 4 Maverick | | |||||
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | RA | RA | RA | RA | ||
| Kimi K2 | RA | RA | | |||
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | | |||||
| MiniMax M2.5 | | | RA | |||
| GPT-6 Luna | RA | | ||||
| Muse Glimmer 30B | RA |
PayscaleRA Radford first choice named as an alternative argued againstblank: not namedEach cell is one answer, Payscale on the left and Radford on the right.The direct prompt
The plain question, one answer per model, grouped by where Payscale and Radford stood in it.
Payscale first, Radford an alternative
4 of 14 modelsRadford was named in the answer but not as the choice, or not at all.Claude Haiku 4.5Payscale alternatives: Comprehensive, Lattice, Pave, SalaryCube
GPT-5.4 miniPayscale alternatives: Mercer Total Remuneration Survey, Radford, WTW
DeepSeek V4 FlashPayscale alternatives: Pave, Salary.com CompAnalyst
Kimi K2Payscale, SalaryCube alternatives: Figures, Pave, Ravio, Salary.com CompAnalyst
Neither was the first choice, one was named
3 of 14 modelsThe answer put something else first and named one of the two as an alternative.Gemini 3.5 FlashPave alternatives: Figures, Payscale, Ravio, RepVue, Salary.com CompAnalyst
Grok 4.1 FastSalaryCube alternatives: Payscale, Salary.com CompAnalyst
GPT-6 LunaPave alternatives: Mercer Total Remuneration Survey, Payscale, Radford
Neither was named
7 of 14 modelsThe answer made no first choice from these two in this category.Perplexity SonarRavio alternatives: CompUp, Pave, Payfactors, Payscale Ascent, Salary.com CompAnalyst
Mistral SmallRavio, SalaryCube alternatives: CompUp, Figures
Llama 4 Maverickno first choice
Qwen 3.7 FlashLattice alternatives: Comprehensive, Deel HR, Pave, SalaryCube
GLM 4.7 FlashXPave, Payscale Ascent alternatives: Figures, Salary.com CompAnalyst
MiniMax M2.5SalaryCube alternatives: CompUp, Lattice, Salary.com CompAnalyst
Muse Glimmer 30BSalaryCube alternatives: Pave, Salary.com CompAnalyst
Bold names in an answer are the products the judge labeled a first choice; a model naming several gives each of them that label. The full answer text for every row is in the record.
By buyer segment
The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment and they are never added together. The figures above are the mid-market standing, which is the one the category orders by.
Small business
Payscale leads by twelve points.
Payscale12%#2 of 9Radford0%#9 of 9
The full small business standing →Mid-marketThe figures above
Payscale leads by fourteen points.
Payscale19%#2 of 13Radford5%#7 of 13
The full mid-market standing →Enterprise
The order flips: Radford leads at enterprise.
Radford16%#2 of 12
Payscale4%#6 of 12What the models said about Payscale
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Six of six in this category shown.
“These tools rely heavily on self-reported employee data or web-scraped job postings, which often lack accurate job leveling, context, and verification.” Gemini 3.5 Flash · negative prompt · hard negative
“Avoid expensive enterprise solutions like PayScale (~$12,000+/year)” MiniMax M2.5 · budget prompt · hard negative
“Payscale was flagged for high-complexity executive roles with the note "These platforms often suffer from 'self-selection bias.'"” Muse Glimmer 30B · negative prompt · soft negative
“Payscale offers the most established survey-based market pricing with AI job matching... better for mid-market companies building structured compensation frameworks” Claude Haiku 4.5 · direct prompt · first choice
“Start with Payscale or SalaryCube — both offer the right balance of data quality, usability, and cost for mid-market needs.” Kimi K2 · direct prompt · first choice
“the most budget-friendly and accessible option is Payscale’s free tier, which provides basic salary benchmarking data” Mistral Small · budget prompt · first choice
What the models said about Radford
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Six of six in this category shown.
“"Why you should avoid traditional providers (Mercer, Radford, Willis Towers Watson)"” Muse Glimmer 30B · negative prompt · hard negative
“incredibly robust but requires manual survey participation, a higher budget, and more administrative effort than modern API-based systems” Gemini 3.5 Flash · paraphrase prompt · soft negative
“$15K–$80K+/yr with mandatory survey participation. Overkill for most mid-market B2B unless you're in tech/life sciences specifically.” DeepSeek V4 Flash · direct prompt · soft negative
“This makes Radford a top pick for companies looking for reliable, free salary benchmarking data without a significant financial investment.” Mistral Small · budget prompt · first choice
“Radford or Mercer are the top choices due to their industry-specific data and reliability” Mistral Small · paraphrase prompt · first choice
“1. Radford (Aon) — *Best for B2B Tech/SaaS*” Kimi K2 · paraphrase prompt · first choice
Also compared
Pave vs PayscalePave vs RadfordPayscale vs SalaryCubePayscale vs Salary.com CompAnalystPayscale vs RavioPayscale vs Comprehensive.ioPayscale vs Mercer Total Remuneration SurveySalaryCube vs RadfordSalary.com CompAnalyst vs RadfordRavio vs RadfordComprehensive.io vs RadfordRadford vs Mercer Total Remuneration SurveyAll twenty-eight head-to-head pages and the full compensation benchmarkin standing
Comparisons are drawn for the top eight products in each category, each against each. The output is the models' output; nothing here is a recommendation by the index.