Two of twelve models named Pave first on the direct prompt; zero named Radford. Pave was named by eleven of the twelve models and Radford by eleven and Pave carries 25 labels and Radford 27, so the shares are not directly comparable.
Named in three categories this edition.
Named in two 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.
Across every category in the September 2026 Edition, Pave and Radford were named in the same answer forty-eight times, of the 213 answers naming Pave and the 83 naming Radford. In those answers Radford took the first choice six times and Pave twenty-one.
| 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. Two of two in this category shown.
“Use modern, integration-based salary benchmarking software that pulls live, anonymized data directly from HR and payroll systems (e.g., Pave, Ravio, or Figures)” Gemini 3.5 Flash · negative prompt · first choice
“Start with Pave's free Market Data Lite (if you're under 200 employees) — it's the most accessible, current, and comprehensive free option.” DeepSeek V4 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.
“What to Avoid on a Limited Budget ... enterprise-grade pricing with far more data than most small/mid-market companies need” Kimi K2 · budget prompt · hard negative
“Avoid traditional surveys (Mercer/Radford: $10k+/year) unless scaling.” Grok 4.1 Fast · budget prompt · hard negative
“it requires active participation (submitting your own data) and can be expensive and labor-intensive to manage compared to automated tools” Gemini 3.5 Flash · paraphrase prompt · soft negative
“I'd typically recommend starting with Radford if you're in tech/SaaS, or Mercer for broader B2B sectors” Claude Haiku 4.5 · paraphrase prompt · first choice
“Mercer or Radford-style benchmark data is often the strongest foundation” GPT-5.4 mini · paraphrase prompt · first choice
“Tech-First / Specialized Platforms (Radford, Pave, CompAnalyst, Option Impact) — Best for: Scalability, ease of use, and equity/tech-heavy roles.” Qwen 3.7 Flash · scale prompt · alternative
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.