AI inference platforms: AI search visibility ranking (2026)
How AI search engines rank ai inference platforms by visibility and citations. 20 brands measured monthly 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 →
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When buyers inquire about AI inference platforms, AI engines most often point to Fireworks AI as the leader. Fireworks AI leads with significant visibility, registering 62.5 percent mentions in conversations. Other brands frequently highlighted include Together AI and Groq, although they do not match Fireworks AI's prominence in AI engine responses.
The rankings stem from the information AI engines extract from top-cited sources such as siliconflow.com and gmicloud.ai. These sources, especially when they aggregate multiple reviews, provide a comprehensive view that fuels the engines' assessments. This ensures that the AI recommendations are grounded in broad and representative data from respected industry platforms.
For buyers sifting through this page, noting what AI engines value could be crucial. Recent reviews, authoritative third-party validations, and specific expertise in subcategories are key indicators of a brand's strength. Evaluating these elements can help in making a well-informed choice that aligns with both industry trends and specific business needs.
At a glance
What we observed in this category
Fireworks AI and Together AI share the top visibility score of 62.5%, both sitting five times above the category average of 12.5%. That joint lead matters because the next ranked brand, Groq, sits at 37.5%, creating a meaningful gap at the top of the field. The composite scores tell a clearer story: Fireworks AI scores 51.2 versus Together AI at 47.5, with the difference driven entirely by citation rate, where Fireworks AI doubles Together AI at 25.0% versus 12.5%.
Modal and Baseten both hold 25.0% visibility but carry zero citation share, meaning Google AI Mode surfaces them in responses but does not link out to their domains. Groq presents the inverse pattern in a useful way: its visibility of 37.5% is lower than the top two, yet its citation rate of 25.0% matches Fireworks AI exactly. Google Vertex AI is the only brand outside the top three to earn any citations at all, matching its own visibility figure of 12.5% for a perfect one-to-one ratio.
Every brand in the top ten lists Google AI Mode as its top engine, indicating this category is currently a single-engine visibility story with no meaningful signal from alternative AI surfaces. The top cited sources in the category include siliconflow.com, gmicloud.ai, bentoml.com, and digitalocean.com, none of which are the tracked brands themselves. This suggests Google AI Mode is anchoring its inference platform responses on third-party technical content and comparison resources rather than on the brands' own domains.
Movers & shakers since last refresh
Biggest visibility risers
-
Fireworks AI 12% → 62% · rank #4 → #1+50pp
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Together AI 12% → 62% · rank #3 → #2+50pp
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Groq 12% → 38% · rank #2 → #3+25pp
Biggest visibility fallers
-
Fal 12% → 0% · rank #5 → #11-12pp
The ranking
| # | Brand | Visibility | Citation | Top engine |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
fireworks.ai
|
62% | 25% | Google AI Mode |
Fireworks AI leads all 20 brands with a composite score of 51.2, driven by a 62.5% visibility rate and a 25.0% citation rate, both well above the category averages of 12.5% and 3.8% respectively. |
||||
| 2 |
together.ai
|
62% | 12% | Google AI Mode |
Together AI matches Fireworks AI on visibility at 62.5% but its citation rate of 12.5% is half that of its nearest rival, pulling its composite score to 47.5 versus Fireworks AI's 51.2. |
||||
| 3 |
groq.com
|
38% | 25% | Google AI Mode |
Groq's citation rate of 25.0% equals Fireworks AI's, yet its visibility of 37.5% is 25 points lower, resulting in a composite score of 33.8 and a clear gap behind the top two. |
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| 4 |
modal.com
|
25% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
Modal holds 25.0% visibility, double the category average, but earns zero citations, leaving it with a composite score of 17.5 and no confirmed trust signal from Google AI Mode. |
||||
| 5 |
baseten.co
|
25% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
Baseten shares Modal's exact profile: 25.0% visibility, 0.0% citation rate, and a composite score of 17.5, making the two brands statistically indistinguishable in this audit period. |
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| 6 |
cloud.google.com
|
12% | 12% | Google AI Mode |
| 7 |
replicate.com
|
12% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 8 |
huggingface.co
|
12% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 9 |
runpod.io
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 10 |
octo.ai
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 11 |
fal.ai
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 12 |
banana.dev
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 13 |
aws.amazon.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 14 |
azure.microsoft.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 15 |
anyscale.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 16 |
sambanova.ai
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 17 |
lepton.ai
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 18 |
predibase.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 19 |
cerebrium.ai
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 20 |
deepinfra.com
|
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.
How to read this 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 →
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 30 days and refresh this page automatically. How AI search ranking works →
Get your own ai inference platforms brand audited
The brands above were curated from public market-leader lists. Want the same 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.
Frequently asked about ai inference platforms AI visibility
Who leads AI visibility in the AI inference platforms category?
Fireworks AI and Together AI are joint leaders on visibility at 62.5% each, both five times above the category average of 12.5%. Fireworks AI takes the top composite score of 51.2 due to its higher citation rate of 25.0% versus Together AI's 12.5%.
Which brand has the strongest citation rate in AI inference platforms?
Fireworks AI and Groq share the highest citation rate in the category at 25.0% each, both far above the category average of 3.8%. Fireworks AI converts that citation rate alongside higher visibility, while Groq achieves the same citation rate with only 37.5% visibility.
What sources does Google AI Mode cite most when answering queries about AI inference platforms?
The top cited sources include siliconflow.com, gmicloud.ai, bentoml.com, and digitalocean.com, none of which are the tracked brands in this audit. This indicates Google AI Mode is drawing on third-party comparison and technical content rather than vendor-owned domains.
Which brands appear in AI Mode responses but receive no citations?
Modal, Baseten, Replicate, and Hugging Face all have non-zero visibility scores but carry a 0.0% citation rate, meaning they are mentioned in AI Mode responses without any linked attribution.
Which brands have seen the biggest visibility gains recently?
Fireworks AI and Together AI both recorded a visibility delta of plus 50.0 percentage points, rising from 12.5% to 62.5% in the current period. Groq also rose, gaining 25.0 percentage points to reach 37.5% visibility.
Are any major enterprise platforms competitive in AI inference platform visibility?
Google Vertex AI is the only enterprise cloud platform in the ranked data, sitting at rank 6 with just 12.5% visibility and 12.5% citation rate, well behind the specialist inference platforms that dominate the top five positions.