Small business▲+9Since September 2026: 4% → 13%, +9 points. Inside the 13-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.
13%from 4% in September 2026
Inside the floor by 4 pointsRank 4 → 2 of 143
3 categories · RankedPayscale
248Judge labels
31First choices
47Negative labels
14 / 14Models named it
3Categories
October 2026 Edition. Every number here is derived from the raw labels under vendor table v2026-10.7, every buyer segment counted.
Best standing
19% in Compensation benchmarkin for mid-market buyers
Rank 2 of 148 in the mid-market standingaccepted challenger
4 of 14 models made it the first choice on the direct prompt; 14% of its 35 labels there were negative.
What the models named instead of Payscale →By buyer segmentStrongest at mid-market.
Small business2 of 155
12%38 labels
accepted challenger
Mid-market2 of 148
19%35 labels
accepted challenger
Enterprise6 of 130
4%35 labels
criticized challenger
In compensation benchmarkin · 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 Payscale 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Compensation benchmarking data | Compensation and total rewards | 19% | 2 of 148 | 14% | 35 | accepted challenger | ▼−2Since September 2026: 24% → 22%, −2 points. Inside the 13-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. |
| Pay equity | Compensation and total rewards | 11% | 3 of 73 | 0% | 35 | accepted challenger | ▼−6Since September 2026: 14% → 9%, −6 points. Inside the 13-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. |
| Compensation management | Compensation and total rewards | 2% | 14 of 140 | 14% | 21 | accepted challenger | ▲+2Since September 2026: 0% → 2%, +2 points. Inside the 13-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. |
Movement
Since September 2026, Payscale held within the floor in all three categories: no change cleared 13 points.
Best category · Compensation benchmarkin · by segment
Mid-market▼−2Since September 2026: 24% → 22%, −2 points. Inside the 13-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.
22%from 24% in September 2026
Inside the floor by 11 pointsRank 1 of 138, unchanged
Enterprise▲+1Since September 2026: 3% → 4%, +1 point. Inside the 13-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.
4%from 3% in September 2026
Inside the floor by 12 pointsRank 7 → 5 of 115
All categories · Mid-market
| Category | September 2026 | Now | Change | Reading | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pay equity | 14% | 9% | ▼−6Since September 2026: 14% → 9%, −6 points. Inside the 13-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. | Within noise | Rank 2 → 3 of 73 |
| Compensation management | 0% | 2% | ▲+2Since September 2026: 0% → 2%, +2 points. Inside the 13-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. | Within noise | Rank 33 → 14 of 140 |
| Compensation benchmarkin | 24% | 22% | ▼−2Since September 2026: 24% → 22%, −2 points. Inside the 13-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. | Within noise | Rank 1 → 2 of 148 |
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 13 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 Payscale 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 Payscale 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 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 8 |
| GPT-5.4 mini | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 5 |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | 1 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 8 |
| Perplexity Sonar | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 5 |
| Grok 4.1 Fast | 1 | 6 | 5 | 0 | 12 |
| Mistral Small | 1 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 8 |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| Llama 4 Maverick | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | 1 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 6 |
| Kimi K2 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 7 |
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | 0 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 5 |
| MiniMax M2.5 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 7 |
| GPT-6 Luna | 2 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 8 |
| Muse Glimmer 30B | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 4 |
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
Direct60 labels9
Paraphrase48 labels16
Comparative43 labels5not counted in share
Budget-constrained39 labels5
Scale-constrained30 labels1
Negative28 labels2not counted in share
First choiceAlternativeMentionNegative248 labels in all, every segment counted; 31 of the 38 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.
“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 · Compensation benchmarkin · 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 · Compensation benchmarkin · direct prompt · first choice
“with a slight lean toward Payscale Ascent if you want the best mix of scalability, benchmarking, and compensation workflows” GPT-5.4 mini · Pay equity · paraphrase prompt · first choice
“the most budget-friendly and accessible option is Payscale’s free tier, which provides basic salary benchmarking data” Mistral Small · Compensation benchmarkin · 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.
“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 · Compensation benchmarkin · negative prompt · hard negative
“free salary checkers rely on individuals voluntarily submitting their own salary information” Muse Glimmer 30B · Compensation management · negative prompt · hard negative
“Avoid expensive enterprise solutions like PayScale (~$12,000+/year)” MiniMax M2.5 · Compensation benchmarkin · 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 · Compensation benchmarkin · negative prompt · soft negative
Named alongside
The products named in the same answers as Payscale, over the 247 answers that named it. Took the first choice instead counts the answers where the other product was the first choice and Payscale was named but was not.ShowHide
Named alongside
The products named in the same answers as Payscale, over the 247 answers that named it. Took the first choice instead counts the answers where the other product was the first choice and Payscale 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 Payscale. 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 229 of the 247 answers that named Payscale and are not a share of its labels.
Domains cited
ravio.com121
peoplemanagingpeople.com112
g2.com79
comprehensive.io75
captivateiq.com65
salarycube.com59
guideflow.com58
figures.hr55
gartner.com54
worldmetrics.org54
732 of the 732 domain citations in answers naming Payscale came from somebody else's page.
Pages cited
Pages are listed as the models cited them.
Search and answers
payscale.com ranks 3 on Google for the category's searches. In the answers, Payscale takes 19% of first choices and Pave takes 19%.ShowHide
Search and answers
payscale.com ranks 3 on Google for the category's searches. In the answers, Payscale takes 19% of first choices and Pave takes 19%.
ShowHideIn search
Google, US estimatesPosition for “benchmarking providers”
–
not in the top ten
Position for “salary benchmarking data provider”
–
not in the top ten
- Searches for its name, Google
- 9,900 a month (“payscale”)
- AI search demand for its name, est.
- 299 a month
- Organic visits to its site
- about 1,408,989 a month
- Searches its site ranks for
- 246,929 · 8,738 in the top three
- Sites linking to it
- 42,145
- Paid Google search
- 2 searches its ads show for, about 4 clicks and $26 a month (estimate)
In answers
This editionShare of first choices
19%
rank 2 of 148 in compensation benchmarkin
Segment leader
19%
Pave
- First choices
- 31 across its categories
- Named in
- 247 answers
- Its own site cited
- in 229 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 payscale.com
219,024
subdomains included
Content
217,386
counted in the table below
Documentation
1
Product · Integration
42 · 39
| Kind | Pages | Last 90 days | 2025-10 to 2026-09 | Latest | Categories named |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Report or ebook | 216,972 | undated | HRIS and HCM platforms, Performance management | ||
| News or press | 164 | undated | Pay equity, Compensation management | ||
| Conference or event | 130 | undated | Pay equity, HRIS and HCM platforms | ||
| Webinar or virtual event | 60 | undated | Pay equity | ||
| Glossary or explainer | 19 | undated | HRIS and HCM platforms, Compensation management | ||
| Comparison | 15 | undated | |||
| Case study | 14 | undated | |||
| Template or tool | 12 | 0 | 2026-05-14 | Pay equity |
Most recent
- 2026-05-14Readiness checklist know right level transparency org 2 template or tool
How it is countedHide how it is counted
Every page payscale.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. Of its titles that name a category, most name HRIS and HCM platforms (22); 11 name its categories the models place it in. 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 Payscale
What the judge wrote, as written, with how often. The vendor table decides that these count as Payscale; a claim can dispute any of them.
PayScale 18Payscale Ascent 4Payscale Pay Equity 3PayScale (Payfactors) 1Payscale (Ascent/MarketPay) 1Payscale (Payfactors / Marketpay / Paycycle) 1Payscale (formerly Payfactors) 1Payscale (with Pay Equity Suite) 1Payscale / PayScale MarketPay 1Payscale / Payfactors 1Payscale Ascent (formerly Payfactors) 1
Follow Payscale
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
Payscale is its own company.ShowHide
The company
Payscale is its own company.
ShowHideIn its own words
Stated by the vendor, not checked- Positioning
- Compensation intelligence & salary data software
- For
- compensation leaders, HR teams, executives, recruiters, and people managers
- Free plan or trial
- free salary data payscale.com/products/data
- Certifications
- SOC 2 ReportTX-RAMP certificationSOC 2TX-RAMPGDPRCCPACPRA
- Customers named
- ACTS Retirement-LifeCheyenne Regional Medical CenterZoomInfoIndependent BankMariani Packing CompanyBaylor UniversityInteger HoldingsDeltek
- Not stated on the pages read
- Price, starting price, integrations, hosting
What Payscale's own pages state, read September 28, 2026: payscale.com, payscale.com/compensation-trends/pricing-hybrid-jobs, payscale.com/about/security, payscale.com/products/data, payscale.com/why-payscale/customer-stories. 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 Payscale'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 Payscale, 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 Payscale by email, built from the raw record of the edition. It shows:
- where Payscale 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 Payscale, 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 Payscale 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 Payscale is ranked in a category's top three this edition. Three sizes, one file each, light and dark; the code is under each.
ShowHideCompensation benchmarking data
Payscale is among the products AI models recommend first in Compensation benchmarking data 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
Pay equity
Payscale is among the products AI models recommend first in Pay equity 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.