Zero of twelve models named Comprehensive.io first on the direct prompt; zero named Mercer. Comprehensive.io was named by eleven of the twelve models and Mercer by ten and Comprehensive.io carries 12 labels and Mercer 28, so the shares are not directly comparable.
Named in three categories this edition.
Named in four categories this edition.
Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts over all twelve 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.
| Model | Direct | Paraphrase | Comparative | Budget-constrained | Scale-constrained | Negative |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | ||||||
| GPT-5.4 mini | ||||||
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | ||||||
| Perplexity Sonar | ||||||
| Grok 4.1 Fast | ||||||
| Mistral Small | ||||||
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | ||||||
| Llama 4 Maverick | ||||||
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | ||||||
| Kimi K2 | ||||||
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | ||||||
| MiniMax M2.5 |
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.
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Three of four in this category shown.
“three free salary benchmarking tools cover most needs at zero cost: Pave (tech roles, under 200 employees), Comprehensive.io (US tech daily data), and BLS OEWS” Claude Haiku 4.5 · budget prompt · first choice
“Free daily-refreshed tech salary data from 6,000+ U.S. companies (no participation needed) ... Great for startups/lean teams.” Grok 4.1 Fast · budget prompt · first choice
“Pave and Comprehensive.io are currently leading the market for affordable or free options” Qwen 3.7 Flash · budget prompt · first choice
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Six of eight in this category shown.
“Avoid over-investing in Mercer/WTW unless you have global complexity” Kimi K2 · paraphrase prompt · hard negative
“Avoid traditional surveys (Mercer/Radford: $10k+/year) unless scaling.” Grok 4.1 Fast · budget prompt · hard negative
“high-end, legacy enterprise surveys like Mercer, Radford (Aon), or Willis Towers Watson (WTW)—which can easily cost $20,000 to $40,000+ annually—are generally out of reach” Gemini 3.5 Flash · budget prompt · soft negative
“Buy one major survey (like Robert Half or Mercer) to ensure you are paying within the 25th–75th percentiles” Qwen 3.7 Flash · paraphrase prompt · first choice
“The strongest fit from the results is Mercer or Salary.com/Compdata for broad benchmarking” Perplexity Sonar · paraphrase prompt · first choice
“Especially strong in pay and total rewards benchmarking, plus HR strategy.” GPT-5.4 mini · comparative prompt · first choice
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.