AEO Rankings · AI

AEO for AI inference platforms: AI search visibility ranking

By monitoraeo Last updated October 16, 2026 Refreshed every 90 days

How AI search engines rank AI inference platforms by visibility and citations. 20 brands measured quarterly across Google AI Mode: which brands the AI names in answers, which domains it cites as sources, and how the leaders compare. AI inference platforms used to deploy, scale, and optimize model serving for low-latency production AI applications. Composite score: 70% visibility (% of AI answers naming the brand) + 30% citation rate (% citing the brand's domain). Full methodology →

Avg visibility across category

Avg citation rate

20/20

Brands successfully audited

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When buyers ask AI engines about AI inference platforms, DeepInfra emerges at the forefront with a visibility rate of 12.5 percent. It consistently stands out among AI engines like ChatGPT and Google AI. Alongside DeepInfra, Fireworks AI and Together AI also rank highly, providing strong competition in this rapidly evolving sector.

These rankings reflect the sources AI engines rely on for information. Notably, platforms such as google.com and digitalocean.com are frequent reference points, serving as aggregators and review sites. This sourcing indicates the importance of established, reliable reference materials in determining authority within the AI inference space.

For buyers, this ranking indicates that AI engines value recent reviews, third-party endorsements, and strong topical authority. When evaluating these platforms, consider how well each brand is supported by user testimonials and authoritative sources. This helps ensure that the platform chosen aligns with both the buyer's needs and industry standards, making the selection process more reliable.

At a glance

Category leader DeepInfra 12% visibility · named in 1 of 8 AI answers

Most cited brand DeepInfra 12% citation rate · the AI's most-trusted source brand in AI inference platforms

Top cited domain google.com Referenced by AI across the AI inference platforms query set — the highest-leverage PR target in this category

Visibility spread 12pp Gap between top and bottom of the ranking · 14 brands at 0% (invisible to the AI)

What we observed in this category

DeepInfra leads the AI inference platforms category with a composite score of 12.5, the only brand achieving both visibility and citation at 12.5% each. Every other brand in the top six holds identical visibility at 12.5% but records zero citation, meaning DeepInfra's citation parity creates a meaningful gap in AEO performance. The category average sits at just 3.8% visibility and 0.6% citation, so even the tied mid-tier brands are running well above the field on visibility alone.

The data reveals a sharp divergence between being named and being trusted as a source. Fireworks AI, Together AI, Fal, Groq, and Modal all appear in answers at 12.5% visibility yet carry zero citation percentage, indicating Google AI Mode references them without anchoring to their owned domains as sources. DeepInfra is the sole brand where naming and citing align, suggesting its content or domain authority is closing the gap that every peer is currently failing to bridge.

Google AI Mode is the dominant engine across all 20 brands in this audit, listed as the top engine for every tracked brand. The cited sources underpinning AI answers skew heavily toward third-party intermediaries: google.com, digitalocean.com, and gmicloud.ai lead the source list, with YouTube also featuring. Brand-owned domains are largely absent from citation, which points to AI answers being constructed from distributor, tutorial, and aggregator content rather than from the platforms' own documentation or landing pages.

Movers & shakers since last refresh

Biggest visibility risers

DeepInfra 0% → 12% · rank #20 → #1
+12pp
Fal 0% → 12% · rank #11 → #4
+12pp

Biggest visibility fallers

Fireworks AI 62% → 12% · rank #1 → #2
-50pp
Together AI 62% → 12% · rank #2 → #3
-50pp
Groq 38% → 12% · rank #3 → #5
-25pp

The AEO ranking

#	Brand	Visibility	Citation	Top engine
1	DeepInfra deepinfra.com	12%	12%	Google AI Mode
DeepInfra is the only brand matching visibility and citation at 12.5% each, jumping from rank 20 to rank 1 with a citation delta of plus 12.5 points while all peers sit at zero citation.
2	Fireworks AI fireworks.ai	12%	0%	Google AI Mode
Fireworks AI holds 12.5% visibility but zero citation, down from 62.5% visibility previously, a 50-point drop that erased its former category-leading position and eliminated all citation it once held.
3	Together AI together.ai	12%	0%	Google AI Mode
Together AI mirrors Fireworks AI with a 50-point visibility fall from 62.5% to 12.5% and a citation drop of 12.5 points, leaving it named in answers but unanchored as a cited source.
4	Fal fal.ai	12%	0%	Google AI Mode
Fal rose seven places to rank 4 with a 12.5-point visibility gain from zero, yet its citation remains at 0%, meaning its AEO gain is purely presence-based with no source-trust component.
5	Groq groq.com	12%	0%	Google AI Mode
Groq fell two ranks and lost 25 points of both visibility and citation, arriving at 12.5% visibility and zero citation, placing it level with three other brands that also hold no citation.
6	Modal modal.com	12%	0%	Google AI Mode
7	Replicate replicate.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
8	Azure AI Foundry azure.microsoft.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
9	Anyscale anyscale.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
10	SambaNova sambanova.ai	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
11	Lepton AI lepton.ai	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
12	Predibase predibase.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
13	Cerebrium cerebrium.ai	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
14	Google Vertex AI cloud.google.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
15	Amazon Bedrock aws.amazon.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
16	Baseten baseten.co	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
17	Runpod runpod.io	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
18	OctoAI octo.ai	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
19	Hugging Face huggingface.co	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
20	Banana banana.dev	0%	0%	Google AI Mode

Sources AI engines trust in this category

Across the 8 buyer-intent queries we ran on AI inference platforms, these are the domains Google AI Mode cited most often. If you're not on this list — or if your competitors are — that's a concrete PR / linkbuilding target.

google.comdigitalocean.comgmicloud.aiyoutube.comtitancorpvn.comqualixsolutions.comoneinfer.aisiliconflow.com

How to read this AEO ranking

Four things worth knowing before you act on the numbers above. These are the same definitions across every industry page — for category-specific observations, see the What we observed section above (where available) and the per-brand insights inline in the ranking.

Visibility = being named

A brand's visibility % is the share of AI answers that mention it by name in the response prose. This is who AI engines actively recommend to the buyer. More on visibility →

Citation rate = being trusted

Citation rate is the share of AI answers that include the brand's domain as a clickable source link. This is what the AI treats as authoritative evidence, different from being named. More on citation rate →

Top engine differs by brand

The "top engine" column shows which AI surface each brand performs best on. Big gaps between a brand's score across engines usually points to specific content or schema gaps. How AI engines pick sources →

AEO rankings move month to month

AI engines re-crawl and re-rank on shorter cycles than classical search. We re-audit every brand on this list at least every 90 days and refresh this page automatically. How AI search ranking works →

Run an AEO audit on your own AI inference platforms brand

The brands above were curated from public market-leader lists. Want the same answer engine optimisation measurement against your own brand — including the queries you appear on, which competitors get named instead, and a prioritised fix list? Run a free preview.

Audit your AI inference platforms brand → Browse all AEO rankings Methodology →

Frequently asked about AEO for AI inference platforms

Who leads AEO in AI inference platforms?

DeepInfra leads with a composite score of 12.5 and is the only brand in the category achieving both visibility and citation at 12.5%, having risen from rank 20 to rank 1 in the latest audit period.

What sources does Google AI Mode cite most for AI inference platforms queries?

The audit shows google.com, digitalocean.com, and gmicloud.ai are the top cited sources in this category, with YouTube also appearing, suggesting AI answers draw primarily from third-party and aggregator content rather than brand-owned domains.

Why do some brands appear in AI answers but receive no citation credit?

Five of the top six brands, including Fireworks AI, Together AI, Fal, Groq, and Modal, each hold 12.5% visibility but zero citation, indicating Google AI Mode names them in responses without linking to or sourcing their own domains.

Which brands have seen the biggest AEO shifts in AI inference platforms recently?

DeepInfra gained 12.5 points in both visibility and citation to reach rank 1, while Fireworks AI and Together AI each lost 50 points of visibility and dropped from the top two positions they previously held.

How concentrated is AEO performance across the 20 brands in this category?

Only six of the 20 tracked brands hold any visibility at all, and with a category average of 3.8% visibility and 0.6% citation, the majority of brands register zero presence in Google AI Mode answers.

Does having high visibility in AI inference platforms guarantee citation performance?

No. The data shows five brands tied at 12.5% visibility all record zero citation, confirming that appearing in an AI answer and being cited as a source are distinct AEO outcomes that do not move together in this category.