# Subscription billing: which vendors AI models recommend (September 2026)

Source: Memetik Index, https://www.memetik.ai/index/startup-billing
Field: Startup stack. 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.

**Stripe Billing leads** with 100% answer share (named in 50 of 50 answers) and was named first in 72%. Chargebee follows at 76%. 15 vendors were named at least once.

## Answer share

| # | Vendor | Answer share | Named first | Mentions | Models |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Stripe Billing | 100% | 72% | 50/50 | 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 | Chargebee | 76% | 4% | 38/50 | 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 | Paddle | 70% | 22% | 35/50 | 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 | Lago | 58% | 0% | 29/50 | 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 | Metronome | 48% | 2% | 24/50 | GPT-5.6 Sol, ChatGPT, GPT-5.6 Luna, Claude Opus 5, Claude, Claude Fable 5, Gemini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Sonar Reasoning Pro |
| 6 | Recurly | 44% | 0% | 22/50 | 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 |
| 7 | Orb | 38% | 0% | 19/50 | GPT-5.6 Sol, ChatGPT, GPT-5.6 Luna, Claude Opus 5, Claude, Claude Fable 5, Gemini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Sonar Reasoning Pro |
| 8 | Maxio | 38% | 0% | 19/50 | GPT-5.6 Sol, GPT-5.6 Luna, Claude Opus 5, Claude, Claude Fable 5, Gemini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity, Sonar Reasoning Pro |
| 9 | Lemon Squeezy | 26% | 0% | 13/50 | GPT-5.6 Luna, Claude Opus 5, Claude Fable 5, Gemini, Gemini 3.5 Flash |
| 10 | Zuora | 18% | 0% | 9/50 | GPT-5.6 Sol, Claude Opus 5, Claude, Claude Fable 5, Perplexity |
| 11 | Zoho Billing | 14% | 0% | 7/50 | Claude, Perplexity, Sonar Reasoning Pro |
| 12 | FastSpring | 12% | 0% | 6/50 | ChatGPT, Claude Opus 5, Claude, Claude Fable 5, Sonar Reasoning Pro |
| 13 | Polar | 6% | 0% | 3/50 | Claude Fable 5, Gemini, Gemini 3.5 Flash |
| 14 | Braintree | 6% | 0% | 3/50 | Gemini, Gemini 3.5 Flash |
| 15 | Dodo Payments | 6% | 0% | 3/50 | Claude, Claude Fable 5 |

## By model

- **GPT-5.6 Sol** (OpenAI, gpt-5.6-sol, 5 answers): Stripe Billing 100%, Chargebee 80%, Metronome 80%, Paddle 60%, Lago 60%
- **GPT-5.6 Terra** (OpenAI, gpt-5.6-terra, 5 answers): Stripe Billing 100%, Paddle 80%, Chargebee 60%, Metronome 60%, Lago 40%
- **GPT-5.6 Luna** (OpenAI, gpt-5.6-luna, 5 answers): Stripe Billing 100%, Paddle 80%, Lago 60%, Orb 60%, Chargebee 40%
- **Claude Opus 5** (Anthropic, claude-opus-5, 5 answers): Stripe Billing 100%, Chargebee 80%, Paddle 80%, Lago 80%, Metronome 80%
- **Claude Sonnet 5** (Anthropic, claude-sonnet-5, 5 answers): Stripe Billing 100%, Chargebee 100%, Paddle 80%, Lago 80%, Recurly 60%
- **Claude Fable 5** (Anthropic, claude-fable-5, 5 answers): Stripe Billing 100%, Lago 80%, Chargebee 60%, Paddle 60%, Metronome 40%
- **Gemini 3.6 Flash** (Google, gemini-3.6-flash, 5 answers): Stripe Billing 100%, Chargebee 80%, Paddle 80%, Orb 80%, Lago 60%
- **Gemini 3.5 Flash** (Google, gemini-3.5-flash, 5 answers): Stripe Billing 100%, Chargebee 80%, Paddle 80%, Metronome 80%, Lago 60%
- **Sonar Pro** (Perplexity, sonar-pro, 5 answers): Stripe Billing 100%, Chargebee 100%, Paddle 40%, Recurly 40%, Maxio 40%
- **Sonar Reasoning Pro** (Perplexity, sonar-reasoning-pro, 5 answers): Stripe Billing 100%, Chargebee 80%, Paddle 60%, Recurly 60%, Maxio 60%

## Sources the models cited

- solvimon.com: 63
- hyperline.co: 47
- reddit.com: 46
- schematichq.com: 37
- youtube.com: 37
- outseta.com: 29
- baremetrics.com: 28
- flexprice.io: 27
- connectpay.com: 24
- dealhub.io: 21
- resubly.com: 20
- solidgate.com: 19
- stripe.com: 18
- zoneandco.com: 17
- fintechspecs.com: 17

## Prompts

1. What is the best subscription billing platform for a SaaS startup? Name specific products.
2. Which billing tool should an early-stage SaaS use instead of building on raw Stripe?
3. Compare the top recurring billing and invoicing platforms for startups.
4. I need usage-based billing for my API startup. What do you recommend?
5. Best billing system for a startup selling globally with tax handling?

## Tracked but never named

Kill Bill

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