What is the average AEO score for SaaS companies?

Based on our scan of 100 leading SaaS companies in February 2026, the average AEO score is 66.8 out of 100 (median: 70). Only 30% scored an A or A+, while 14% scored F (below 50).

How many SaaS companies have an llms.txt file?

Only 28 out of 100 top SaaS companies (28%) have an llms.txt file. This file helps AI systems understand site structure and content, similar to robots.txt for search engines.

Which SaaS companies scored highest on AEO?

The top 5 SaaS companies for AEO readiness are Asana (94/100), Brex (91), Mailchimp (91), WordPress (91), and Ahrefs (90). Project management and marketing tools tend to score highest.

What is the weakest AEO category for SaaS companies?

Structured Data & Schema is the weakest category, with SaaS companies averaging only 50.5% of possible points. This means most companies are missing JSON-LD schema markup, FAQPage schema, and other structured data that AI engines rely on.

How were the 100 SaaS companies selected?

Companies were selected from the Forbes Cloud 100 and G2 Top Software lists, representing 22 verticals including CRM, Dev Tools, Marketing, Security, Fintech, and more. Each was scanned at depth 5 using FastAEOCheck's standard audit methodology.

SaaS AEO Benchmark 2026

We scanned 100 leading SaaS companies to measure how well they're optimized for AI answer engines. Most aren't ready — the average score is just 66.8 out of 100.

Published February 4, 2026 · 100 companies · 22 verticals · Scoring methodology

66.8

Avg AEO Score

28%

Have llms.txt

22%

FAQ Schema

14%

Scored F

Key Findings

Structured data is the biggest gap. SaaS companies average only 50.5% of possible points in the Structured Data & Schema category — the single weakest area across all 100 sites.
AI companies score worst on AI readiness. The AI vertical averages just 50.2/100. OpenAI scored 16, Perplexity 21, and Anthropic 47 — the companies building AI struggle to be found by AI.
llms.txt adoption is at 28%. Just over a quarter of top SaaS companies have adopted the llms.txt standard. Early movers include Asana, Brex, Mailchimp, Stripe, and Vercel.
Only 22% use FAQ schema. FAQPage markup is one of the easiest structured data wins, yet 78% of companies don't implement it.
Project management and marketing tools lead. These verticals average 78+ with strong content quality and structured data. Design tools trail at 49.3.

Grade Distribution

How 100 SaaS companies scored across FastAEOCheck's A+ to F grading scale.

A+5

A25

B21

C23

D12

F14

30% earned an A or A+, while 26% scored D or F. The median score of 70 sits right at the B/C boundary — most SaaS companies are doing the basics but leaving significant points on the table.

Category Performance

Average percentage of available points scored across all 100 companies, by scoring category.

Content Structure

91.0%

Technical SEO

80.5%

AEO Readiness

69.2%

Content Quality

68.7%

GEO Readiness

62.5%

Authority & Trust

62.5%

Structured Data & Schema

50.5%

The gap between the strongest (Content Structure, 91%) and weakest (Structured Data, 50.5%) is stark. Most SaaS sites have well-organized content but fail to provide machine-readable metadata that AI systems can directly consume.

Full Rankings

All 100 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 100 companies · Scanned at depth 5 on February 4, 2026

Scores by Vertical

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

Vertical	Companies	Avg Score	Median	Range
Communications Platform	1 *	82.0	82	82–82
Marketing	6	80.2	82.5	67–91
Project Management	6	78.0	76.5	65–94
E-commerce	5	78.0	79	70–85
CMS	4	78.0	83.5	54–91
Observability	5	77.0	79	66–87
Vertical SaaS	2 *	77.0	77	75–79
Security/Infrastructure	4	75.2	76	66–83
CRM	5	73.2	72	62–83
Security/Identity	3	71.7	73	67–75
Document Management	2 *	70.5	70.5	62–79
Cloud Storage	2 *	69.5	69.5	54–85
Productivity	2 *	69.0	69	55–83
HR/People	5	69.0	64	57–88
Fintech	5	65.0	75	13–91
Communication	5	64.4	69	40–80
Dev Tools	13	63.4	64	18–89
Automation	3	57.3	69	25–78
Customer Support	4	54.0	53.5	49–60
Data/Analytics	7	51.3	57	12–84
AI	5	50.2	47	16–85
Design	6	49.3	50	18–79

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Methodology

All 100 companies were selected from the Forbes Cloud 100 and G2 Top Software lists across 22 industry verticals. Each site was scanned using FastAEOCheck at depth 5 (up to 5 pages per domain) on February 4, 2026.

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.