HR AI Index
September 2026 Edition · The permanent record of this edition. The unqualified address always carries the latest edition.
Index › Compensation and total rewards › September 2026 Edition

Earned wage access

Asked as “earned wage access provider”, and as “on-demand pay benefit”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. 42 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
Tapcheck
Contested
29% of first choices, contested.
ShowinginAll 50 categories in the September 2026 Edition →

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.
Small businessZayZoon55%Clear leaderStanding →Mid-marketTapcheck29%ContestedThis pageEnterpriseDailyPay61%Clear leaderStanding →

01The standing

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. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Tapcheck29%0%27accepted challenger
02ZayZoon26%0%34accepted challenger
03Rain12%4%27accepted challenger
04Payactiv7%10%39accepted challenger
05DailyPay7%27%41criticized challenger
06Clair7%0%11accepted challenger
07Dave2%60%15criticized challenger
Show the five products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
12MoneyLion0%80%10criticized challenger
11Brigit0%54%13criticized challenger
10EarnIn0%41%27criticized challenger
08Branch0%4%24accepted challenger
09Chime Workplace0%0%11accepted challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its vendor page.
Head to head
Tapcheck vs ZayZoonTapcheck vs RainZayZoon vs Rain

Recommended versus criticized

Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.

Criticized challengerCriticized default
Negative label rate →
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative40%
Key
01Tapcheck29%
02ZayZoon26%
03Rain12%
04Payactiv7%
05DailyPay7%
06Clair7%
07Dave2%
08Branch0%
09Chime Workplace0%
10EarnIn0%
11Brigit0%
12MoneyLion0%

02What they warned about

Two of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. 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 and MiniMax M2.5 changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
EarnIn
41%
11 of 27 labels negative · 10 of 12 models · 7 hard negative
“The District of Columbia Attorney General has filed suit against ActiveHours Inc., doing business as EarnIn, alleging that the app-based lender deceptively marketed and provided illegal high-interest loans” Claude Haiku 4.5, negative prompt
Dave
60%
9 of 15 labels negative · 9 of 12 models · 5 hard negative
“**Verdict:** Avoid. The FTC's complaint highlights systemic deception aimed at financially vulnerable users.” DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt
MoneyLion
80%
8 of 10 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“**MoneyLion**: Sued by New York AG (Apr 2025) ... Accused of pushing workers into debt cycles.” Grok 4.1 Fast, negative prompt
Brigit
54%
7 of 13 labels negative · 7 of 12 models · 4 hard negative
“Courts in multiple states have ruled against several payday loan apps including Brigit, Cleo, Dave...” Claude Haiku 4.5, negative prompt

03What they cite

Citations exist only for the models that return a source list: twelve of the twelve in this edition, and all six flagship models on the expanded tier.

Sites the answers cite

65 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 12 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 6 of those lists are Google grounding redirects that name no site and are left out of the counts. 840 links across 209 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

enterprise.chime.com
41 answers · 50 citations · 10 models
juicefin.com
24 answers · 24 citations · 8 models
guideflow.com
vendor site · Guideflow23 answers · 23 citations · 10 models
g2.com
19 answers · 51 citations · 9 models
fintechspecs.com
19 answers · 19 citations · 9 models
best-earned-wage-access-providers-usa.lovable.app
18 answers · 18 citations · 10 models
us.fitgap.com
vendor site · FitGap17 answers · 23 citations · 8 models
dailypay.com
vendor site · DailyPay16 answers · 23 citations · 6 models
tapcheck.com
vendor site · Tapcheck15 answers · 21 citations · 8 models
finder.com
14 answers · 14 citations · 7 models
hrtechsaas.com
vendor site · HRTechSaaS14 answers · 14 citations · 7 models
pickmysoft.com
14 answers · 14 citations · 6 models

Pages the answers cite

The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.

enterprise.chime.com/blog/best-earned-wage-access-providers-2026
39 answers · 10 models
juicefin.com/resources/top-earned-wage-access-companies-in-2024
24 answers · 8 models
guideflow.com/blog/earned-wage-access-software
23 answers · 10 models
fintechspecs.com/blog/best-earned-wage-access-providers-platforms
19 answers · 9 models
best-earned-wage-access-providers-usa.lovable.app/
16 answers · 10 models
finder.com/cash-advance-apps/best-earned-wage-access-apps
14 answers · 7 models
hrtechsaas.com/blog/best-earned-wage-access-providers-employers
14 answers · 7 models
pickmysoft.com/blog/best-earned-wage-access-software
14 answers · 6 models
dailypay.com/earned-wage-access
10 answers · 4 models
us.fitgap.com/search/earned-wage-access-software/small-business
10 answers · 8 models

04How they answered

Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
ModelDirect“What is the best earned wage access provider for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which on-demand pay benefit would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top earned wage access providers and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best earned wage access provider for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating an earned wage access provider. What should we look at?”Negative“Which earned wage access providers should I avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Rain
Two alternativesPayactiv, ZayZoon
no first choiceChangedno first choicePayactiv
Three alternativesChime Workplace, Gusto Wallet, Tapcheck
no first choiceagainst: Brigit, Cleo, Dave, EarnIn, FloatMe, Grant Money, Grid, Klover, MoneyLion, Tilt
GPT-5.4 miniDailyPay
Two alternativesTapcheck, ZayZoon
PayactivChanged
One alternativeEarnIn
DailyPay
Two alternativesEarnIn, Tapcheck
Payactiv
Two alternativesBranch, DailyPay
no first choiceagainst: Dave, EarnIn, MoneyLion
Gemini 3.5 FlashZayZoon
Three alternativesImmediate, Rain, Tapcheck
against: DailyPayTapcheckChanged
Three alternativesDailyPay, Immediate, ZayZoon
DailyPay
Four alternativesBranch, EarnIn, Payactiv, Tapcheck
Clair
Three alternativesBranch, Payactiv, ZayZoon
no first choiceagainst: Albert, Brigit, Dave, EarnIn, FloatMe
Perplexity SonarTapcheck
Three alternativesDailyPay, Rain, ZayZoon
DailyPayChanged
Three alternativesBambooHR, Clair, PaidUp
DailyPay
Seven alternativesBranch, Chime Workplace, EarnIn, Immediate, Payactiv, Rain, Tapcheck
Tapcheck, ZayZoon
One alternativeEarnIn
no first choiceagainst: Brigit, DailyPay, Dave, EarnIn, Empower, MoneyLion
Grok 4.1 FastTapcheck
Four alternativesDailyPay, Payactiv, Rain, ZayZoon
Tapcheck, ZayZoonChanged
Two alternativesClair, Rain
against: DailyPay, EarnIn, PayactivDailyPay, Payactiv
Four alternativesBranch, Chime Workplace, EarnIn, Rain
ZayZoon
Two alternativesEarnIn, Tapcheck
against: Branch, DailyPay, Payactiv, Rainno first choice
Three alternativesChime Workplace, DailyPay, Payactiv
against: DailyPay, EarnIn, MoneyLion, Payactiv
Mistral SmallGusto Wallet, ZayZoonno first choiceChanged
Three alternativesClair, Payactiv, Rain
DailyPay
Two alternativesEarnIn, Payactiv
Clair, Tapcheck
Two alternativesPayactiv, ZayZoon
no first choiceagainst: Brigit, DailyPay, Dave, EarnIn, Empower, MoneyLion
DeepSeek V4 FlashRain
Two alternativesPayactiv, ZayZoon
against: DailyPayZayZoonChanged
Three alternativesBranch, Gusto Wallet, Rain
against: DailyPayDailyPay, Payactiv
Two alternativesChime MyPay, EarnIn
Tapcheck, ZayZoon
Two alternativesChime Workplace, Clair
against: DailyPayno first choiceagainst: Dave, EarnIn, MoneyLion, Solo Funds
Llama 4 Maverickno first choiceDeelChangedDailyPay
Two alternativesClair, Payactiv
Clairno first choiceagainst: Brigit, DailyPay, Dave, EarnIn, Empower, MoneyLion
Qwen 3.7 FlashZayZoon
Three alternativesDailyPay, Rain, Tapcheck
DailyPay, ZestPayChanged
Two alternativesBrightPay, SavvyPay
DailyPay
Four alternativesBranch, EarnIn, Payactiv, ZayZoon
Chime Banking, Dave
Three alternativesDailyPay, Deel, Rippling
no first choiceagainst: Albert, Brigit, Current, DailyPay / Instapay, Gainful, Instavest, Marqeta/Stripe-backed apps, Modern Money
Kimi K2Rain
Three alternativesPayactiv, Tapcheck, ZayZoon
RainHeld
Three alternativesDailyPay, Payactiv, ZayZoon
no first choiceTapcheck, ZayZoon
Two alternativesBranch, Payactiv
no first choiceagainst: Albert, Brigit, DailyPay, Dave, EarnIn, Empower, FloatMe, MoneyLion, Possible, Solo Funds
GLM 4.7 FlashXTapcheck
Three alternativesDailyPay, Rain, ZayZoon
TapcheckHeld
Two alternativesDailyPay, Payactiv
no first choice
Six alternativesBranch, Chime Workplace, DailyPay, EarnIn, MoneyLion, Payactiv
Tapcheck, ZayZoon
Two alternativesPayactiv, Rain
no first choiceagainst: Dave, EarnIn, Payactiv
MiniMax M2.5Rain
Three alternativesClair, Payactiv, Tapcheck
ZayZoonChanged
Two alternativesImmediate, Tapcheck
DailyPay, Payactiv
Ten alternativesBranch, CloudPay NOW, EarnIn, Earnipay, FlexWage, Hastee, Instant Financial, Rain, Refyne, Wagestream
Tapcheck
Three alternativesDailyPay, Payactiv, ZayZoon
no first choicenothing named
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

05The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency. Full answer text is in the free responses file. Download the record
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:32yes159 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 18:46yes57 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 21:59yes1456 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 20:24yes206 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 19:19yes2929 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 18:01yes54 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 18:03yes1822 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 20:21yes53 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 19:44yes526 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:56yes1341 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 20:59yes2365 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:09yes1225 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:23no04 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 21:43yes46 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 19:41yes2425 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 18:45yes207 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 18:09yes2815 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:58yes54 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 19:46yes1718 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 20:36yes53 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 21:02no027 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 18:02yes1923 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:24yes1066 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 21:07yes1232 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 20:17yes179 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 19:44yes711 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 19:54yes2627 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 18:57yes2015 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 20:00yes2314 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 21:34yes55 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-17 18:52yes2753 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 19:47yes53 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 19:09yes1029 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 21:23yes1429 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 20:13yes1092 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 18:54yes557 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:47yes139 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 21:29yes46 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 21:52yes2451 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 20:00yes205 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 19:06yes2917 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 21:33yes76 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 21:40yes1518 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 20:50yes73 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 20:53no032 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:16yes1124 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 20:11yes3056 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:07yes721 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 18:11no010 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:14no08 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:15yes1522 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 21:31yes2013 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 18:20yes1914 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:26no08 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 20:49yes1017 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 21:05yes54 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 20:56yes524 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 18:35yes1028 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 19:00yes24229 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 20:57yes523 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 18:49yes2811 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:53yes69 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 22:06yes2663 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 18:57yes2010 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 21:00yes3818 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 18:47yes56 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 19:12yes2430 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 19:19yes86 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 21:27no032 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 20:27yes1939 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 21:09yes28148 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 20:53yes1016 s

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

Category-scoped readings
Dayforce read as Dayforce Wallet
Gusto read as Gusto Wallet
Unresolved, counted raw
Adp Flex
Bancorp
Brass
Cash App Payroll
Chime Banking
Current
DailyPay / Instapay
EarnIn / EarnIn Payroll
Earnipay
Gainful
Grant Money
Grid
Instavest
Keeper
Local Credit Unions
Marqeta/Stripe-backed apps
Modern Money
PaidUp
Possible
SavvyPay
ZestPay
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.

Also in compensation and total rewards

The other categories of this function, with the leader in each.
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