Small business▲+3Since September 2026: 2% → 4%, +3 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.
4%from 2% in September 2026
Inside the floor by 8 pointsRank 11 → 4 of 78
2 categories · RankedCloudZero
161Judge labels
18First choices
23Negative labels
14 / 14Models named it
2Categories
October 2026 Edition. Every number here is derived from the raw labels under vendor table v2026-10.8, every buyer segment counted.
Best standing
10% in FinOps for mid-market buyers
Rank 2 of 76 in the mid-market standingaccepted challenger
4 of 14 models made it the first choice on the direct prompt; 5% of its 41 labels there were negative.
What the models named instead of CloudZero →By buyer segmentRead the same way at every buyer size.
Small business5 of 83
3%41 labels
criticized challenger
Mid-market2 of 76
10%41 labels
accepted challenger
Enterprise4 of 73
8%44 labels
accepted challenger
In finops · each standing computed within its segment · bars are 0 to 100 · the accent bar is the product's own best reading
Standing by category
Every category where a model named CloudZero 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cloud cost management | Cloud and infrastructure | 10% | 2 of 76 | 5% | 41 | accepted challenger | ▲+1Since September 2026: 10% → 10%, +1 point. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. |
| IT financial management | IT operations and endpoint | 2% | 12 of 159 | 8% | 12 | accepted challenger |
Movement
Since September 2026, CloudZero held within the floor in all two categories: no change cleared 11 points.
Best category · FinOps · by segment
Mid-market▲+1Since September 2026: 10% → 10%, +1 point. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.
10%from 10% in September 2026
Inside the floor by 10 pointsRank 2 of 70, unchanged
Enterprise▼−12Since September 2026: 18% → 7%, −12 points. Past the 11-point floor: movement. Read over the models both editions asked.
7%from 18% in September 2026
Cleared the floor by 1 pointRank 2 → 6 of 71
All categories · Mid-market
| Category | September 2026 | Now | Change | Reading | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IT financial mgmt | 0% | 2% | newNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 2% now. | New this edition | Rank 12 of 159, unchanged |
| FinOps | 10% | 10% | ▲+1Since September 2026: 10% → 10%, +1 point. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. | Within noise | Rank 2 of 76, unchanged |
Shares here are read over the models both editions asked, so they can differ by a point or two from the standing above, which counts every model in this edition.
The floor is 11 points of share, measured: how far the models move a leader on their own when the same questions are asked twice with nothing changed. A larger change is movement; a smaller one is noise, and both are shown. Movement is read over the twelve models both editions asked; GPT-6 Luna, Muse Glimmer 30B joined this edition and are in the standing but not yet in the comparison. How the floor is measured · The editions
By model
How each model treated CloudZero across every prompt where it was named for a mid-market B2B company. Fourteen models, six prompts per category.ShowHide
By model
How each model treated CloudZero across every prompt where it was named for a mid-market B2B company. Fourteen models, six prompts per category.
ShowHide| Model | First choice | Alternative | Mention | Negative | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| GPT-5.4 mini | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Perplexity Sonar | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Grok 4.20 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 5 |
| Mistral Small | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | 1 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 10 |
| Llama 4 Maverick | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Kimi K2 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 5 |
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| MiniMax M2.5 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| GPT-6 Luna | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| Muse Glimmer 30B | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 5 |
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
Direct38 labels12
Paraphrase28 labels1
Comparative41 labels3not counted in share
Budget-constrained16 labels3
Scale-constrained21 labels2
Negative17 labels1not counted in share
First choiceAlternativeMentionNegative161 labels in all, every segment counted; 18 of the 22 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.
“If IT spend is complex (multi-cloud, multiple vendors) and you want dedicated FinOps capabilities: Apptio or CloudZero.” GLM 4.7 FlashX · IT financial mgmt · direct prompt · first choice
“CloudZero and ProsperOps are top recommendations due to their automation, granular insights, and strong ROI” Mistral Small · FinOps · direct prompt · first choice
“CloudZero - Best for small to mid-market companies with cloud spend up to $250K.” Llama 4 Maverick · FinOps · direct prompt · first choice
“CloudZero | Engineering-led orgs needing deep allocation & unit economics” DeepSeek V4 Flash · FinOps · scale 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.
“Avoid enterprise tools like IBM Apptio, CloudZero, or Cloudability on a limited budget” DeepSeek V4 Flash · IT financial mgmt · budget prompt · hard negative
“Steep learning curve, high setup/maintenance effort, complex dashboard configuration. PeerSpot rates it 3.5/5 with only 50% recommendation.” Grok 4.20 · FinOps · negative prompt · soft negative
“Enterprise-only pricing rules CloudZero out for teams under $500K annual cloud spend.” Claude Haiku 4.5 · FinOps · negative prompt · soft negative
Named alongside
The products named in the same answers as CloudZero, over the 161 answers that named it. Took the first choice instead counts the answers where the other product was the first choice and CloudZero was named but was not.ShowHide
Named alongside
The products named in the same answers as CloudZero, over the 161 answers that named it. Took the first choice instead counts the answers where the other product was the first choice and CloudZero was named but was not.
ShowHideProductSame answerTook the first choice insteadHead to head
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 CloudZero. 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 155 of the 161 answers that named CloudZero and are not a share of its labels.
Domains cited
cloudzero.comYour site104
cloudaware.com91
amnic.com60
finout.io55
nops.io48
g2.com43
vantage.sh43
openmetal.io36
sourceforge.net34
costanalyst.ai33
443 of the 547 domain citations in answers naming CloudZero came from somebody else's page.
Pages cited
Pages are listed as the models cited them.
Search and answers
cloudzero.com ranks 3 on Google for the category's searches. In the answers, CloudZero takes 10% of first choices and Vantage takes 45%.ShowHide
Search and answers
cloudzero.com ranks 3 on Google for the category's searches. In the answers, CloudZero takes 10% of first choices and Vantage takes 45%.
ShowHideIn search
Google, US estimatesPosition for “cloud cost management platform”
9
Position for “cloud cost management platforms”
–
not in the top ten
- Searches for its name, Google
- 2,400 a month (“cloudzero”)
- AI search demand for its name, est.
- 32 a month
- Organic visits to its site
- about 99,194 a month
- Searches its site ranks for
- 14,062 · 1,044 in the top three
- Sites linking to it
- 6,502
- Paid Google search
- 1 searches its ads show for, about 704 clicks and $25,945 a month (estimate)
In answers
This editionShare of first choices
10%
rank 2 of 76 in finops
Segment leader
45%
Vantage
- First choices
- 18 across its categories
- Named in
- 161 answers
- Its own site cited
- in 155 of the answers that named it
Search figures are US estimates from DataForSEO, read September 28, 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
ShowHide
What it publishes
ShowHideAddresses on cloudzero.com
1,929
subdomains included
Content
1,186
counted in the table below
Documentation
260
Product · Integration
38 · 37
| Kind | Pages | Last 90 days | 2025-10 to 2026-09 | Latest | Categories named |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blog | 896 | 39 | 2026-09-28 | FinOps, API gateways | |
| Comparison | 113 | 9 | 2026-09-21 | ||
| News or press | 45 | 1 | 2026-09-23 | ||
| Webinar or virtual event | 43 | 4 | 2026-09-23 | ||
| Podcast or video | 25 | 2 | 2026-07-23 | ||
| Case study | 22 | 0 | 2026-01-26 | ||
| Report or ebook | 20 | 1 | 2026-08-14 | ||
| Conference or event | 9 | 7 | 2026-09-17 | ||
| Glossary or explainer | 9 | 3 | 2026-08-07 | ||
| Template or tool | 4 | 4 | 2026-09-04 |
Most recent
- 2026-09-28Shipped model rightsizer token budgets blog
- 2026-09-28Cost per ai outcome blog
- 2026-09-24Shipped fin support platform blog
- 2026-09-24Rightsizer estimating llm token budgets blog
- 2026-09-23Ai signals monitors ai champion blog
- 2026-09-23Ai budget planning 2027 blog
Events in person
Last twelve months
- October 21, 2026The AI AppetiteSan Francisco · hosted
- October 8, 2026The AI AppetiteChicago · hosted
As the event pages on cloudzero.com state them, read September 28, 2026.
How it is countedHide how it is counted
Every page cloudzero.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 September 29, 2026.
Names read as CloudZero
What the judge wrote, as written, with how often. The vendor table decides that these count as CloudZero; a claim can dispute any of them.
Cloudzero 1
Follow CloudZero
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
CloudZero is its own company.ShowHide
The company
CloudZero is its own company.
ShowHideIn its own words
Stated by the vendor, not checked- Positioning
- The AI ROI Company
- For
- Finance leaders (CFOs, FP&A, controllers); Engineering leaders (CTOs, VPs of Engineering); Platform and cloud ops teams
- Price stated
- CloudZero uses a tiered pricing model that’s steady, predictable, and won’t vary month to month. Unlike other cloud cost products, we don’t charge monthly overages — so, if your spend spikes one month, your price stays the same. cloudzero.com
- Integrations claimed
- 12 cloudzero.com/customers
- Certifications
- AWS PartnerFinOps Certified PartnerAWS Advanced Technology PartnerCCPAGDPRSOC 1 Type 2SOC 2 Type 2
- Customers named
- Rapid7SuperhumanGrammarlySkyscannerDriftHiyaApplauseSmartBear
- Not stated on the pages read
- Starting price, free plan or trial, hosting
What CloudZero's own pages state, read September 28, 2026: cloudzero.com, cloudzero.com/pricing, trust.cloudzero.com, cloudzero.com/platform, cloudzero.com/customers. 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 CloudZero'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 CloudZero, 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 CloudZero by email, built from the raw record of the edition. It shows:
- where CloudZero 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 CloudZero, 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.
Badges
Wins only: a badge exists where CloudZero is ranked in a category's top three this edition. Three sizes, one file each, light and dark; the code is under each.ShowHide
Badges
Wins only: a badge exists where CloudZero is ranked in a category's top three this edition. Three sizes, one file each, light and dark; the code is under each.
ShowHideCloudZero is among the products AI models recommend first in Cloud cost management this edition. Each badge says so in the buyer's words, names the edition, and links to the standing. The next edition issues a new badge; this one stays true as a record of October 2026.
Wide · 320 × 104 Website, beside other badges
Square · 240 × 240 LinkedIn, slides
Compact · 200 × 56 Email signature, footer
Badges read on light and dark pages. Alt text carries the claim, the category, the edition and the index, so it stays a citation where the image does not load.