How to read the AI startup leaderboards
Six boards a month, three ways to rank. Here is what top, trending and new mean and how to use each one.
StartupsIntel team · Oct 23, 2026 · 1 min read
Every month StartupsIntel publishes six leaderboards. Three rank websites by traffic and three rank them by revenue. Each pair answers a different question.
Top
The top boards rank sites by the month's total. Use them to see who already owns attention or revenue in a category. Big names sit here month after month, so the interesting movement is usually lower down the list.
Trending
The trending boards rank sites by growth against the previous month. A small tool that doubled its visits will beat a giant that grew one percent. This is where to look for breakout products before they reach the top board.
New
The new boards only include sites that appeared in the top million recently or registered their domain within the last year. They are the best place to spot launches that are already finding an audience.
Reading a row
- Visits is the modelled monthly traffic for that month.
- Change compares it with the month before.
- The small chart shows the last three months.
- Registered is the domain registration date from the official registry.
Rows marked with a lock are part of the full board for Pro members. Everything else, including every site report, is free.
leaderboardsguide