Agent Market Map 2026: who does what, what buyers pay, and where a small team fits
by PaperChaseWebb
A decision map of the agent market, not a logo wall: seven layers with public examples and dates, six trust patterns buyers keep paying for, a pricing-shape table, a fit worksheet and a ten-line A-or-B scorecard. Plus a kit to keep your own map current: CSV format, rules, eight prompts, a read-only check script and a seeded test map.
- Price
- $19
- Difficulty
- Beginner
- Setup
- 20 min
- Format
- .md file
agent-market-map-2026-layers-pricing-trust-patterns.md · 34 KB · instant download after checkout
Want this built for you instead? We can build it for you.
What you end up with
You can say which layer your offer sits in, who already sells the same job, which trust patterns none of them show, and compare any two tools for a client on evidence instead of a feature list.
What you get
- 19 sections in one .md file
- Seven layers of the agent market, each with what it is, who buys, how it is priced and public examples, as of 2026-10-27
- Six trust patterns to audit any offer against
- A dated pricing-shape table from public pages
- A ten-line fit worksheet for placing your own offer
- A ten-line A-or-B comparison scorecard with an evidence rule
- A CSV format, rules block and five-step approval flow for keeping your own map
- 8 copy-paste prompts
- map_check.py: a read-only check for duplicates, missing sources, stale rows, unlisted prices, hype words, unsourced figures and unsigned approvals
- A seeded test map with eight expected findings
- Harness notes for Grok Bot, Claude Code, Codex and Hermes, a failure table and an illustrative worked example
- A teardown of the free and paid maps and credited sources
Who it is for
Operators and consultants who need to decide what to buy, what to build and where their own agent offer fits, and who get asked "which tool should we use" by clients.
Works with
Solid chips: the agent is named in this listing's own tools list. Dashed chip: Plain Markdown, so it also pastes into other agents such as Grok Bot, Hermes, OpenClaw or Muse. We list those as compatible by format only, not as tested.
Tools needed
Cost to run: The pack is the only purchase. Uses the agent harness you already have and Python 3.
Time to result: About 20 minutes to read the map and fill in the fit worksheet, then about 20 minutes a month to refresh your own map
How it works
Read the map
Read the seven layers and the six trust patterns.
Expected: You can name the layer your offer sits in.
Place yourself
Fill in the fit worksheet, or run Prompt 6 and let the agent interview you.
Expected: Lines 7 and 8 name a gap you can prove you fill.
Test the check
Save map_check.py and the seeded map, then run the script.
Expected: Eight findings, then 0 after the listed fixes.
Start your own map
Paste the rules block and run Prompt 1 for the job you sell. Check proposals with the script.
Expected: Draft rows in proposed-map.csv, each with a source and date.
Approve and use
Approve the rows you checked, merge them, then run Prompt 4 or 7 when a client asks.
Expected: A dated, sourced comparison or summary you can stand behind.
Sample prompts, free to use
Compare <tool A> and <tool B> for this job: <job>. Use the ten-line scorecard from the market map pack. For each line, give a score of 0 to 2 for each tool and the evidence you saw, with the URL. Anything you could not see is 0. Do not recommend one. Write it to notes/compare-<a>-<b>.md.
Prompt 4 of 8. Runs after the rules block in section 8.
Read the approved rows in map.csv for layer <layer> and buyer <buyer>. For each of the six trust patterns, list which products show it on their own pages. Then list the patterns no product shows. Quote the page for each yes.
Prompt 5 of 8.
Free preview of the file
# Agent Market Map 2026: who does what, what buyers pay, and where a small team fits By PaperChaseWebb. Works in Grok Bot, Claude Code, Codex and Hermes, and pastes into Claude or ChatGPT. Version 1.0, 2026-10-27. There are free lists with two thousand agent names on them. This is not another one. It is a decision map: seven layers of the agent market, what each layer does, who buys it and how it is priced, six trust patterns that keep showing up in the products people actually pay for, a scorecard for comparing two tools side by side, and a kit for keeping your own map current with an agent that proposes changes and a person who approves them. A read-only script checks the map for missing sources, stale rows and hype, and a seeded test map with eight planted problems proves the script works before you trust it. <!-- preview --> ## Contents 1. Who this is for, and what it will not do 2. How to read the map 3. The seven layers 4. Six trust patterns buyers keep paying for 5. What the market charges: pricing shapes as of October 2026 6. Where a small team fits: the fit worksheet 7. The comparison scorecard 8. Keep your own map: the CSV and the rules 9. The eight prompts 10. The map check script 11. The seeded test map 12. Harness notes: Grok Bot, Claude Code, Codex, Hermes 13. The monthly refresh routine 14. Failure table 15. Worked example (illustrative) 16. When to bring us in 17. What we looked at, and what we did differently 18. Sources 19. License, refunds and version
Worth knowing
- It is a map as of 2026-10-27, not a complete list. Agent products change monthly; section 8 is how you keep your own copy current.
- It is not a ranking and not investment research. There are no valuations, funding figures or usage claims in the map, on purpose.
- Examples are described from public pages and published coverage. We did not test those products.
- On 2026-10-27 map_check.py reported the eight expected findings on the seeded map, then 0 after the listed fixes. The prompts were walked through against it as a design check. Run the seeded map in your own harness first.
Questions
There are free agent directories. Why pay?
Use them for names; the pack points to the good ones. This is for deciding: which layer, which trust patterns, which price shape, and how to compare two tools on evidence, plus a kit that keeps your own map from going stale.
Is this investment advice?
No. There are no stock views, valuations or funding data in it. It is about buying, building and selling agent products.
Will the agent contact vendors or sign up for trials?
No. The rules forbid sign-ups, trials, demos, forms and contacting anyone. If a price is behind a form, the row says "price on request".
Which tools does it work with?
Grok Bot, Claude Code, Codex and Hermes, with harness notes for each. The rules and prompts also paste into Claude or ChatGPT.
Details
Version 1.0 · Updated Oct 27, 2026 · Markdown version of this page
License: Personal and commercial use inside your own business, including maps and summaries you prepare for your own clients. Do not resell, republish or share this file. Download terms
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