Small business▲+4Since September 2026: 2% → 6%, +4 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.
6%from 2% in September 2026
Inside the floor by 7 pointsRank 10 → 6 of 77
Microsoft · 5 categories · RankedMicrosoft Azure
127Judge labels
33First choices
17Negative labels
14 / 14Models named it
5Categories
October 2026 Edition. Every number here is derived from the raw labels under vendor table v2026-10.8, every buyer segment counted.
Best standing
38% in Cloud hosting for enterprise buyers
Rank 2 of 85 in the mid-market standingaccepted challenger
4 of 14 models made it the first choice on the direct prompt; 8% of its 37 labels there were negative.
What the models named instead of Microsoft Azure →By buyer segmentStrongest at enterprise.
Small business7 of 81
5%33 labels
criticized challenger
Mid-market2 of 85
20%37 labels
accepted challenger
Enterprise2 of 44
38%48 labels
endorsed leader
In cloud hosting · 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 Microsoft Azure 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 hosting | Cloud and infrastructure | 20% | 2 of 85 | 8% | 37 | accepted challenger | ▼−1Since September 2026: 24% → 23%, −1 point. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. |
| Managed Kubernetes platforms | Cloud and infrastructure | 2% | 7 of 52 | 0% | 1 | under 10 labels · led by Google Kubernetes Engine at 43% | newNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 2% now. |
| Backup and disaster recovery | Cloud and infrastructure | 0% | 88 of 116 | 0% | 1 | under 10 labels · led by Veeam Data Platform at 38% | =heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. |
| Enterprise storage systems | Cloud and infrastructure | 0% | 111 of 167 | 0% | 1 | under 10 labels · led by Dell PowerStore at 16% | |
| Multi-factor authentication | Identity and access | 0% | 73 of 77 | 100% | 1 | under 10 labels · led by Cisco Duo at 47% |
Movement
Since September 2026, Microsoft Azure held within the floor in all five categories: no change cleared 11 points.
Best category · Cloud hosting · by segment
Mid-market▼−1Since September 2026: 24% → 23%, −1 point. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.
23%from 24% in September 2026
Inside the floor by 10 pointsRank 2 of 75, unchanged
Enterprise▲+13Since September 2026: 27% → 40%, +13 points. Past the 11-point floor: movement. Read over the models both editions asked.
40%from 27% in September 2026
Cleared the floor by 2 pointsRank 2 of 41, unchanged
All categories · Mid-market
| Category | September 2026 | Now | Change | Reading | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Managed Kubernetes | 0% | 2% | newNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 2% now. | New this edition | Rank 7 of 52, unchanged |
| Cloud hosting | 24% | 23% | ▼−1Since September 2026: 24% → 23%, −1 point. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. | Within noise | Rank 2 of 85, unchanged |
| Backup and DR | 0% | 0% | =heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. | Within noise | Rank 86 → 88 of 116 |
| Enterprise storage | 0% | 0% | newNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 0% now. | New this edition | Rank 111 of 167, unchanged |
| MFA | 0% | 0% | newNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 0% now. | New this edition | Rank 73 of 77, 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 Microsoft Azure 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 Microsoft Azure 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 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| GPT-5.4 mini | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| Perplexity Sonar | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Grok 4.20 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| Mistral Small | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Llama 4 Maverick | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 5 |
| Kimi K2 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| MiniMax M2.5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| GPT-6 Luna | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Muse Glimmer 30B | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 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
Direct33 labels12
Paraphrase32 labels17
Comparative37 labels3not counted in share
Budget-constrained12 labels4
Scale-constrained2 labelsNone
Negative11 labels1not counted in share
First choiceAlternativeMentionNegative127 labels in all, every segment counted; 33 of the 37 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.
“Start with Azure if: You use Microsoft products, need strong hybrid cloud, or have existing Microsoft licenses” GLM 4.7 FlashX · Cloud hosting · direct prompt · first choice
“the major hyperscalers (AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform) generally offer superior reliability” DeepSeek V4 Flash · Cloud hosting · negative prompt · first choice
“For most mid-sized B2B companies, Microsoft Azure is the safest and most business-aligned choice” Gemini 3.5 Flash · Cloud hosting · paraphrase prompt · first choice
“I would recommend Amazon Web Services (AWS) or Microsoft Azure as the top choices” MiniMax M2.5 · Cloud hosting · paraphrase 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.
“the breadth offered by AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud can create billing and support challenges for small teams” Claude Haiku 4.5 · Cloud hosting · direct prompt · soft negative
“not recommended for limited budgets because their pay-as-you-go billing is highly complex” Gemini 3.5 Flash · Cloud hosting · budget prompt · soft negative
“Longest average outages (14.6 hours per incident ... ) ... watch for global disruptions.” Grok 4.20 · Cloud hosting · negative prompt · soft negative
“the researchers only took one hour to bypass Microsoft Azure's MFA systems” Muse Glimmer 30B · MFA · negative prompt · soft negative
Named alongside
The products named in the same answers as Microsoft Azure, over the 127 answers that named it. Took the first choice instead counts the answers where the other product was the first choice and Microsoft Azure was named but was not.ShowHide
Named alongside
The products named in the same answers as Microsoft Azure, over the 127 answers that named it. Took the first choice instead counts the answers where the other product was the first choice and Microsoft Azure 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 Microsoft Azure. 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 107 of the 127 answers that named Microsoft Azure and are not a share of its labels.
Domains cited
digitalocean.com38
atlantic.net37
hostingadvice.com29
linkedin.com22
aws.amazon.com20
newsweek.com19
bluehost.com18
cloudzero.com18
kuberns.com18
pcmag.com18
237 of the 237 domain citations in answers naming Microsoft Azure came from somebody else's page.
Pages cited
Pages are listed as the models cited them.
Search and answers
azure.microsoft.com is not in Google's top ten for any of the category's searches. In the answers, Microsoft Azure takes 20% of first choices and Amazon Web Services takes 32%.ShowHide
Search and answers
azure.microsoft.com is not in Google's top ten for any of the category's searches. In the answers, Microsoft Azure takes 20% of first choices and Amazon Web Services takes 32%.
ShowHideIn search
Google, US estimatesPosition for “cloud hosting provider”
–
not in the top ten
Position for “cloud hosting providers”
–
not in the top ten
- Searches for its name, Google
- 301,000 a month (“microsoft azure”)
- AI search demand for its name, est.
- 2,503 a month
- Organic visits to its site
- about 1,848,766 a month
- Searches its site ranks for
- 23,434 · 7,837 in the top three
- Sites linking to it
- 108,076
- Paid Google search
- 4 searches its ads show for, about 394 clicks and $6,123 a month (estimate)
Ads on Google
None found in Google's ad transparency records for the US
In answers
This editionShare of first choices
20%
rank 2 of 85 in cloud hosting
Segment leader
32%
Amazon Web Services
- First choices
- 33 across its categories
- Named in
- 127 answers
- Its own site cited
- in 107 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 azure.microsoft.com
10,132
subdomains included
Content
1,935
counted in the table below
Documentation
29
Product · Integration
402 · 5
| Kind | Pages | Last 90 days | 2025-10 to 2026-09 | Latest | Categories named |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Template or tool | 1,093 | undated | |||
| Blog | 596 | 17 | 2026-09-28 | SIEM | |
| Report or ebook | 72 | undated | |||
| Podcast or video | 68 | undated | |||
| Glossary or explainer | 62 | undated | |||
| Webinar or virtual event | 19 | undated | |||
| Comparison | 19 | 1 | 2026-08-27 | ||
| Case study | 5 | 1 | 2026-07-23 | ||
| News or press | 1 | 1 | 2026-09-29 |
Most recent
- 2026-09-29Announcements news or press
- 2026-09-28Microsoft foundry blog
- 2026-09-24Ship agents faster with expanded model choice voice agents and continuous optimization blog
- 2026-09-24Foundry agent service blog
- 2026-09-23Your architecture diagram is not your resilience blog
- 2026-09-23Designing agent first platforms what changes when agents do the work blog
How it is countedHide how it is counted
Every page azure.microsoft.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 Microsoft Azure
What the judge wrote, as written, with how often. The vendor table decides that these count as Microsoft Azure; a claim can dispute any of them.
Microsoft Azure (AKS) 1
Follow Microsoft Azure
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
Microsoft is the company behind Microsoft Azure.ShowHide
The company
Microsoft is the company behind Microsoft Azure.
ShowHideOn record
Company records- Also from Microsoft
- Microsoft 365, Microsoft 365 Admin Center, Microsoft 365 Administration, Microsoft 365 Backup, Microsoft 365 Compliance Center, Microsoft 365 Copilot, Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, Microsoft 365 DSC and 164 more
In its own words
Stated by the vendor, not checked- Positioning
- open and flexible cloud computing platform
- For
- developers
- Price stated
- Pay as you go or try Azure for free for up to 30 days. azure.microsoft.com
- Free plan or trial
- try Azure for free for up to 30 days azure.microsoft.com
- Certifications
- FIPS 140-3>100
- Hosting
- more than 60 announced regions
- Customers named
- Levi Strauss & Co.ReplitHexawarePremier LeagueAugust AIEcolabCarlsberg GroupWestern Sydney University
- Not stated on the pages read
- Starting price, integrations
What Microsoft Azure's own pages state, read September 28, 2026: azure.microsoft.com, azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing, azure.microsoft.com/en-us/explore/security, azure.microsoft.com/en-us/products/cdn, azure.microsoft.com/en-us/resources/customer-stories. 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 Microsoft Azure'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 Microsoft Azure, 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 Microsoft Azure by email, built from the raw record of the edition. It shows:
- where Microsoft Azure 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 Microsoft Azure, 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 Microsoft Azure 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 Microsoft Azure is ranked in a category's top three this edition. Three sizes, one file each, light and dark; the code is under each.
ShowHideMicrosoft Azure is among the products AI models recommend first in Cloud hosting 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.