# Valkey: how AI models rank it, September 2026

IT AI Recommendation Index, September 2026 Edition. Named in 7 judge labels across 1 categories by 3 of 12 models. Page: https://it-ai-index.com/vendors/valkey/

## Standing by category

| Category | Share | Rank | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NoSQL databases | 2% | 8 | 14% | 7 |

## What the models said for it

- "If you need a ultra-fast, in-memory key-value store for caching, session management, or rate-limiting, Valkey is the premier choice." (Gemini 3.5 Flash, NoSQL)
- "Extreme performance / caching | Valkey | Lightweight, fast, fully open-source community fork." (Gemini 3.5 Flash, NoSQL)
- "For new projects, you should use Valkey or Dragonfly to avoid vendor lock-in." (Gemini 3.5 Flash, NoSQL)
- "Valkey and KeyDB are fully free BSD-licensed drop-in replacements" (DeepSeek V4 Flash, NoSQL)

## And against it

- "Redis / Valkey: Excellent as an in-memory database for high-performance caching... rarely used as the *primary* database" (Gemini 3.5 Flash, NoSQL)

## Record

- Method: https://it-ai-index.com/methodology/
- Raw judge labels and full responses: https://it-ai-index.com/data/
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as IT AI Recommendation Index, September 2026 Edition, it-ai-index.com.