Every category where a model named Vanguard 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
401(k) providers	Compensation and total rewards	5%	7 of 78	4%	46	accepted challenger
Financial wellness platforms	Compensation and total rewards	0%	94 of 117	0%	1	under 10 labels · led by LearnLux at 24%
HSA and FSA administrators	Compensation and total rewards	0%	85 of 111	0%	1	under 10 labels · led by HealthEquity at 29%

Movement

This is the first edition on this tier, so no move can be computed for Vanguard 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 Vanguard 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	0	1	2	0	3
GPT-5.4 mini	1	0	0	0	1
Gemini 3.5 Flash	1	0	3	0	4
Perplexity Sonar	0	0	1	0	1
Grok 4.1 Fast	0	5	1	0	6
Mistral Small	2	0	1	0	3
DeepSeek V4 Flash	0	1	2	1	4
Llama 4 Maverick	0	0	3	0	3
Qwen 3.7 Flash	1	4	1	0	6
Kimi K2	1	2	2	0	5
GLM 4.7 FlashX	0	3	0	1	4
MiniMax M2.5	2	0	3	0	5
GPT-6 Luna	0	0	1	0	1
Muse Glimmer 30B	0	2	0	0	2

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

Direct20 labelsNone

Paraphrase17 labels2

Comparative33 labels3not counted in share

Budget-constrained19 labels4

Scale-constrained11 labelsNone

Negative22 labels6not counted in share

First choiceAlternativeMentionNegative122 labels in all, every segment counted; 6 of the 15 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.

“For Large/Midsize Businesses: Vanguard, Fidelity Investments, and Charles Schwab are renowned for offering excellent low-cost institutional index funds.” Gemini 3.5 Flash · 401(k) providers · negative prompt · first choice

“consider providers like Vanguard or Fidelity, which are known for lower fees and better investment options” Mistral Small · 401(k) providers · negative prompt · first choice

“Want lowest-cost investing and a very large, established provider? Look at Vanguard.” GPT-5.4 mini · 401(k) providers · comparative prompt · first choice

“Vanguard is often recommended as the best low-cost 401(k) provider for small businesses” Mistral Small · 401(k) providers · 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.

“Vanguard is excellent for investing but not recommended for 401(k) administration” GLM 4.7 FlashX · 401(k) providers · negative prompt · hard negative

“their 401(k) administration has drawn criticism... recommended using Vanguard funds through another provider instead” DeepSeek V4 Flash · 401(k) providers · negative prompt · soft negative

Named alongside

The products named in the same answers as Vanguard, over the 122 answers that named it. Took the first choice instead counts the answers where the other product was the first choice and Vanguard was named but was not.

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ProductSame answerTook the first choice insteadHead to head

ADP Retirement Services68 of 1228Compare →

Human Interest61 of 12213Compare →

Fidelity Advantage 40160 of 12210Compare →

Empower Retirement60 of 1224Compare →

Guideline57 of 12220Compare →

Fidelity Investments43 of 12229Compare →

Charles Schwab32 of 1220Not among the top eight

Paychex24 of 1220Not among the top eight

T. Rowe Price22 of 1222Not among the top eight

Principal21 of 1221Compare →

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 Vanguard. 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 113 of the 122 answers that named Vanguard and are not a share of its labels.

Domains cited

spotsaas.com77

adp.com60

forbes.com50

uschamber.com43

betterment.com41

goldenwealthcapital.com40

fitsmallbusiness.com36

fidelity.com35

humaninterest.com29

myshortlister.com28

439 of the 439 domain citations in answers naming Vanguard came from somebody else's page.

Pages cited

adp.com/what-we-offer/benefits/retirement/401k.aspx53

forbes.com/advisor/retirement/best-401k-plans48

spotsaas.com/blog/10-best-401k-providers-202645

spotsaas.com/blog/how-to-choose-the-best-401k-provider42

uschamber.com/co/run/human-resources/employee-retirement-providers42

fitsmallbusiness.com/best-401k-companies36

goldenwealthcapital.com/blog/the-top-401k-providers-proven-list-from-a-401-k-expert34

betterment.com/top-401ks-for-small-businesses-in-202631

Pages are listed as the models cited them.

Search and answers

vanguard.com is not in Google's top ten for any of the category's searches. In the answers, Vanguard takes 5% 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: 1,830,000 a month (“vanguard”)
AI search demand for its name, est.: 78,984 a month
Organic visits to its site: about 11,906,025 a month
Searches its site ranks for: 115,542 · 37,032 in the top three
Sites linking to it: 35,187
Paid Google search: 11 searches its ads show for, about 90 clicks and $673 a month (estimate)

Ads on GoogleDetailLess

119+ ads · 109 text, 5 image, 5 video · 119 shown in the last 30 days

First shown April 2022, as The Vanguard Group Inc, verified. Ads started 2025-11 to 2026-10: 68 in the year, 51 before. 1 more by other advertisers linking to it.

On Google's pages: 1 2 3 4

In answers

This edition

Share of first choices

rank 7 of 78 in 401(k) providers

Segment leader

20%

Human Interest

First choices: 6 across its categories
Named in: 122 answers
Its own site cited: in 113 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 vanguard.com

896

subdomains included

Content

148

counted in the table below

Documentation

Product · Integration

0 · 0

Kind	Pages	Last 90 days
Blog	93	undated
Template or tool	19	undated
Glossary or explainer	13	undated
News or press	13	undated
Comparison	10	undated

How it is countedHide how it is counted

Every page vanguard.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. Read October 5, 2026.

Follow Vanguard

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

Vanguard is its own company.

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In its own words

Stated by the vendor, not checked

Positioning: We combine our time-tested investment principles with a relentless drive to help you keep more of what you earn.
vanguard.com
For: everyday investors
vanguard.com
Not stated on the pages read: Price, starting price, free plan or trial, integrations, certifications, hosting, customers

What Vanguard's own pages state, read October 5, 2026: vanguard.com. 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 Vanguard'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 Vanguard, 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 Vanguard by email, built from the raw record of the edition. It shows:

where Vanguard 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 Vanguard, 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.