What is the average AEO score for AI startups?

Based on our scan of 50 top AI startups in February 2026, the average AEO score is 61.2 out of 100 (median: 64). A quarter scored F (below 50), while 21% scored A or A+. AI companies outperform e-commerce (44.4) but trail top SaaS companies (66.8).

How many AI startups have an llms.txt file?

Only 6 out of 48 successfully scanned AI startups (12%) have an llms.txt file. Adopters include Synthesia, Cursor, Replit, Mistral AI, Together AI, and Replicate. Notably, most foundation model companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, and DeepSeek do not have one.

Which AI startups scored highest on AEO?

The top 5 AI startups for AEO readiness are Synthesia (91/100), Tabnine (88), Cohere (87), Jasper (85), and Copy.ai (85). AI content and creative tools dominate the top rankings.

How do foundation model companies score on AEO?

Foundation model companies average just 53.8/100, below the overall AI startup average of 61.2. Cohere leads at 87, while DeepSeek (25), xAI (32), and Anthropic (47) scored poorly. Companies focused on building AI often neglect optimizing their own sites for AI discovery.

What is the weakest AEO category for AI startups?

Structured Data & Schema is the weakest category at just 42.1% of possible points. Despite being AI companies, most lack the machine-readable metadata that AI systems use to understand and cite web content. Content Structure (85.6%) and Technical SEO (79.3%) are the strongest areas.

AI Startups AEO Benchmark 2026

We scanned 50 top AI startups to measure how well they're optimized for AI answer engines. The irony is thick — the companies building AI average just 61.2 out of 100 for AI discoverability, and only 12% have an llms.txt file.

Published February 5, 2026 · 48 companies scored · 13 verticals · Scoring methodology · All benchmarks

61.2

Avg AEO Score

12%

Have llms.txt

FAQ Schema

25%

Scored F

Key Findings

The AI companies building the future of search can't be found by it. Foundation model companies — OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, DeepSeek — average just 53.8/100, below the overall AI startup average. Cohere is the lone exception at 87.
Only 12% of AI companies have an llms.txt file. The standard that tells AI crawlers what your site is about has been adopted by just 6 of 48 companies — Synthesia, Cursor, Replit, Mistral AI, Together AI, and Replicate.
AI content tools dominate the leaderboard. Synthesia (91), Jasper (85), Copy.ai (85), and ElevenLabs (82) lead. Companies whose business depends on content marketing tend to optimize their own sites well.
A quarter scored F. Midjourney (13), Gamma (20), Perplexity (21), DeepSeek (25), and SSI (26) all scored below 30. Perplexity — a search engine — scored 21 on search optimization.
AI outperforms e-commerce but trails top SaaS. The 61.2 average beats e-commerce (44.4) by 17 points but falls short of the SaaS benchmark (66.8). Structured data remains the weakest category at 42.1%.

Grade Distribution

How 48 AI startups scored across FastAEOCheck's A+ to F grading scale.

A+1

C10

F12

Only one company scored A+ (Synthesia at 91). The distribution is healthier than e-commerce — 21% scored A or A+ vs. just 9% in e-commerce — but a quarter still scored F. The median of 64 puts the typical AI startup solidly in C territory.

Category Performance

Average percentage of available points scored across all 48 companies, by scoring category.

Content Structure

85.6%

Technical SEO

79.3%

Authority & Trust

65.8%

Content Quality

62.1%

AEO Readiness

58.0%

GEO Readiness

55.8%

Structured Data & Schema

42.1%

AI startups show strong Content Structure (85.6%) and Technical SEO (79.3%), reflecting their engineering-first culture. But Structured Data at 42.1% is a glaring gap — most AI companies haven't invested in the machine-readable metadata that helps AI systems understand and cite their content.

Full Rankings

All 48 companies sorted by AEO score. Click column headers to re-sort. Click any company to view their full report.

#	Company	Vertical	AEO Score	Grade	GEO	llms.txt	FAQ

Showing all 48 companies · Scanned on February 5, 2026

Scores by Vertical

Average AEO scores grouped by vertical, ranked highest to lowest. Verticals with fewer than 3 companies are marked with an asterisk.

Vertical	Companies	Avg Score	Median	Range
AI Enterprise	1 *	83.0	83	83–83
AI Data & Analytics	3	67.0	65	62–74
AI Content & Creative	7	66.9	82	13–91
AI Infrastructure	5	66.2	63	54–82
AI Coding	5	65.6	77	36–88
AI Cloud & Inference	3	63.0	64	58–67
Vertical AI	4	62.0	60	52–76
AI Chips & Hardware	3	61.3	62	51–71
AI Search	3	61.0	79	21–83
Foundation Models	6	53.8	52	25–87
AI Productivity	5	53.6	55	20–82
AI Research & Safety	2 *	52.0	52	26–78
AI Consumer	1 *	28.0	28	28–28

AI Startups vs. Other Industries

How AI startups compare to SaaS and E-commerce across key metrics.

Metric	AI Startups	SaaS	E-commerce
Average AEO Score	61.2	66.8	44.4
Median Score	64	70	48
Scored A or A+	21%	30%	9%
Scored F	25%	14%	51%
llms.txt Adoption	12%	28%	8%
FAQ Schema	6%	22%	7%

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Methodology

50 AI startups were selected across 13 verticals including Foundation Models, AI Coding, AI Content & Creative, AI Infrastructure, AI Search, AI Chips & Hardware, and more. Each site was scanned using FastAEOCheck on February 5, 2026. 48 of 50 scans completed successfully; 1 failed (Adept) and OpenAI was excluded from the initial scan due to infrastructure constraints.

The AEO score is a weighted composite of 7 categories totaling 100 points: Structured Data & Schema (20), Content Quality (18), Technical SEO (17), GEO Readiness (15), AEO Readiness (12), Authority & Trust (10), and Content Structure (8). A separate GEO score (out of 15) measures generative engine readiness specifically.

For full scoring details, see our scoring methodology.