Ask any model which coding agent to use and you get a confident answer. We wanted to know where that confidence comes from.
We ran fifteen buying questions through grounded search — the questions a real buyer types, not keywords — and recorded which tools the answers named and which sources they cited. 41 distinct sources, 116 citations. What follows is that data.
What AI models actually name
| Tool | Mentions |
|---|---|
| Cursor | 15 |
| GitHub (also cited as GitHub Copilot) | 15 |
| Claude Code | 14 |
| Augment Code | 12 |
| Cline | 11 |
| Codex (also cited as OpenAI Codex) | 9 |
| Windsurf/Devin Desktop | 9 |
| Aider | 7 |
| Kilo Code | 5 |
| OpenCode | 4 |
| OpenHands | 4 |
| Tabnine | 4 |
| Anthropic | 1 |
| Codeium | 1 |
Cursor and GitHub Copilot were both named in all 15 answers. Not one ahead of the other — both, every time. That pattern repeats across every category we measured, and it is the single most useful thing in this data: models do not rank, they enumerate. There is a consensus set they name almost every time, and everyone else is named rarely or never. Being in the set is close to binary.
One subreddit is quietly shaping this category. Ten of the 41 cited sources are Reddit threads, carrying 18% of all citations, and the two most-cited are both from r/ChatGPTCoding. Not a benchmark, not a vendor comparison. Two threads of developers arguing.
If you build a coding tool, that is a more reachable target than out-ranking Faros or Vellum. Nobody needs permission to answer a question well.
Where the answers come from
These are the pages the models cited most. The top three carry 29% of all citations in this category, and Reddit threads carry 18% across 10 separate discussions.
Method
Fifteen buying questions, run through grounded search on 3 September 2026:
What are the best AI Coding Agents brands? · Which AI Coding Agents should I buy? · Best AI Coding Agents for beginners · Most trusted AI Coding Agents brands and why · Compare the top AI Coding Agents brands · What AI Coding Agents do experts recommend? · Best value AI Coding Agents · Which AI Coding Agents brands have the best reviews? · Top rated AI Coding Agents 2026 · What should I look for when choosing AI Coding Agents? · Alternatives to the most popular AI Coding Agents · Is there a better option than the leading AI Coding Agents brand? · What do people on Reddit recommend for AI Coding Agents? · Best AI Coding Agents for small businesses · What's the highest rated AI Coding Agents right now?
Every answer carries citations. We recorded all of them and ranked by frequency.
What this does not do. We did not test these tools, run trials, or compare features hands-on. Plenty of roundups claim they did. We measured which tools AI models recommend and which sources those recommendations came from — a different question, and the one that matters if your goal is being recommended rather than choosing.
Reproducibility. Ask the same questions again and substantially the same sources come back. In our testing, two independent runs of a category minutes apart returned the same URLs in the same order.
This is one of seven categories we mapped the same way. Across all seven, Reddit carried 16-27% of citations and the top three sources carried 29-33% — every single time.
This source map was made with Mayin.
Every number above came from running real buying questions through grounded search and recording what the answers cited. You can get the same map for your own category and brand in about 15 minutes, for $49 — one payment, no subscription, delivered in Telegram.