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Yonjun Jeong, Co-founder · Last updated: October 21, 2026

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What this article covers

ChatGPT recommended Adobe Firefly in more of its answers than any other AI image generator DecaGEO tracks, in every week of Q3 2026. DecaGEO asked ChatGPT the same 59 US buyer questions about image generators each week, and Adobe Firefly was recommended in 89.8% of the answers under GPT-5.4 and in 83.2% after the July 26 switch to GPT-5.6 Terra. Canva and Midjourney came next in both periods.
Summary for citation: In DecaGEO’s data for ChatGPT in the US (AI Image Generators category, weeks of July 5 to September 27, 2026), Adobe Firefly was recommended in more answers than any other tracked product in all 13 weeks. ChatGPT’s model changed from GPT-5.4 to GPT-5.6 Terra in the week of July 26. Adobe Firefly was recommended in 89.8% of answers in the GPT-5.4 weeks and 83.2% in the GPT-5.6 Terra weeks, Canva in 65.0% and 55.4%, and Midjourney in 59.3% and 42.5%. Adobe Photoshop went from 13.6% to 27.0% and Recraft from 6.8% to 22.4%.
Key takeaway: Adobe Firefly, Canva and Midjourney were the three tracked products ChatGPT recommended most often in both model periods. After the July 26 switch, Midjourney was named in fewer answers, and Adobe Photoshop and Recraft in more.

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Top 10 AI image generators ChatGPT recommends at a glance

Table 1: AI image generators ranked by DECA Score in the week of September 27, 2026 (GPT-5.6 Terra), with the share of ChatGPT answers that recommended each one, pooled by model period. Same 59 questions each week, one answer per question. Adobe Illustrator has a ranking entry in two of the three GPT-5.4 weeks, and its 4 answers come from those two weeks. DecaGEO, ChatGPT, US, English, weeks of July 5 to July 19 (GPT-5.4) and July 26 to September 27, 2026 (GPT-5.6 Terra). Definitions in How we measure. DECA Score is relative to the week’s #1, which is always 100. Adobe Photoshop at 58.6 means ChatGPT recommended it about three fifths as strongly as Adobe Firefly that week, and Canva at 57.6 almost the same. To see whether a product was recommended more or less often over time, use the two share columns.
Line chart of the weekly share of answers recommending five AI image generators over 13 weeks. Adobe Firefly was at 88.1%, 93.2% and 88.1% in the three GPT-5.4 weeks, then between 79.7% and 88.1% from July 26. Canva went from 62.7% to 66.1% before July 26 to 50.8% to 62.1% after. Midjourney was at 59.3% in each GPT-5.4 week and between 39.0% and 45.8% after. Adobe Photoshop went from 10.2% to 15.3% to 16.9% to 37.9%, and Recraft from 3.4% to 8.5% to 16.9% to 27.1%.

Share of each week's ChatGPT answers that recommended Adobe Firefly, Canva, Midjourney, Adobe Photoshop and Recraft. The dashed line marks the week of July 26, the first week measured on GPT-5.6 Terra. DecaGEO, ChatGPT, US, English, AI Image Generators category, weeks of July 5 to September 27, 2026.

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The top 10, in detail

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1. Adobe Firefly (DECA 100)

#1 in all 13 weeks, with no tie. ChatGPT recommended it in 52 to 55 of the 59 answers each week under GPT-5.4 and in 47 to 52 from July 26. Its share of recommending answers went from 89.8% to 83.2%. In the week of September 27 it was recommended in 49 answers, 13 more than Canva.

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2. Adobe Photoshop (DECA 58.6)

#7, #9 and #7 in the GPT-5.4 weeks, then #2 to #7 in the GPT-5.6 Terra weeks, including a tie for #4 with ChatGPT Images in the weeks of July 26 and August 16. Its share of recommending answers went from 13.6% to 27.0%. In the week of September 27 it was recommended in 22 answers, 14 fewer than Canva, yet it ranked one place higher. DECA Score also counts where in each answer a product appears, so more answers do not always mean a higher score.

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3. Canva (DECA 57.6)

Recommended in more answers than any tracked product except Adobe Firefly in all 13 weeks, 37 to 39 a week under GPT-5.4 and 30 to 36 from July 26. It ranked #3 in the three GPT-5.4 weeks, below Midjourney, which was named in fewer answers. From July 26 it was #2 in nine of the ten weeks and #3 in the week of September 27. Its share of recommending answers went from 65.0% to 55.4%.

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4. Midjourney (DECA 41.9)

#2 in all three GPT-5.4 weeks, recommended in 35 answers each week. From July 26 it ranked #3 to #5 and was recommended in 23 to 27 answers a week. Its share of recommending answers went from 59.3% to 42.5%, the largest fall among the ten products ranked in the week of September 27.

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5. ChatGPT Images (DECA 32.5)

On the ranking in all 13 weeks. It was #5 in the three GPT-5.4 weeks, then #3 to #5 from July 26, with the two ties for #4 noted above. It was recommended in 17 or 18 answers a week under GPT-5.4 and 17 to 25 from July 26. Its share went from 29.4% to 36.4%, the fourth highest among tracked products in the GPT-5.6 Terra weeks.

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6. Ideogram (DECA 30.9)

#4 in all three GPT-5.4 weeks, recommended in 27 answers each week. From July 26 it ranked #6 to #8 and was recommended in 15 to 23 answers a week. Its share went from 45.8% to 32.3%.

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7. Adobe Express (DECA 26.7)

#9 (tied with Figma), #7 and #9 in the GPT-5.4 weeks, then #7 to #12 in the GPT-5.6 Terra weeks. Its share went from 13.6% to 16.3%. Its 15 recommending answers in the week of September 27 were its most in any Q3 week.

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8. Leonardo.Ai (DECA 22.5)

#6 in all three GPT-5.4 weeks, then #6 to #10 in the GPT-5.6 Terra weeks. Its share went from 31.6% to 21.4%.

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9. Recraft (DECA 18.8)

#14, #13 and #19 in the GPT-5.4 weeks, then #5 to #9 in every GPT-5.6 Terra week. Its share went from 6.8% to 22.4%, the largest rise among the ten products ranked in the week of September 27.

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10. Adobe Illustrator (DECA 17.3)

#17 in the weeks of July 5 and July 12, with no ranking entry in the week of July 19. From July 26 it ranked #10 to #19. The week of September 27 was its first top-10 week in Q3, with 8 recommending answers. Its share went from 2.3% to 6.0%.

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What changed at the July 26 model switch

The week of July 26 was the first measured on GPT-5.6 Terra. The same set of 59 questions was asked in all 13 weeks.
  • The top six held still under GPT-5.4. Adobe Firefly, Midjourney, Canva, Ideogram, ChatGPT Images and Leonardo.Ai ranked #1 to #6 in that order in all three GPT-5.4 weeks.
  • Midjourney and Ideogram were named in fewer answers. Midjourney’s share went from 59.3% to 42.5% and Ideogram’s from 45.8% to 32.3%. Midjourney moved from #2 to #3 to #5, and Ideogram from #4 to #6 to #8.
  • Adobe Photoshop and Recraft were named in more. Adobe Photoshop went from 13.6% to 27.0% and Recraft from 6.8% to 22.4%. From July 26 both ranked inside the top 9 in every week, up from #7 to #9 for Adobe Photoshop and #13 to #19 for Recraft.
  • Canva moved up to #2 without more answers. Its share fell from 65.0% to 55.4%, but Midjourney’s fell further, and Canva was #2 in nine of the ten GPT-5.6 Terra weeks.
  • Adobe Firefly stayed #1 in every week of both periods, while its share went from 89.8% to 83.2%.
These are differences between the two periods, so read each product’s rank against the model it was measured on.

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Notable: Stable Diffusion, Getty Images Generative AI and Shutterstock AI Image Generator

Stable Diffusion ranked #11, #11 and #8 in the GPT-5.4 weeks and #16 to #23 from July 26. It was recommended in 19.2% of the GPT-5.4 answers and 4.3% of the GPT-5.6 Terra answers. Getty Images Generative AI went the other way, from #18 to #22 and 2.3% under GPT-5.4 to #8 to #14 and 10.7% from July 26, and was #13 in the week of September 27. Shutterstock AI Image Generator was recommended in about the same share in both periods, 18.1% and 17.9%, ranked #9 to #13 from July 26, and was #11 in the week of September 27.

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What the top products’ cited pages have in common

DecaGEO checks the products’ own pages that ChatGPT cited in its AI image generator answers for on-page patterns. The category’s Weekly Breakouts tab shows these patterns by name for the products that broke in or climbed in the current week, and it changes every Sunday. Here are five of them, counted instead across the top-10 products of the week of September 27. Table 2: A product counts if at least one of its cited pages has the pattern. DecaGEO, ChatGPT, US, English, AI Image Generators category, week of September 27, 2026. Meta descriptions and canonical links are on at least one cited page of all ten products. robots.txt and content freshness appear for six, and Schema.org types for three. These counts describe the pages ChatGPT cited, so use the table as a list to check on your own pages.

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What you can do with this list

If you are choosing an AI image generator, Adobe Firefly, Canva and Midjourney were the tracked products ChatGPT recommended most often in both model periods, and ChatGPT Images, Ideogram and Adobe Photoshop were each recommended in more than a quarter of answers from July 26. This is a ranking of recommendations, not a review of features, so use it to build a shortlist and test from there. For a closer look at two of the leaders, see Midjourney vs Adobe Firefly.
  • Without an account, the live AI image generator ranking shows the current week, and each product’s page shows its Overview for that week.
  • With a free account, each product’s page has a Segment Position tab with one card for each buyer condition, by Use Case, Creative Control and Usage Context. A card shows where that product ranks among the answers to that condition’s questions and the share of those answers that recommended it, or “Not mentioned”. Open the product pages on your shortlist and compare the same card across them, for example the usage context closest to your team’s. Clicking a ranked card opens the questions behind it, and the Brand Ranking Trail shows the order ChatGPT recommended products in each answer.
If your brand is in this category, the same pages show where you stand.
  • Without an account, search your brand in the header and open its Overview. The GEO Guide, under Dashboard in the site header, checks your own page for on-page GEO patterns. It is free, and the first step needs no account.
  • With a free account, you get the latest four weeks, the Brand Ranking Trail for each question, every third-party source ChatGPT cited behind the recommendations in Off-Page Citations, the segment cards (including ones where you are not mentioned), and tracking for one brand.
  • Pro ($49 a month) adds ten weeks of data, full Chart History and CSV export.

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FAQ

Which AI image generator does ChatGPT recommend most? Among the products DecaGEO tracks in this category, Adobe Firefly. It was recommended in more answers than any other tracked product in all 13 weeks of Q3 2026, in 89.8% of answers under GPT-5.4 and 83.2% under GPT-5.6 Terra, and it ranked #1 in every week. Is Midjourney or Adobe Firefly recommended more by ChatGPT? Adobe Firefly. It was recommended in more answers than Midjourney in every week of Q3 2026, and the gap between their shares grew from 30.5 points under GPT-5.4 to 40.7 points under GPT-5.6 Terra. Where does ChatGPT Images rank? #5 in the GPT-5.4 weeks and #3 to #5 in the GPT-5.6 Terra weeks. It was recommended in 29.4% of answers under GPT-5.4 and 36.4% under GPT-5.6 Terra. Does ChatGPT recommend Canva as an AI image generator? Yes. Canva was recommended in the second most answers of any tracked product in every week of Q3 2026, in 65.0% of answers under GPT-5.4 and 55.4% under GPT-5.6 Terra. What is DECA Score? A 0 to 100 score for how often and how high ChatGPT recommends a product within one category in one week. The week’s #1 is 100. Details are in How we measure and the methodology. Are these rankings stable? Adobe Firefly was #1 in all 13 weeks, and Adobe Firefly, Canva and Midjourney were the three most recommended tracked products in both model periods. Below #1, places moved at the July 26 model switch. Midjourney, for example, went from #2 to #3 to #5, and Recraft from #13 to #19 to #5 to #9. Is this a features review? No, it ranks products by how ChatGPT recommends them, not by feature quality, price or results.

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How we measure

The common method, including how questions are built and how DECA Score is calculated, is on the methodology page.
  • Window: 13 weeks, July 5 to September 27, 2026, ChatGPT, US, English. The weeks of July 5, 12 and 19 were measured on GPT-5.4 and the weeks from July 26 on GPT-5.6 Terra. Figures from the two periods are shown side by side and not combined.
  • Sample: the same 59 AI image generator questions every week, one answer per question. That makes 177 answers in the GPT-5.4 weeks and 588 in the GPT-5.6 Terra weeks, where the weeks of August 16 and September 27 have 58 answers each.
  • Products: ranks are by product, not by company, so products from the same company, such as Adobe Firefly and Adobe Photoshop, are ranked separately.
  • DECA Score is shown for one week only, because it is relative to that week’s #1.
  • Recommended in counts answers that recommended the product. Passing or negative mentions are not counted.
  • Page patterns are from the week of September 27, on each product’s own pages cited in that week’s AI image generator answers.
  • The live board updates every Sunday, so it shows weeks after September 27.

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Sources