---
title: "What AI recommended for search in September 2026"
description: "What AI recommends for search, updated monthly: which tools Claude · Claude Haiku 4.5, Claude · Claude Opus 4.8, Claude · Claude Sonnet 4.6, ChatGPT, Venice · DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731, Venice · Gemini 3.6 Flash, Venice · Kimi K2.6, Venice · Llama 3.3 70B, Venice · Qwen 3.7 Plus and Venice · GLM 5.2 named in September 2026 when developers asked \"What should I use for search in my app?\", cross-referenced with what developers say about them."
source: https://backtalk.sh/ai-recommends/search/2026-09
---

# What AI recommends for search (September 2026)

When developers ask "What should I use for search in my app?", this is what Claude · Claude Haiku 4.5, Claude · Claude Opus 4.8, Claude · Claude Sonnet 4.6, ChatGPT, Venice · DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731, Venice · Gemini 3.6 Flash, Venice · Kimi K2.6, Venice · Llama 3.3 70B, Venice · Qwen 3.7 Plus and Venice · GLM 5.2 answer, measured over 545 sampled answers across 4 probe runs. Share of voice is the percentage of sampled answers naming the tool; the dev pulse is the sentiment of the same month's developer mentions on Hacker News, Reddit, GitHub, Stack Overflow, Bluesky and more.

| # | Tool | AI share of voice | Change vs prior month | Named by | Dev pulse |
|---|------|------------------:|----------------------:|----------|-----------|
| 1 | Algolia | 0% | -32.9 pts | none this month | not tracked |
| 2 | Elasticsearch | 0% | -30.8 pts | none this month | not tracked |
| 3 | Meilisearch | 0% | -27.1 pts | none this month | not tracked |
| 4 | OpenSearch | 0% | -19.9 pts | none this month | not tracked |
| 5 | Typesense | 0% | -26.3 pts | none this month | not tracked |
| 6 | Vespa | 0% | -4.2 pts | none this month | not tracked |

Biggest mover: Algolia (-32.9 pts vs the previous month).

## The prompts behind these standings

- What should I use for search in my app? (recommendation)
- What are the best Algolia alternatives? (alternatives)
- Which search engine is best for a small app? (recommendation)

## Method

These September 2026 standings are final and never change; cite them by permalink. Full methodology: https://backtalk.sh/ai-recommends/methodology (as markdown: https://backtalk.sh/ai-recommends/methodology.md). Free to cite with attribution to "BackTalk AI Recommendation Standings" and a link.