Every category where a model named Principal 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
401(k) providers	Compensation and total rewards	2%	9 of 78	8%	13	accepted challenger

Movement

This is the first edition on this tier, so no move can be computed for Principal yet. From the next edition this section shows, per buyer segment and per category, whether its share moved by more than the measured noise floor.

By model

How each model treated Principal across every prompt where it was named for a mid-market B2B company. Fourteen models, six prompts per category.

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Model	First choice	Alternative	Mention	Negative	Labels
Claude Haiku 4.5	1	1	1	0	3
GPT-5.4 mini	0	1	0	0	1
Gemini 3.5 Flash	0	0	0	1	1
Perplexity Sonar	0	0	0	0	0
Grok 4.1 Fast	0	1	0	0	1
Mistral Small	0	1	0	0	1
DeepSeek V4 Flash	0	0	1	0	1
Llama 4 Maverick	0	0	0	0	0
Qwen 3.7 Flash	0	0	0	0	0
Kimi K2	0	0	2	0	2
GLM 4.7 FlashX	0	0	0	0	0
MiniMax M2.5	0	0	1	0	1
GPT-6 Luna	0	1	1	0	2
Muse Glimmer 30B	0	0	0	0	0

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

Direct6 labelsNone

Paraphrase9 labels2

Comparative5 labelsNone

Budget-constrained2 labelsNone

Scale-constrained4 labelsNone

Negative4 labelsNone

First choiceAlternativeMentionNegative30 labels in all, every segment counted; 2 of the 2 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.

“Principal or Fidelity if you want comprehensive features, broad investment options, and strong institutional support” Claude Haiku 4.5 · 401(k) providers · paraphrase prompt · first choice

“Principal Financial Group offers 401(k) recordkeeping mostly to small and mid-size businesses.” Claude Haiku 4.5 · 401(k) providers · direct prompt · alternative

“Want broad plan design options and employee engagement tools? Look at Principal.” GPT-5.4 mini · 401(k) providers · comparative prompt · alternative

“Vanguard/Principal are solid low-cost alternatives for investment-focused plans” Grok 4.1 Fast · 401(k) providers · direct prompt · alternative

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.

“Common Examples: *Transamerica, Principal, John Hancock, Voya, Equitable, and Lincoln Financial*.” Gemini 3.5 Flash · 401(k) providers · negative prompt · soft negative

Named alongside

The products named in the same answers as Principal, over the 30 answers that named it. Took the first choice instead counts the answers where the other product was the first choice and Principal was named but was not.

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ProductSame answerTook the first choice insteadHead to head

Vanguard21 of 304Compare →

ADP Retirement Services19 of 303Compare →

Empower Retirement19 of 303Compare →

Fidelity Advantage 40118 of 309Compare →

Human Interest12 of 302Compare →

Guideline9 of 302Compare →

Fidelity Investments8 of 304Compare →

T. Rowe Price6 of 301Not among the top eight

Voya6 of 301Not among the top eight

Paychex6 of 300Not among the top eight

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 Principal. 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 29 of the 30 answers that named Principal and are not a share of its labels.

Domains cited

adp.com14

spotsaas.com13

basiccapital.com12

forbes.com11

uschamber.com11

principal.comYour site10

fidelity.com9

goldenwealthcapital.com9

myshortlister.com9

admin316.com7

Ninety-five of the 105 domain citations in answers naming Principal came from somebody else's page.

Pages cited

adp.com/what-we-offer/benefits/retirement/401k.aspx14

forbes.com/advisor/retirement/best-401k-plans11

uschamber.com/co/run/human-resources/employee-retirement-providers10

myshortlister.com/401-k-plan/vendor-list9

spotsaas.com/blog/how-to-choose-the-best-401k-provider9

basiccapital.com/learn/largest-401k-providers-what-mid-market-employers-should-know7

goldenwealthcapital.com/blog/the-top-401k-providers-proven-list-from-a-401-k-expert7

spotsaas.com/blog/10-best-401k-providers-20267

Pages are listed as the models cited them.

Search and answers

principal.com is not in Google's top ten for any of the category's searches. In the answers, Principal takes 2% of first choices and Human Interest takes 20%.

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In search

Google, US estimates

Position for “401(k) provider”

–

not in the top ten

Position for “401(k) providers”

–

not in the top ten

Searches for its name, Google: 673,000 a month (“principal”)
AI search demand for its name, est.: 87,083 a month
Organic visits to its site: about 982,836 a month
Searches its site ranks for: 32,485 · 2,138 in the top three
Sites linking to it: 10,900
Paid Google search: No ads found in the estimate; that does not mean it runs none

Ads on GoogleDetailLess

96+ ads · 70 text, 19 image, 7 video · 64 shown in the last 30 days

First shown February 2025, as Principal Financial Group, Inc., verified. Ads started 2025-11 to 2026-10: 90 in the year, 6 before. 24 more by other advertisers linking to it.

On Google's pages: 1 2 3 4

In answers

This edition

Share of first choices

rank 9 of 78 in 401(k) providers

Segment leader

20%

Human Interest

First choices: 2 across its categories
Named in: 30 answers
Its own site cited: in 29 of the answers that named it

Search figures are US estimates from DataForSEO, read October 5, 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

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Addresses on principal.com

1,175

subdomains included

Content

371

counted in the table below

Documentation

Product · Integration

0 · 0

Kind	Pages	Last 90 days	Latest	Categories named
Glossary or explainer	147	2	2026-08-31
Blog	124	3	2026-09-10
News or press	81	9	2026-10-01	Benefits administration
Template or tool	8	0	2026-04-30
Webinar or virtual event	4	undated
Case study	3	3	2026-07-29
Comparison	3	0	2026-03-25
Conference or event	1	0	2025-01-16

Most recent

2026-10-01Principal announce third quarter 2026 financial results news or press
2026-09-10Clearly communicating tpa value recordkeepers part 2 2 blog
2026-09-01Principal completes acquisition beam benefits news or press
2026-08-31How spot imposter scams and protect your money glossary or explainer
2026-08-26Principal expands featured partner program support private market news or press
2026-08-25Four trends reshaping retirement plan investment strategies blog

How it is countedHide how it is counted

Every page principal.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. 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 October 5, 2026.

Follow Principal

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

Principal is its own company.

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In its own words

Stated by the vendor, not checked

Positioning: Let’s keep your finances simple. Insure what you have. Invest when you’re ready. Retire with confidence.
principal.com
For: For individuals; For businesses; For financial professionals
principal.com
Not stated on the pages read: Price, starting price, free plan or trial, integrations, certifications, hosting, customers

What Principal's own pages state, read October 5, 2026: principal.com, principal.com/finpro/financial-professional-news/pricing-update-executive-vul-iii. 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 Principal'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 Principal, 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 Principal by email, built from the raw record of the edition. It shows:

where Principal 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 Principal, 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.