AI Visibility Index — India · November 2026

Accounting and GST software: who AI assistants name for Indian startups (Nov 2026)

We asked 3 AI assistants 5 questions an Indian founder asks about accounting and GST software. Named in the most questions: Zoho Books (5 of 5 from memory, 5 searching the web), Refrens (4 of 5 from memory, 4 searching the web), ClearTax (2 of 5 from memory, 2 searching the web).

Asked on 9 November 2026 through the APIs · from memory: Claude Haiku (Anthropic) and GPT-4o mini (OpenAI), with no web search · searching the web: Claude Haiku + web search (Anthropic), one search per answer, asked 10 November 2026 · Answers change from day to day and month to month; this is one run.

Who is named

Tool	From memory	Searching the web	Claude Haiku (of 5)	GPT-4o mini (of 5)	Claude Haiku + web search (of 5)	Usual place
Zoho Books	5 of 5	5 of 5	5	3	5	#1
Refrens	4 of 5	4 of 5	4	0	4	#3
ClearTax	2 of 5	2 of 5	1	1	2	#3

“From memory”: in how many of the 5 questions Claude Haiku or GPT-4o mini named the tool, answering with no web search. “Searching the web”: in how many Claude Haiku + web search named it after one web search. The assistant columns count answers. “Usual place”: the middle place among the from-memory answers that named it (the web place when only the web named it), counting the products in the order each answer first mentions them.

Not named in 5 questions

Tools in our directory for this category that no assistant named in any of the 5 questions, from memory or searching the web.

Swipe · not named in 5 questions

Also named, not in our directory

Names that came up in at least 2 of the 15 answers. Our directory does not list them yet, so they are not in the table.

QuickBooks India · 5
Tally Prime · 5
Marg ERP · 4
TallyPrime · 4
Vyapar · 4
Zoho Invoice · 4
Busy · 3
ProfitBooks · 3
QuickBooks Online · 3
Khatabook · 2

Questions buyers ask

Which accounting and GST software do AI assistants name most for Indian startups?

In our Nov 2026 run, Zoho Books (5 of 5 from memory, 5 searching the web), Refrens (4 of 5 from memory, 4 searching the web), ClearTax (2 of 5 from memory, 2 searching the web) were named in the most buyer questions. This counts how often an assistant names a tool; it does not say which tool is better.

Which accounting and GST software did AI assistants not name?

Swipe — in our directory, but not named by Claude Haiku and GPT-4o mini and Claude Haiku + web search in any of the 5 questions asked on 9 November 2026.

How were these AI answers collected, and will they change?

On 9 November 2026 we sent each of the 5 questions once to Claude Haiku and GPT-4o mini and Claude Haiku + web search through their APIs, with no company named in the question (from memory: Claude Haiku (Anthropic) and GPT-4o mini (OpenAI), with no web search · searching the web: Claude Haiku + web search (Anthropic), one search per answer, asked 10 November 2026): 15 answers. The same question can get different names on another day, so read this as one dated snapshot.

How we tested, 9 November 2026: each of the 5 questions went once to Claude Haiku and GPT-4o mini and Claude Haiku + web search through their APIs, with no company named in the question — from memory: Claude Haiku (Anthropic) and GPT-4o mini (OpenAI), with no web search · searching the web: Claude Haiku + web search (Anthropic), one search per answer, asked 10 November 2026. One run, not a ranking.

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The 5 questions, and the names in each answer

Names in the order each answer first mentions them. Open a question to see every assistant, from memory and searching the web.

1. Best accounting software for a small Indian startup that needs GST invoices and returns?

Claude Haiku · from memory: Zoho Books → Tally Prime → QuickBooks India → ClearTax
GPT-4o mini · from memory: Tally.ERP 9 → Zoho Books → QuickBooks India → TaxLab → KashFlow
Claude Haiku + web search · searching the web: Zoho Books → ProfitBooks → TallyPrime → Munim → Refrens → ClearTax

2. Which invoicing software with GST e-invoicing should a 20-person Indian company use?

Claude Haiku · from memory: Zoho Books → Tally Prime → Refrens
GPT-4o mini · from memory: Zoho Invoice → TallyPrime → ClearTax → Marg ERP → QuickBooks India
Claude Haiku + web search · searching the web: Zoho Books → Tally Prime → Busy → Clear

3. Accounting software for an Indian startup that a CA can also work with — what do you recommend?

Claude Haiku · from memory: Zoho Books → Tally Prime → QuickBooks Online → Refrens
GPT-4o mini · from memory: TallyPrime → Zoho Books → QuickBooks India → Marg ERP
Claude Haiku + web search · searching the web: Zoho Books → TallyPrime → Refrens → Finexo Books → Busy

4. Free or cheap GST billing software for an Indian freelancer or small agency?

Claude Haiku · from memory: Zoho Invoice → Vyapar → Refrens → Invoice Ninja → Tally Prime → Zoho Books
GPT-4o mini · from memory: Zoho Invoice → Ginu → GSTHero → Khatabook → Invoicera → QuickBooks → BillBooks
Claude Haiku + web search · searching the web: Zoho Invoice → Zoho Books → ProfitBooks → Refrens → Vyapar → ZeroBillBook → FreelanceBook

5. Tally alternatives for a modern Indian startup — which accounting tools?

Claude Haiku · from memory: Zoho Books → Refrens → Vyapar → QuickBooks India → Busy → Marg ERP → Open → Keka
GPT-4o mini · from memory: Zoho Books → QuickBooks Online → FreshBooks → Xero → Marg ERP → Khatabook → Vyapar
Claude Haiku + web search · searching the web: Zoho Books → QuickBooks Online → Giddh → Zoye AI → Refrens → ProfitBooks

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How this was made

Each question was sent once to each assistant, with no company named in the question. From memory: Claude Haiku and GPT-4o mini, through their APIs with no web search and no tools — each answers from what it learned in training. Searching the web: Claude Haiku + web search, through the API with one web search allowed per answer (results from India) — it reads pages found that day, as the ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity apps can. We read the names each answer lists, in order (MONEY-7 reader), and count a tool from our directory as named when the answer names it. The two columns can differ: an assistant that searches reads pages written this month, so a newer or smaller company can be named there and not from memory. The full method and the other 29 categories.