How AI assistants recommend payment processors
A small business that asks an AI assistant for a payment processor gets a short list of providers, and the list can differ from country to country. Here is what the assistants answered in every country the AIGROW Index asked, and what a provider can work on.
- Countries asked
- 20
- Names in the rankings
- 118
- Products named per country
- 13
- Names repeated on a rerun
- 81%
- Answers that name the leader
- 96%
The first two rows are counts; the rows under them are medians over the ranked pages. Every question was asked without a location or a chat history.
Asked for payment processors in 20 countries, ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini named about 13 providers per country, and 18% of those names came up only once. Each assistant builds its list from what is published about a provider. What a provider controls is that public record: its fees, its payment methods and its reviews.
What a customer asked, and who came first
One place of the 20, as an example: United States. Every place was asked the same questions in its own language, and its page in the Index has the full ranking.
- What is the best payment processor for a small business in the US?
- I'm launching an online store in the US and need to accept cards and other payment methods. Which payment provider would you recommend?
- Which payment provider would you recommend to a small shop in the US that sells both in store and online?
- Which payment processor has the lowest fees for a small business in the US?
- Squarenamed in 97% of the answers
- Stripenamed in 75% of the answers
- Shopifynamed in 58% of the answers
The names that recur
9 different businesses came first across 20 rankings, and 13 names were listed in three places or more. These are the most frequent.
- Stripe20 places
- PayPal18 places
- SumUp15 places
- Adyen12 places
- Mollie10 places
- Zettle by PayPal8 places
Counted by spelling: two businesses with the same name in different places count as one.
What an owner can work on
No one can promise a place in an assistant’s answer. What an owner controls is what is published about the business, and these are the parts the questions above point to.
Answer the new online store
One question came from someone launching an online store who needs to accept cards and other payment methods. List the methods you support and the countries you serve, and show the steps to start accepting them.
Cover shops that sell in two places
Another came from a small shop that sells in store and online. Say whether one account covers both, and what an in-store payment needs.
Fees in public
One question asked for the lowest fees. Publish your fees in full, including anything charged on top, and keep them current, since a reader compares them across providers.
Every ranking for this trade
The AIGROW Index publishes the ranking of each place with every answer, and how it was measured.
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