Budget & alternatives · Prompt 8 of 8 · July 2026

A real buyer question from the July 2026 snapshot, asked 3× to each of the three models. 9 answers recorded.

“What are the best tools for cold email outreach at scale?”

ChatGPT answered 3× this snapshot

…and why. If you want an all-in-one cold outreach platform (most common choice): Smartlead – probably the current favorite for high-volume cold email. Strong inbox rotation, auto warmup, and good deliverability controls. Built for scale. Instantly – very similar space as Smartlead, slightly more beginner-friendly UI. Huge user base for agencies doing mass outreach. Lemlist – better if you care about personalization…

Named across its answers: 1. Smartlead2. Instantly3. Lemlist4. Clay5. Apollo.io

Verbatim excerpt from one collected ChatGPT answer; formatting flattened, words untouched.

Instantly is the dominant answer here, appearing in all 9 responses with an average position of 1.2 and leading 7 times, while Smartlead is a consistent runner-up at an average position of 2 but rarely leads. HubSpot, Groove, Close, and Salesforce hold category rank yet go unmentioned, meaning buyers asking this question will not encounter them regardless of their actual market position.

AI-generated read of the July 2026 measurements.

Who wins this question

Owned Consensus

All three models name Smartlead, Instantly, Lemlist and Apollo.io on this question.

ChatGPT

Claude

Gemini mentioned · first · avg. pos

Instantly 212111111 9/9 · 7× first · #1.2

Smartlead 121332222 9/9 · 2× first · #2

Lemlist 3107223334 9/9 · never first · #4.1

Apollo.io 755646443 9/9 · never first · #4.9

Clay 86481057 7/9 · never first · #6.9

Mailreach 5311710 5/9 · never first · #7.2

NeverBounce 109978 5/9 · never first · #8.6

ZoomInfo 9771112 5/9 · never first · #9.2

ZeroBounce 9101189 5/9 · never first · #9.4

Mailshake 459 3/9 · never first · #6

Warmup Inbox 6412 3/9 · never first · #7.3

Hunter 1085 3/9 · never first · #7.7

Each square is one collected answer; the number is the brand's position in that answer. Lime = the very first recommendation. Unlinked brands were named by the models here but sit outside this category's published top 15 overall. Showing the top 12 of 28 brands named at least once. Never mentioned here: HubSpot, Groove, Close, Salesforce, Cognism.