# AI coding agents: which vendors AI models recommend (September 2026)

Source: Memetik Index, https://www.memetik.ai/index/ai-coding-agents
Field: AI coding. Edition: 2026-09. Run: 2026-09-02.
Method: 5 fixed buyer prompts sent once each to 10 current models (GPT-5.6 Sol, GPT-5.6 Terra, GPT-5.6 Luna, Claude Opus 5, Claude Sonnet 5, Claude Fable 5, Gemini 3.6 Flash, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Sonar Pro, Sonar Reasoning Pro) via their APIs with web search enabled. 50 answers. Answer share = fraction of answers naming the vendor. Named first = fraction where it was the first tracked vendor named.

**Cursor leads** with 98% answer share (named in 49 of 50 answers) and was named first in 48%. Claude Code follows at 98%. 12 vendors were named at least once.

## Answer share

| # | Vendor | Answer share | Named first | Mentions | Models |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cursor | 98% | 48% | 49/50 | GPT-5.6 Sol, ChatGPT, GPT-5.6 Luna, Claude Opus 5, Claude, Claude Fable 5, Gemini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity, Sonar Reasoning Pro |
| 2 | Claude Code | 98% | 38% | 49/50 | GPT-5.6 Sol, ChatGPT, GPT-5.6 Luna, Claude Opus 5, Claude, Claude Fable 5, Gemini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity, Sonar Reasoning Pro |
| 3 | GitHub Copilot | 98% | 4% | 49/50 | GPT-5.6 Sol, ChatGPT, GPT-5.6 Luna, Claude Opus 5, Claude, Claude Fable 5, Gemini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity, Sonar Reasoning Pro |
| 4 | Codex | 78% | 10% | 39/50 | GPT-5.6 Sol, ChatGPT, GPT-5.6 Luna, Claude Opus 5, Claude, Claude Fable 5, Gemini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity, Sonar Reasoning Pro |
| 5 | Cline | 60% | 0% | 30/50 | GPT-5.6 Sol, GPT-5.6 Luna, Claude Opus 5, Claude, Claude Fable 5, Gemini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity, Sonar Reasoning Pro |
| 6 | Aider | 52% | 0% | 26/50 | GPT-5.6 Sol, GPT-5.6 Luna, Claude Opus 5, Claude, Claude Fable 5, Gemini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity, Sonar Reasoning Pro |
| 7 | Windsurf | 42% | 0% | 21/50 | GPT-5.6 Sol, ChatGPT, GPT-5.6 Luna, Claude Opus 5, Claude, Claude Fable 5, Gemini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity, Sonar Reasoning Pro |
| 8 | Devin | 34% | 0% | 17/50 | GPT-5.6 Luna, Claude, Claude Fable 5, Gemini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity, Sonar Reasoning Pro |
| 9 | Gemini CLI | 28% | 0% | 14/50 | GPT-5.6 Sol, ChatGPT, GPT-5.6 Luna, Claude Opus 5, Claude, Claude Fable 5, Perplexity, Sonar Reasoning Pro |
| 10 | Replit | 12% | 0% | 6/50 | Claude Opus 5, Claude, Claude Fable 5, Gemini, Sonar Reasoning Pro |
| 11 | Augment | 10% | 0% | 5/50 | Claude, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity, Sonar Reasoning Pro |
| 12 | Codegen | 4% | 0% | 2/50 | Perplexity, Sonar Reasoning Pro |

## By model

- **GPT-5.6 Sol** (OpenAI, gpt-5.6-sol, 5 answers): Claude Code 100%, GitHub Copilot 100%, Codex 100%, Cursor 80%, Cline 40%
- **GPT-5.6 Terra** (OpenAI, gpt-5.6-terra, 5 answers): Cursor 100%, GitHub Copilot 100%, Codex 100%, Claude Code 80%, Windsurf 40%
- **GPT-5.6 Luna** (OpenAI, gpt-5.6-luna, 5 answers): Cursor 100%, Claude Code 100%, GitHub Copilot 100%, Codex 100%, Cline 40%
- **Claude Opus 5** (Anthropic, claude-opus-5, 5 answers): Cursor 100%, Claude Code 100%, GitHub Copilot 100%, Cline 100%, Aider 100%
- **Claude Sonnet 5** (Anthropic, claude-sonnet-5, 5 answers): Cursor 100%, Claude Code 100%, GitHub Copilot 100%, Codex 100%, Devin 100%
- **Claude Fable 5** (Anthropic, claude-fable-5, 5 answers): Cursor 100%, Claude Code 100%, GitHub Copilot 100%, Codex 100%, Cline 100%
- **Gemini 3.6 Flash** (Google, gemini-3.6-flash, 5 answers): Cursor 100%, Claude Code 100%, GitHub Copilot 100%, Cline 80%, Devin 80%
- **Gemini 3.5 Flash** (Google, gemini-3.5-flash, 5 answers): Cursor 100%, Claude Code 100%, GitHub Copilot 100%, Cline 100%, Aider 100%
- **Sonar Pro** (Perplexity, sonar-pro, 5 answers): Cursor 100%, Claude Code 100%, GitHub Copilot 80%, Codex 80%, Cline 40%
- **Sonar Reasoning Pro** (Perplexity, sonar-reasoning-pro, 5 answers): Cursor 100%, Claude Code 100%, GitHub Copilot 100%, Codex 80%, Gemini CLI 80%

## Sources the models cited

- youtube.com: 182
- daily.dev: 113
- faros.ai: 48
- vellum.ai: 41
- axify.io: 40
- mightybot.ai: 33
- zapier.com: 32
- verdent.ai: 23
- augmentcode.com: 23
- tech-insider.org: 20
- reddit.com: 19
- henrythe9th.substack.com: 19
- morphllm.com: 17
- tldl.io: 17
- dev.to: 17

## Prompts

1. What is the best AI coding agent or assistant for a software engineer? Name specific products.
2. Which AI coding agent or assistant would you recommend to a software engineer in 2026?
3. Compare the top AI coding agent or assistant options right now.
4. I'm a software engineer and I need an AI coding agent or assistant. What should I use and why?
5. Best AI coding agent or assistant for shipping a production codebase?

## Tracked but never named

Amp, Kiro, Zed, Factory

Raw answers: https://www.memetik.ai/index/ai-coding-agents (every answer published in full). Chart image: https://www.memetik.ai/charts/ai-coding-agents.png. Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit "Memetik Index".