Top 20 AI chat models

Google's top model, first in Arena's text votes, now in Google AI Plus from $4.99/month; votes are still early.

Best for Everyday chat and writing at the top of Arena votes, from $4.99 a monthYou give up Votes still early; ranks 10th for web app coding, and API price doubles on 1 Dec

Meta's new frontier model, released 12 Oct; a strong all-rounder at the same token price as Opus 5.5

Best for All-round chat and writing through Meta's API, near the top of chat votesYou give up Same token price as Claude Opus 5.5; no review yet

Top public pick for coding, agents and hard questions at a mid price; skip it for bulk work where Sonnet 5.5 is enough.

Best for Coding and agent jobs; ranks first on the web app and agent boardsYou give up Twice Sonnet 5.5's token price; thinking can't be turned off

Very strong, but Opus 5.5 ranks higher on most boards for 40% of the price; keep Fable for cases Opus misses.

Best for Teams whose hardest long tasks still fail on Opus 5.5You give up Slower than Opus 5.5, 2.5 times its token price, and needs 30-day data retention

Low-cost Google model near the top for writing and maths; rankings are preliminary and API prices double in January.

Best for Writing, maths and video or audio input at a low token priceYou give up Weak at web app coding (rank 31); API prices double on 1 Jan 2027

Solid coding and agent model at a low token price; GPT-6.1 Sol and Claude rank higher if quality matters most.

Best for Low-cost coding and agent work through Meta's APIYou give up Ranks well below GPT-6.1 Sol on agent tasks; the cheapest tier uses your data

The highest-ranked model with downloadable weights on this board

Best for Teams with a large server cluster who want top-ranked open weightsYou give up Needs over 1 TB of memory to run; API costs like a closed model; custom licence

Well tested older Gemini Pro still on the API; Gemini 3.8 Flash ranks higher for less

Best for Teams on the Gemini API who want a long-tested Pro modelYou give up Older model; the cheaper Gemini 3.8 Flash ranks higher on this list

Near-top coding and agent work at a fifth of GPT-6 Astra's price; pick Claude Opus 5.5 or Gemini for creative writing.

Best for Coding and agent work near the top without top-model pricesYou give up Weak at creative writing (rank 26); not on ChatGPT Free or Go

Alibaba's top model; solid general chat with low output prices

Best for Web app coding and image tasks at low output pricesYou give up GPT-6.1 Sol rates the same on our boards and costs less per task

Top open-weights model on the Artificial Analysis index, at cents per task; closed leaders still rank well above it.

Best for Cheap coding and agent work, or an MIT model to host yourselfYou give up Self-hosting needs 8 to 16 GPUs; data on Xiaomi's platform is stored in China

Open-weights general model with fair API prices

Best for Agent coding and security work with open weightsYou give up Custom licence to read before commercial use; MiMo-V2.6-Pro costs far less per task

Second on WebDev and Agent boards, but GPT-6.1 Sol is close for a fifth of the price; middling at creative writing.

Best for The hardest coding and agent jobs, where a small lead is worth paying forYou give up Five times GPT-6.1 Sol's token price; middling at creative writing

Near-top coding, agents and research for half Opus 5.5's token price; for writing, pick Opus 5.5 or Gemini 3.8 Flash.

Best for Everyday coding and agents with near-top results on a budgetYou give up Behind the leaders on creative writing; breaking API changes from Sonnet 5

Very cheap and openly licensed; good for high-volume everyday chat

Best for Bulk API jobs with image input, cheapest in off-peak hoursYou give up Peak-hour prices are double; self-hosting needs over 300 GB of memory

Very cheap MIT model, 13th on arena.ai Math; for coding and agents MiMo-V2.6-Pro ranks higher for less per task.

Best for Cheap maths-heavy or bulk work through an API or your own serversYou give up Mid-table for coding and weak at creative writing; hosting needs a server

Baidu's main model; mid-table here and not yet on the Artificial Analysis index

Best for Chinese-language work at a low priceYou give up Rarely the best pick outside China; Baidu's own site lists no API price

OpenAI mid-tier model, still offered as a replacement for retired chat models

Best for OpenAI API users who need a replacement for retired chat modelsYou give up Older mid-tier model that ranks below GPT-6.1 Sol

Larger DeepSeek model; the cheaper V4.1 Flash ranks higher on this board

Best for Agent coding through DeepSeek's API, at half price off-peakYou give up Far too large to self-host for most teams, at about 1.7T parameters

Low-cost Qwen model for simple everyday tasks

Best for Simple, high-volume tasks on Alibaba Cloud on a tight budgetYou give up Lowest rank on this list