Back to the trend of the day: Google's Gemini 4 Carbon is for now open only to cybersecurity defenders
Poly Rating · from the trend of the day

Best AI Model Right Now: Top 10 Ranked (October 2026)

Gemini 4 Carbon tops the Artificial Analysis index at 59 and the blind Text vote at 1,528, but only vetted Fairwind defenders can open it, so the best model you can use today is Claude Opus 5.5, one point behind.

  • No. 1: Claude Opus 5.5
  • 10 places

01Final list

The leading AIs each built their own list of ten independently. Here is one result that is easy to check: every place has a reason, a source, and the list of AIs that included it.

Order: from most to least AI agreement.

A bright badge means this AI put the entry on its list. A dim badge means it did not.

  1. 1

    Claude Opus 5.5

    The best model you can open today. It is #1 on WebDev (1,810) and on Agent Arena, and one point behind Carbon on the index (58 vs 59).

    Included it: Claude, ChatGPT, Grok, Nova, StepFun, Kimi, DeepSeek, Qwen. Did not include: Gemini, Wenxin.

    In their lists: Claude: 1 · ChatGPT: 1 · Grok: 1 · Nova: 1 · StepFun: 1 · Kimi: 1 · DeepSeek: 1 · Qwen: 1

    What each AI noted 8
    • Claudeplace 1

      It is #2 on the benchmark index at 58, but #1 for WebDev (1810) and #1 on Agent Arena (+21.1%), and you can use it today.

      Source ↗
    • ChatGPTplace 1

      Second on the intelligence index at 58, but first in WebDev with 1810 points: the model I would choose ahead of the paper champion for demanding agent work today.

      Source ↗
    • Grokplace 1

      Still the public-access king: #1 or #2 on every major human-vote board and fully available today while the new benchmark leader stays locked behind Fairwind

    • Novaplace 1

      58 on AA Index, 1515 Elo in Text, fully public via Anthropic

      Source ↗
    • StepFunplace 1

      #1 with humans (20.94% of blind votes) and #1 building web apps (1813) - and you can open it today.

      Source ↗
    • Kimiplace 1

      The best model you can actually open today: 1 point behind Carbon on paper, #1 on WebDev Arena, and no velvet rope.

      Source ↗
    • DeepSeekplace 1

      The model you can actually use today that wins on both boards: #1 on WebDev (1,807), #2 on Text (1,509) and #2 on the new AA v5 index (58).

      Source ↗
    • Qwenplace 1

      The public's reliable heavyweight that trades the absolute top paper score for immediate availability.

      Source ↗
    8 AIs put it here
    Source ↗
  2. 2

    GPT-6 Astra

    It scores 57 on the index and is #2 on WebDev (1,773), open in ChatGPT and the API, but at $10/$50 it costs 2.5x Opus. Only one AI gives the '63 at max effort' figure.

    Included it: Claude, ChatGPT, Grok, Nova, StepFun, Kimi, DeepSeek, Qwen. Did not include: Gemini, Wenxin.

    In their lists: Claude: 2 · ChatGPT: 2 · Grok: 2 · Nova: 2 · StepFun: 2 · Kimi: 3 · DeepSeek: 3 · Qwen: 3

    What each AI noted 8
    • Claudeplace 2

      It is 1 point behind the top of the index (57) and #2 for WebDev (1773), but at $10 and $50 per million tokens it costs 2.5 times Opus 5.5.

    • ChatGPTplace 2

      A 57 intelligence score and second place in WebDev make Astra a serious challenger, while its critical-level cyber capability comes with stronger restrictions.

      Source ↗
    • Grokplace 2

      Closest pure-public rival to Opus: 57 on the new Index, second on WebDev, and available to anyone with an API key

    • Novaplace 2

      57 on AA Index, 1780 Elo in WebDev, OpenAI API

      Source ↗
    • StepFunplace 2

      Tops the paper table at max effort (63) and GPQA (96%) - the benchmark champion you can actually pay for, but humans rank it only #5.

      Source ↗
    • Kimiplace 3

      The lab-rat favourite: first model ever rated 'Critical' for cyber by its own maker, 57 on the index, and in the API since Sep 3.

      Source ↗
    • DeepSeekplace 3

      OpenAI's Critical-cyber flagship is also the #2 WebDev model (1,777) and #3 on AA v5 (57) — broadly available, with its sharpest cyber functions gated.

      Source ↗
    • Qwenplace 3

      Strong composite scores and massive context windows make it a workhorse for accessible enterprise research.

    8 AIs put it here
    Source ↗
  3. 3

    Gemini 4 Carbon

    #1 on the index (59) and on the Text vote (1,528, preliminary, from 4,403 votes), but only Fairwind cyber defenders can open it, and Google gives no public date.

    Included it: Claude, ChatGPT, Grok, Nova, StepFun, Kimi, DeepSeek, Qwen. Did not include: Gemini, Wenxin.

    In their lists: Claude: 3 · ChatGPT: 3 · Grok: 3 · Nova: 5 · StepFun: 4 · Kimi: 2 · DeepSeek: 4 · Qwen: 8

    What each AI noted 8
    • Claudeplace 3

      It is #1 on both the index (59) and the Text vote (1,528), but the public cannot open it yet.

      Source ↗
    • ChatGPTplace 3

      The new intelligence champion scores 59 and leads Text at 1528, yet most developers cannot directly use it because access is restricted to selected defenders.

      Source ↗
    • Grokplace 3

      The new #1 on paper (59 on AA Index v5) but still closed to everyone except vetted Fairwind cyber defenders as of 29 Oct

      Source ↗
    • Novaplace 5

      59 on AA Index, restricted to Fairwind defenders

      Source ↗
    • StepFunplace 4

      Beats everyone on the index (59) and finds 88.2% of bugs - but only vetted defenders can open it, so it ranks below models you can use.

      Source ↗
    • Kimiplace 2

      First on every table, last in availability: #1 on the index (59) and Text Arena (1528) — yet on day two, only vetted Fairwind defenders can open it.

      Source ↗
    • DeepSeekplace 4

      The test-table winner you cannot open: #1 on AA v5 (59), but only Fairwind-vetted cyber defenders can touch it today.

    • Qwenplace 8

      The undisputed number one on paper, but heavily penalized here because ordinary users cannot open it today.

      Source ↗
    8 AIs put it here
    Source ↗
  4. 4

    Gemini 4 Argon

    #2 in the blind Text vote (1,520) but only 50 on the index and 1,678 on WebDev. Public since Oct 13, though one AI still calls it Fairwind-only.

    Included it: Claude, ChatGPT, Grok, Nova, StepFun, Kimi, DeepSeek, Qwen. Did not include: Gemini, Wenxin.

    In their lists: Claude: 6 · ChatGPT: 6 · Grok: 6 · Nova: 3 · StepFun: 3 · Kimi: 5 · DeepSeek: 2 · Qwen: 9

    What each AI noted 8
    • Claudeplace 6

      It is #2 in the human vote (1,520) but #10 in WebDev (1,678): voters like its chat answers more than its web apps.

    • ChatGPTplace 6

      Second in blind Text voting at 1520, Argon nearly matches Carbon's human preference score while Carbon remains restricted.

      Source ↗
    • Grokplace 6

      Google’s fully public frontier model: still competitive on human votes and the only Google model ordinary users can open today

      Source ↗
    • Novaplace 3

      50 on AA Index, 1534 Elo in Text, Google API

      Source ↗
    • StepFunplace 3

      The frontier model with no velvet rope - open to everyone since Oct 13, and top of the Arena text Elo at ~1,526.

      Source ↗
    • Kimiplace 5

      The 8th-best model on paper that blind voters rank 2nd (1520) — and everyone can use it since Oct 13.

      Source ↗
    • DeepSeekplace 2

      The blind-vote favourite: #1 on LMArena Text (1,517) yet only 50 on AA v5 — and fully open today via paid API and subscriptions.

      Source ↗
    • Qwenplace 9

      The human-vote favorite with a 1517 Elo, yet kept entirely behind the Fairwind vetting wall.

      Source ↗
    8 AIs put it here
    Source ↗
  5. 5

    GPT-6.1 Sol

    It scores 55 on the index at $1.27 per index task, against $10.04 for Opus, and is #5 on WebDev (1,751). Only one AI gives the 58 score.

    Included it: Claude, ChatGPT, Grok, Gemini, Nova, StepFun, Kimi, DeepSeek. Did not include: Wenxin, Qwen.

    In their lists: Claude: 5 · ChatGPT: 5 · Grok: 5 · Gemini: 5 · Nova: 7 · StepFun: 5 · Kimi: 6 · DeepSeek: 8

    What each AI noted 8
    • Claudeplace 5

      It costs $2 and $10 per million tokens, yet it scores 55 on the index, only 4 points behind the leader.

      Source ↗
    • ChatGPTplace 5

      A 55 intelligence score and fifth-place WebDev result make Sol one of the strongest practical alternatives to expensive flagship reasoning.

      Source ↗
    • Grokplace 5

      The value frontier: 55 Index at roughly one-eighth the cost-per-task of Opus while still public

    • Geminiplace 5

      Balances 1,751 WebDev Elo with sub-second time-to-first-token responses, making it the fastest agentic engine available to standard developers.

      Source ↗
    • Novaplace 7

      55 on AA Index, 1517 Elo in Text, OpenAI

    • StepFunplace 5

      Near-top benchmark (58 at max) at $2/M input - developer API only, not even in ChatGPT yet.

      Source ↗
    • Kimiplace 6

      Near-Astra quality at a fifth of the price: 55 on the index at $1.27 per million input tokens.

      Source ↗
    • DeepSeekplace 8

      #4 WebDev (1,756) and 55 on AA v5 — the coding specialist that trails Astra on the text board.

      Source ↗
    8 AIs put it here
    Source ↗
  6. 6

    Claude Fable 5.1

    It has the best knowledge accuracy on AA-Omniscience (68%) and is #5 in the Text vote (1,504), but its v5 index score is quoted as either 49 or 50.

    Included it: Claude, ChatGPT, Grok, Nova, StepFun, Kimi, DeepSeek, Qwen. Did not include: Gemini, Wenxin.

    In their lists: Claude: 7 · ChatGPT: 7 · Grok: 8 · Nova: 6 · StepFun: 8 · Kimi: 7 · DeepSeek: 7 · Qwen: 6

    What each AI noted 8
    • Claudeplace 7

      It has the highest knowledge accuracy of any model tested on AA-Omniscience (68%), yet it is now only #5 in the human vote.

      Source ↗
    • ChatGPTplace 7

      Fifth in Text at 1504 and sixth in WebDev at 1746: strong blind-vote appeal without leading the headline intelligence benchmark.

      Source ↗
    • Grokplace 8

      Still a top-five human-vote model on coding and agents even after the newer Opus/Sonnet releases

    • Novaplace 6

      53 on AA Index, 1510 Elo in Text, Anthropic

    • StepFunplace 8

      Fourth-favourite in blind votes (13.35%) - the quiet Anthropic workhorse sitting inside everyone's top five.

      Source ↗
    • Kimiplace 7

      The ceiling model at a ceiling price: $13.04 per index task — the most expensive of the leaders — but 60% on HLE-Diamond.

    • DeepSeekplace 7

      The public Claude that redirects exploit requests: #5 WebDev (1,741) and #5 Text (1,503), but cyber work goes to Opus-tier gates.

      Source ↗
    • Qwenplace 6

      The highly preferred conversationalist in blind tests, sitting just below the flagship Opus in raw benchmark power.

      Source ↗
    8 AIs put it here
    Source ↗
  7. 7

    Claude Sonnet 5.5

    #3 on WebDev (1,770), two points ahead of Carbon, at $2/$10, half the price of Opus. It scores 54 on the index.

    Included it: Claude, ChatGPT, Grok, Gemini, StepFun, Kimi, DeepSeek. Did not include: Nova, Wenxin, Qwen.

    In their lists: Claude: 4 · ChatGPT: 4 · Grok: 4 · Gemini: 1 · StepFun: 6 · Kimi: 4 · DeepSeek: 5

    What each AI noted 7
    • Claudeplace 4

      It is the cheaper Claude that beats Carbon on office work (1,812 against 1,609 Elo on AA-Briefcase) and sits at #3 for WebDev (1,770).

      Source ↗
    • ChatGPTplace 4

      Third in WebDev at 1770, only three rating points behind Astra, while offering a more economical model tier.

      Source ↗
    • Grokplace 4

      Best speed-to-quality public option: 54 Index, near-top WebDev, and far cheaper/faster than Opus

    • Geminiplace 1

      Combines a 1,770 Elo WebDev score with instant, zero-waitlist commercial API availability, beating closed paper champions on everyday utility.

      Source ↗
    • StepFunplace 6

      The people's #3 pick (13.84% of votes) and #3 on WebDev at $2/$10 - Anthropic's value flagship.

      Source ↗
    • Kimiplace 4

      The price-performance ambush: half of Opus's price, 70.6% on Terminal-Bench 4.0 — the best vendor-reported agentic-coding score of any 2026 model.

    • DeepSeekplace 5

      #3 WebDev (1,768) and #4 AA v5 (54) at a lower price than Opus — the value pick that is open today.

      Source ↗
    7 AIs put it here
    Source ↗
  8. 8

    Meta Muse Wonder

    #4 in the blind Text vote (1,507), ahead of Fable 5.1, but outside the index top five; the Full version reaches 1,725 on WebDev.

    Included it: Claude, ChatGPT, Grok, DeepSeek, Qwen. Did not include: Gemini, Nova, StepFun, Kimi, Wenxin.

    In their lists: Claude: 8 · ChatGPT: 8 · Grok: 7 · DeepSeek: 6 · Qwen: 4

    What each AI noted 5
    • Claudeplace 8

      It is #4 in the human vote (1,507) and has the top GDP.pdf score (33%), but it is not in the index top five.

      Source ↗
    • ChatGPTplace 8

      Fourth in Text at 1507, ahead of several better-known flagship models; its WebDev variant also reaches the top seven.

      Source ↗
    • Grokplace 7

      Meta’s strongest closed model sits just behind the OpenAI/Anthropic pack on both Index and votes

    • DeepSeekplace 6

      #3 on LMArena Text (1,509) and available via Meta's API — a quiet blind-vote winner that trails the leaders on the new AA index.

    • Qwenplace 4

      Human voters love it almost as much as the top closed models, bridging the gap between frontier benchmarks and public APIs.

      Source ↗
    5 AIs put it here
    Source ↗
  9. 9

    Kimi K3.1 Pro

    It scores 46 on the index, the best of the near-open models, and 67% on Terminal-Bench 4.0, but its weights are only promised for Nov 4.

    Included it: Claude, Grok, Nova, Kimi, DeepSeek. Did not include: ChatGPT, Gemini, StepFun, Wenxin, Qwen.

    In their lists: Claude: 9 · Grok: 9 · Nova: 4 · Kimi: 8 · DeepSeek: 9

    What each AI noted 5
    • Claudeplace 9

      It scores 46 on the index and beats Carbon on Terminal-Bench 4.0 (67% against 65%), but its weights are not released yet.

      Source ↗
    • Grokplace 9

      Best open-weights-adjacent model (weights not yet released) at 46 on the new Index—12 points behind the leader

    • Novaplace 4

      46 on AA Index, 1654 Elo in WebDev, Moonshot API

    • Kimiplace 8

      The open-weights exclamation point: weights anyone can download since Jul 26, and it tops Terminal-Bench 4.0 at 67%.

      Source ↗
    • DeepSeekplace 9

      The open-weights promise: #11 WebDev (1,655) but a v5 score of 46, and the weights only land on 4 November.

    5 AIs put it here
    Source ↗
  10. 10

    DeepSeek V4.1 Flash

    The best open weights you can download today score only 32, tied with GLM-5.3 and 27 points behind Carbon after the v5 rebuild.

    Included it: ChatGPT, Grok, Nova, Kimi, DeepSeek. Did not include: Claude, Gemini, StepFun, Wenxin, Qwen.

    In their lists: ChatGPT: 10 · Grok: 10 · Nova: 9 · Kimi: 10 · DeepSeek: 10

    What each AI noted 5
    • ChatGPTplace 10

      At an intelligence score of 32, DeepSeek is far below the closed frontier, but its open-weight availability creates a different kind of practical advantage.

      Source ↗
    • Grokplace 10

      Strongest fully released open-weights model still only 32 on the new Index—26 points off the closed frontier

    • Novaplace 9

      32 on AA Index, 1017 max effort, deepseek.ai

    • Kimiplace 10

      The 92nd-of-170 price, the 32-point score: the cheapest way to put a top-tier released open-weight model in your own stack.

    • DeepSeekplace 10

      The only top-10 model with weights you can download today — but AA v5 scores it 32, far behind the closed leaders.

      Source ↗
    5 AIs put it here
    Source ↗

More about the top three ↓

02More about the top three

The ranking is above. Here is more about the three places at the top: what they are, why they are here, and what is worth knowing.

Index scores are for the same index, but Carbon's 59 is on a model almost nobody can open, so it can't be compared with what you can use. Carbon's sources also call the model "Argon".

1Claude Opus 5.5

No. 1 — Claude Opus 5.5. On the lists of 8 of 10 AIs; median place there: 1. It is the best model anyone can open today: first for building web apps and on Agent Arena, and only one index point behind Carbon.

Did you know

  • Opus 5.5 is the first model in Anthropic's Claude 5.5 family. Anthropic says it does most tasks at the level of Claude Fable 5.1 while costing 40% less to run than Opus 5.

    Source ↗
What it is
Anthropic's newest top model, open to everyone in Claude apps and the API.
Its edge
Open to the public, and #1 on WebDev, while Carbon is locked.
Who it suits
Suits people who want top results today and can pay; heavy max-effort use burns quota fast.
  • AA Intelligence Index score58 on the index
Why it is here

  • On Artificial Analysis's Intelligence Index, Claude Opus 5.5 scored 58 at max effort, ranked first in that report. The older Claude Opus 5 scored 51, so it gained seven points in one release.

    Source ↗

  • Opus 5.5 costs $4 per million input tokens and $20 per million output tokens, down from Opus 5's $5 and $25. It used about 119k output tokens per index task, at roughly $6 a task.

    Source ↗ ✓ confirmed by several AIs
History

  • On 22 Sept 2026 Anthropic released Claude Opus 5.5, ending outside guessing about whether it would come. It costs 20% less per token than Opus 5 and uses less compute.

    Source ↗
Keep in mind

  • Max effort mode uses "6x or more" of your usage, says the Claude app. Anthropic gives no fixed number, and users report 4x, 5.5x and 6x. Some users also expect the model to get weaker after launch.

    Source ↗

  • In one same-task test, a user found Opus 5.5 made poor design choices for a feature, and the model agreed they were weak. Fable 5.1 did better on that task. It also has a biology safety filter.

    Source ↗
What people say

  • The way Opus 5.5 communicates is genuinely an order of magnitude improvement over Opus 5. — u/mdspan (Reddit)

    Source ↗
Where to go further

  • Read Anthropic's announcement page first, then try Opus 5.5 in the Claude apps or Claude Code. Start with a real coding task, such as fixing a small bug in your own project, and compare the result with what you use now.

    Source ↗
Compare the top three ↓

2GPT-6 Astra

No. 2 — GPT-6 Astra. On the lists of 8 of 10 AIs; median place there: 2. It is a strong public model, 57 on the index and #2 on WebDev, but costs 2.5 times as much as Opus.

Did you know

  • Astra is the first OpenAI model rated "Critical" for cyber skills under its Preparedness Framework. Without production limits it scored 100% on ExploitBench, against 78.5% for GPT-5.6 Sol.

    Source ↗
What it is
OpenAI's newest flagship, in ChatGPT and the API.
Its edge
Rated highest at max effort by one AI, but trails Opus on the index and WebDev.
Who it suits
Suits people already on OpenAI who need strong coding; not those watching cost.
  • AA Intelligence Index score57 on the index

Wikipedia · Wikidata

Why it is here

  • Artificial Analysis's own page gives GPT-6 Astra an index score of 57, ranked #4 of 54 models. The median model among those compared scores 40.

    Source ↗

  • Astra costs $10 per million input tokens and $50 per million output tokens. That is above the medians of $2 and $10, and 2.5 times Opus 5.5's $4 and $20. It used about 54M output tokens on the index; the median is 70M.

    Source ↗ ✓ confirmed by several AIs
History

  • On 3 Sept 2026 OpenAI launched GPT-6 Astra first to a select group of customers in its Daybreak program, before broad availability.

    Source ↗
Keep in mind

  • A week after launch, many users said Astra got worse. Dax Raad's team at Opencode went back to GPT-5.6 Sol, saying doubled spending didn't justify the downsides. Decrypt says OpenAI had not issued a statement.

    Source ↗
What people say

  • Astra feels significantly dumber for me today — synthwavedd (developer, on X)

    Source ↗
Where to go further

  • Open OpenAI's GPT-6 Astra page to see what it does well: computer use, browsing, coding and science. Access began limited, so check the page for what your plan can use before you start.

    Source ↗

Video: Coding is Dead? Learn These SKILLS to Survive AGI | GPT-6 Astra Explained · Nishant Chahar

Compare the top three ↓

3Gemini 4 Carbon

No. 3 — Gemini 4 Carbon. On the lists of 8 of 10 AIs; median place there: 3.5. It scores highest on paper, 59 on the index, but only vetted Fairwind defenders can open it, so it ranks below models you can use.

Did you know

  • Fairwind partners must use phishing-resistant MFA and keep access to internal security teams. They may not share or sell access. Google says the model found a critical flaw in healthcare software that earlier frontier models missed.

    Source ↗ ✓ confirmed by several AIs
What it is
Google's newest model, available only to vetted Fairwind cyber defenders.
Its edge
Highest index score (59) and first in the blind Text vote.
Who it suits
Suits vetted security teams; everyone else has to wait for a public release.
  • AA Intelligence Index score59 (gated)
Did you know

  • The sources I found call this Google model "Gemini 4 Argon," not "Carbon." For its Fairwind testers, Google switches off the model's refusals to help with cyberattacks. The program has more than 650 partners.

    Source ↗
History

  • In 2026 Google gave Gemini 4 Argon first to Fairwind Program partners, high-priority defenders such as governments, healthcare providers and telecom firms.

    Source ↗
Keep in mind

  • The article says Google's cyber results are internal claims. Still pending: independent cyber tests, a full model card, and the price after the introductory period. Approved partners get it "without cyber guardrails".

    Source ↗
What people say

  • For now it is not available to everyone. — noze.it article on the Fairwind Program

    Source ↗
Where to go further

  • Google has no public page for Carbon yet, so this article is the closest exact source. Read it for early tester reports, and wait for Google's own announcement before judging it. Access is partner-only for now.

    Source ↗
Compare the top three ↓

The top three side by side

Claude Opus 5.5GPT-6 AstraGemini 4 Carbon
In the AIs' lists8 / 108 / 108 / 10
AA Intelligence Index score58 on the index57 on the index59 (gated)
Put first byClaude, ChatGPT, Grok, Nova, StepFun, Kimi, DeepSeek, Qwen——

Places with the same number of AIs are ordered by their average place in the AIs' own lists.

More ratings

03Worth knowing

What the AIs noticed while building the list.

The boards name different leaders: Carbon leads the index and the Text vote, and Opus 5.5 leads WebDev and Agent Arena.

Noticed by:
Included it: Claude, ChatGPT, Kimi, DeepSeek. Did not include: Grok, Gemini, Nova, StepFun, Wenxin, Qwen.
Source ↗

Carbon's #1 Text place rests on 4,403 votes and is marked preliminary, and its index lead is one point, with wins in only 4 of 9 tests.

Noticed by:
Included it: Claude, ChatGPT, StepFun. Did not include: Grok, Gemini, Nova, Kimi, DeepSeek, Wenxin, Qwen.
Source ↗

The v5 rebuild put 60% of the weight on private tests. The best downloadable model now scores 32 against 58 for Opus 5.5, so v4 and v5 scores cannot be compared.

Noticed by:
Included it: Claude, Grok, Kimi, DeepSeek. Did not include: ChatGPT, Gemini, Nova, StepFun, Wenxin, Qwen.
Source ↗

Gemini 4 Argon shows the widest gap between tests and votes: 50 on the index but #2 with human voters (1,520).

Noticed by:
Included it: Claude, Kimi, DeepSeek. Did not include: ChatGPT, Grok, Gemini, Nova, StepFun, Wenxin, Qwen.
Source ↗

The 20.94% / 16.04% / 13.84% figures are Agent Arena results. Treat them as agent success rates, not as shares of Text votes.

Noticed by:
Included it: ChatGPT, Kimi. Did not include: Claude, Grok, Gemini, Nova, StepFun, DeepSeek, Wenxin, Qwen.
Source ↗

04Questions people ask

what is the best ai model right now

Gemini 4 Carbon leads on paper (59 on the index, 1,528 in the Text vote) but is closed. Claude Opus 5.5 (58, #1 on WebDev at 1,810) is the best you can use today.

Source ↗
what is the best ai model right now for coding

Claude Opus 5.5 leads Arena WebDev at 1,810, ahead of GPT-6 Astra at 1,773 and Claude Sonnet 5.5 at 1,770.

Source ↗
what is the best ai model right now for research

Carbon leads HLE-Diamond (69% vs 68% for Opus 5.5) but is closed. GPT-6 Astra leads CritPt v2 (71%) and can be used today.

Source ↗
why do ai leaderboards disagree

They measure different things and change with each version and snapshot. Opus 5.5's WebDev score reads 1,807, 1,810 or 1,813, and Argon's Text score ranges from 1,517 to 1,532.

Source ↗

05How we counted

In plain words, no formulas.

1The question

Top 10 AI models right now: the test-table winner, the blind-vote favourite, and the one you can actually open today

2Why this topic

The reader sees three different answers to 'which AI is best' side by side: the test tables, the blind human votes, and what they can actually use. No single leaderboard shows all three.

3Where it applies

global, frontier AI models, as of late October 2026

4What we looked at

  • Rank on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, a composite of about ten benchmarks
  • Rank on LMArena Text and WebDev, from anonymous head-to-head human votes
  • Gap between the benchmark rank and the human-vote rank
  • Whether the public can use the model today: open to all, paid API only, or a closed program
  • Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index v5 — Composite of about ten tests (HLE-Diamond, Terminal-Bench 4.0, FrontierCode 2.0, AA-Omniscience and others), with 60% of the weight on private tests. Launch
  • Arena (LMArena) Text — Elo-style score from anonymous head-to-head human votes on general chat answers
  • Arena Code: WebDev — Human votes on which model builds the better web app
  • Arena Agent — Net success over a baseline on real agent tasks (a percentage, not Elo)

5Who ranked

The leading AIs, each building its own list of ten independently and naming a source for every place: Claude, ChatGPT, Grok, Gemini, Nova, StepFun, Kimi, DeepSeek, Wenxin, Qwen.

6How the places were set

The same entry written differently by different AIs was counted as one. The more AIs put an entry on their list, and the higher they put it, the higher its place. "AI agreement" shows how many of the AIs had it on their own list. Sources are only those the AIs found themselves; nothing was added by hand.

06Each AI's own list

🇺🇸 Claude10 places · 3 notes

The same question, answered by Claude alone. The final list above combines all the AIs.

  1. 1
    Claude Opus 5.5

    It is #2 on the benchmark index at 58, but #1 for WebDev (1810) and #1 on Agent Arena (+21.1%), and you can use it today.

    Source ↗
  2. 2
    GPT-6 Astra (OpenAI)

    It is 1 point behind the top of the index (57) and #2 for WebDev (1773), but at $10 and $50 per million tokens it costs 2.5 times Opus 5.5.

  3. 3
    Gemini 4 Carbon (Google, Oct 2026)

    It is #1 on both the index (59) and the Text vote (1,528), but the public cannot open it yet.

    Source ↗
  4. 4
    Claude Sonnet 5.5

    It is the cheaper Claude that beats Carbon on office work (1,812 against 1,609 Elo on AA-Briefcase) and sits at #3 for WebDev (1,770).

    Source ↗
  5. 5
    GPT-6.1 Sol

    It costs $2 and $10 per million tokens, yet it scores 55 on the index, only 4 points behind the leader.

    Source ↗
  6. 6
    Gemini 4 Argon (Google, Sept 2026)

    It is #2 in the human vote (1,520) but #10 in WebDev (1,678): voters like its chat answers more than its web apps.

  7. 7
    Claude Fable 5.1

    It has the highest knowledge accuracy of any model tested on AA-Omniscience (68%), yet it is now only #5 in the human vote.

    Source ↗
  8. 8
    Meta Muse Wonder

    It is #4 in the human vote (1,507) and has the top GDP.pdf score (33%), but it is not in the index top five.

    Source ↗
  9. 9
    Kimi K3.1 Pro

    It scores 46 on the index and beats Carbon on Terminal-Bench 4.0 (67% against 65%), but its weights are not released yet.

    Source ↗
  10. 10
    GLM-5.3 (Z.ai, open weights)

    It is the top open-weight model for cyber on Epoch's index (160), but it scores 32 on the general index, 27 points behind the leader.

    Source ↗

What Claude noticed

Gemini 4 Carbon is #1 on the index by one point (59 against 58). Two things behind that: it leads only 4 of 9 tests, and it wins the knowledge test mainly because it rarely bluffs (11% hallucination rate against about 50% for Opus 5.5 and Astra), not because it knows the most.

Source ↗

Artificial Analysis rebuilt its index again for v5: 60% of the weight is now on private or held-out tests. Scores from v4.x and v5 cannot be compared, so older headlines such as 'Fable 5.1 scores 66' do not carry over.

Source ↗

The three boards name three different leaders: Carbon on the index and Text, Opus 5.5 on WebDev and Agent Arena, and Astra is #2 on WebDev.

Source ↗
🇺🇸 ChatGPT10 places · 4 notes

The same question, answered by ChatGPT alone. The final list above combines all the AIs.

  1. 1
    Claude Opus 5.5 (2026)

    Second on the intelligence index at 58, but first in WebDev with 1810 points: the model I would choose ahead of the paper champion for demanding agent work today.

    Source ↗
  2. 2
    GPT-6 Astra (2026)

    A 57 intelligence score and second place in WebDev make Astra a serious challenger, while its critical-level cyber capability comes with stronger restrictions.

    Source ↗
  3. 3
    Gemini 4 Carbon (2026)

    The new intelligence champion scores 59 and leads Text at 1528, yet most developers cannot directly use it because access is restricted to selected defenders.

    Source ↗
  4. 4
    Claude Sonnet 5.5 (2026)

    Third in WebDev at 1770, only three rating points behind Astra, while offering a more economical model tier.

    Source ↗
  5. 5
    GPT-6.1 Sol (2026)

    A 55 intelligence score and fifth-place WebDev result make Sol one of the strongest practical alternatives to expensive flagship reasoning.

    Source ↗
  6. 6
    Gemini 4 Argon (2026)

    Second in blind Text voting at 1520, Argon nearly matches Carbon's human preference score while Carbon remains restricted.

    Source ↗
  7. 7
    Claude Fable 5.1 (2026)

    Fifth in Text at 1504 and sixth in WebDev at 1746: strong blind-vote appeal without leading the headline intelligence benchmark.

    Source ↗
  8. 8
    Muse Wonder (Meta, 2026)

    Fourth in Text at 1507, ahead of several better-known flagship models; its WebDev variant also reaches the top seven.

    Source ↗
  9. 9
    GPT-6.1 Terra (2026)

    An eighth-place agent result and $0.68 median task cost make Terra an interesting challenger on practical value.

    Source ↗
  10. 10
    DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (2026)

    At an intelligence score of 32, DeepSeek is far below the closed frontier, but its open-weight availability creates a different kind of practical advantage.

    Source ↗

What ChatGPT noticed

The paper winner is not my practical winner: Carbon scores 59 versus Opus 5.5's 58, but Opus leads WebDev and is generally available.

Source ↗

Carbon's first-place Text rating is preliminary. Its 4,403 votes should not be treated as equally mature evidence to Opus 4.6's 84,512 votes.

Source ↗

WebDev reveals a different order from Text: Opus 5.5 leads WebDev, while Carbon leads Text.

Source ↗

A single intelligence number can conceal enormous differences in speed: the observed Artificial Analysis table reports roughly 100 seconds to first output chunk for Carbon and more than 600 seconds for Opus 5.5 Max with fallback.

Source ↗
🇺🇸 Grok10 places · 4 notes

The same question, answered by Grok alone. The final list above combines all the AIs.

  1. 1
    Claude Opus 5.5 (Anthropic)

    Still the public-access king: #1 or #2 on every major human-vote board and fully available today while the new benchmark leader stays locked behind Fairwind

  2. 2
    GPT-6 Astra (OpenAI)

    Closest pure-public rival to Opus: 57 on the new Index, second on WebDev, and available to anyone with an API key

  3. 3
    Gemini 4 Carbon (Google)

    The new #1 on paper (59 on AA Index v5) but still closed to everyone except vetted Fairwind cyber defenders as of 29 Oct

    Source ↗
  4. 4
    Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Anthropic)

    Best speed-to-quality public option: 54 Index, near-top WebDev, and far cheaper/faster than Opus

  5. 5
    GPT-6.1 Sol (OpenAI)

    The value frontier: 55 Index at roughly one-eighth the cost-per-task of Opus while still public

  6. 6
    Gemini 4 Argon (Google)

    Google’s fully public frontier model: still competitive on human votes and the only Google model ordinary users can open today

    Source ↗
  7. 7
    Muse Wonder Full (Meta)

    Meta’s strongest closed model sits just behind the OpenAI/Anthropic pack on both Index and votes

  8. 8
    Claude Fable 5.1 (Anthropic)

    Still a top-five human-vote model on coding and agents even after the newer Opus/Sonnet releases

  9. 9
    Kimi K3.1 Pro (Moonshot AI)

    Best open-weights-adjacent model (weights not yet released) at 46 on the new Index—12 points behind the leader

  10. 10
    DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 (DeepSeek)

    Strongest fully released open-weights model still only 32 on the new Index—26 points off the closed frontier

What Grok noticed

The single biggest story on 29 October is that the new Artificial Analysis Index v5 leader (Gemini 4 Carbon at 59) is still unavailable to the public; the highest-scoring model ordinary developers can actually open remains Claude Opus 5.5.

Source ↗

Human preference (LMArena WebDev and overall Text) continues to lag pure benchmark rank for the newest Google model and still puts Anthropic and OpenAI at the top of usable systems.

Source ↗

The open-weights gap exploded from ~3 points to 12 points with the private-heavy v5 Index; released open models now sit 26 points behind the closed leader.

Source ↗

Cost-per-task among the top public models spans more than 10×: GPT-6.1 Sol delivers near-frontier intelligence at roughly one-eighth the cost of Claude Opus 5.5.

Source ↗
🇺🇸 Gemini10 places · 1 notes

The same question, answered by Gemini alone. The final list above combines all the AIs.

  1. 1
    Claude Sonnet 5.5

    Combines a 1,770 Elo WebDev score with instant, zero-waitlist commercial API availability, beating closed paper champions on everyday utility.

    Source ↗
  2. 2
    GPT-6 Astra

    Scores 1,773 on LMArena WebDev and ships simultaneously across consumer apps and developer platforms without access rationing.

    Source ↗
  3. 3
    Claude Opus 5.5

    The uncontested human-vote favorite at 1,810 WebDev Elo, but steep enterprise pricing and strict concurrency caps push it behind Sonnet for daily workflows.

    Source ↗
  4. 4
    Gemini 4 Carbon

    The undisputed benchmark winner at 94.2% on the Intelligence Index, yet relegated to fourth because Google locks it entirely behind the vetted Fairwind Program.

    Source ↗
  5. 5
    GPT-6.1 Sol

    Balances 1,751 WebDev Elo with sub-second time-to-first-token responses, making it the fastest agentic engine available to standard developers.

    Source ↗
  6. 6
    Gemini 4 Argon

    Google's real workhorse that anyone can open today, offering a 2-million-token window and uninhibited Vertex AI access while Carbon stays behind closed doors.

    Source ↗
  7. 7
    Llama 4 405B

    The highest-ranking open-weights model in history, delivering an 86.7% benchmark index that can be audited, modified, and hosted completely offline.

  8. 8
    Claude Fable 5.1

    Demonstrates an unexpected human preference surge with 1,746 WebDev Elo despite modest raw synthetic benchmark figures.

    Source ↗
  9. 9
    Mistral Large 4

    European frontier flagship boasting native multilinguality and open Apache-style weights for on-premise sovereign cloud deployments.

    Source ↗
  10. 10
    DeepSeek R2

    Slashes frontier inference expenses to under 20 cents per million tokens while remaining open weights for researchers worldwide.

What Gemini noticed

A 'paper-sovereignty' divergence has emerged in late 2026: Google's Gemini 4 Carbon captured #1 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (94.2%), but ordinary developers cannot send a single prompt to it due to Fairwind Program vetting.

Source ↗
🇺🇸 Nova10 places · 2 notes

The same question, answered by Nova alone. The final list above combines all the AIs.

  1. 1
    Claude Opus 5.5

    58 on AA Index, 1515 Elo in Text, fully public via Anthropic

    Source ↗
  2. 2
    GPT-6 Astra

    57 on AA Index, 1780 Elo in WebDev, OpenAI API

    Source ↗
  3. 3
    Gemini 4 Argon

    50 on AA Index, 1534 Elo in Text, Google API

    Source ↗
  4. 4
    Kimi K3.1 Pro

    46 on AA Index, 1654 Elo in WebDev, Moonshot API

  5. 5
    Gemini 4 Carbon

    59 on AA Index, restricted to Fairwind defenders

    Source ↗
  6. 6
    Claude Fable 5.1

    53 on AA Index, 1510 Elo in Text, Anthropic

  7. 7
    GPT-6.1 Sol

    55 on AA Index, 1517 Elo in Text, OpenAI

  8. 8
    MiMo-V2.6-Pro

    30 on AA Index, 1492 Elo in Text, Xiaomi MIT

  9. 9
    DeepSeek V4.1 Flash

    32 on AA Index, 1017 max effort, deepseek.ai

  10. 10
    GLM-5.3

    32 on AA Index, Z.ai MIT, Chinese-focused

What Nova noticed

Gemini 4 Carbon leads AA Index but remains inaccessible to most developers

Source ↗

LMArena Text rankings show Gemini 4 Argon narrowly beating Claude Opus 5.5 by 13 Elo points

Source ↗
🇨🇳 StepFun10 places · 4 notes

The same question, answered by StepFun alone. The final list above combines all the AIs.

  1. 1
    Claude Opus 5.5 (Max)

    #1 with humans (20.94% of blind votes) and #1 building web apps (1813) - and you can open it today.

    Source ↗
  2. 2
    GPT-6 Astra (Max)

    Tops the paper table at max effort (63) and GPQA (96%) - the benchmark champion you can actually pay for, but humans rank it only #5.

    Source ↗
  3. 3
    Gemini 4 Argon (High)

    The frontier model with no velvet rope - open to everyone since Oct 13, and top of the Arena text Elo at ~1,526.

    Source ↗
  4. 4
    Gemini 4 Carbon (High)

    Beats everyone on the index (59) and finds 88.2% of bugs - but only vetted defenders can open it, so it ranks below models you can use.

    Source ↗
  5. 5
    GPT-6.1 Sol

    Near-top benchmark (58 at max) at $2/M input - developer API only, not even in ChatGPT yet.

    Source ↗
  6. 6
    Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max)

    The people's #3 pick (13.84% of votes) and #3 on WebDev at $2/$10 - Anthropic's value flagship.

    Source ↗
  7. 7
    Grok 4.7

    Claims the #1 cyber-reasoning spot on Artificial Analysis with the best HackerBench safety - cheapest frontier at $2/$6.

  8. 8
    Claude Fable 5.1 (Max)

    Fourth-favourite in blind votes (13.35%) - the quiet Anthropic workhorse sitting inside everyone's top five.

    Source ↗
  9. 9
    DeepSeek V4 Pro

    Open weights anyone can download - strong long-context coding, middling general benchmarks, superb at security.

  10. 10
    GPT-6 Sol

    OpenAI's newest (Oct 28) yet sits #62 on Arena text at 1,459 - below its own predecessor, a snapshot artifact worth watching.

    Source ↗

What StepFun noticed

The #1 hinges on a hidden dial: at max effort GPT-6 Astra leads the Artificial Analysis Index (63), but at the indexed High setting Gemini 4 Carbon leads (59) - same table, different winner.

Source ↗

The benchmark leader can't be opened: Gemini 4 Carbon tops the index and is #2 in human votes, yet only vetted defenders get it - making Claude Opus 5.5 the best model you can actually use today.

Source ↗

Humans and benchmarks disagree by about four places: Opus 5.5 wins blind votes and WebDev while Astra wins the paper benchmarks - a real gap between the two tables for the same models.

Source ↗

The scoreboards themselves are under fire: Stanford's AI Index flags error rates up to 42% on widely used evaluations, so a 1-2 point Index lead is inside the noise.

Source ↗
🇨🇳 Kimi10 places · 3 notes

The same question, answered by Kimi alone. The final list above combines all the AIs.

  1. 1
    Claude Opus 5.5

    The best model you can actually open today: 1 point behind Carbon on paper, #1 on WebDev Arena, and no velvet rope.

    Source ↗
  2. 2
    Gemini 4 Carbon

    First on every table, last in availability: #1 on the index (59) and Text Arena (1528) — yet on day two, only vetted Fairwind defenders can open it.

    Source ↗
  3. 3
    GPT-6 Astra

    The lab-rat favourite: first model ever rated 'Critical' for cyber by its own maker, 57 on the index, and in the API since Sep 3.

    Source ↗
  4. 4
    Claude Sonnet 5.5

    The price-performance ambush: half of Opus's price, 70.6% on Terminal-Bench 4.0 — the best vendor-reported agentic-coding score of any 2026 model.

  5. 5
    Gemini 4 Argon

    The 8th-best model on paper that blind voters rank 2nd (1520) — and everyone can use it since Oct 13.

    Source ↗
  6. 6
    GPT-6.1 Sol

    Near-Astra quality at a fifth of the price: 55 on the index at $1.27 per million input tokens.

    Source ↗
  7. 7
    Claude Fable 5.1

    The ceiling model at a ceiling price: $13.04 per index task — the most expensive of the leaders — but 60% on HLE-Diamond.

  8. 8
    Kimi K3

    The open-weights exclamation point: weights anyone can download since Jul 26, and it tops Terminal-Bench 4.0 at 67%.

    Source ↗
  9. 9
    Grok 4.7

    xAI's comeback ticket: shipped Sep 21 at $2/$6 and immediately the most consistent frontier model in independent CVE-hunting tests.

  10. 10
    DeepSeek V4.1 Flash

    The 92nd-of-170 price, the 32-point score: the cheapest way to put a top-tier released open-weight model in your own stack.

What Kimi noticed

The #1 model in the world is one you cannot open: Gemini 4 Carbon tops both the index (59) and blind votes (1528) yet reached only Fairwind cyber defenders on day one — the previous Gemini 4 model, Argon, took 13 days from defenders-only to public, which is the only timing precedent Google has given.

Source ↗

The open-weights gap widened from 3 points to 12 in a single index version: Kimi K3.1 Pro scores 46 vs Claude Opus 5.5's 58 on v5, and among released weights, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash and GLM-5.3 lead at just 32 — below even Claude's small Haiku 5.5 (36).

Source ↗

Cost per unit of intelligence now varies more than 13x among the leaders: GPT-6.1 Terra runs $0.96 per Intelligence Index task while Claude Fable 5.1 costs $13.04 for a worse score.

Source ↗
🇨🇳 DeepSeek10 places · 4 notes

The same question, answered by DeepSeek alone. The final list above combines all the AIs.

  1. 1
    Claude Opus 5.5 (2026)

    The model you can actually use today that wins on both boards: #1 on WebDev (1,807), #2 on Text (1,509) and #2 on the new AA v5 index (58).

    Source ↗
  2. 2
    Gemini 4 Argon (2026)

    The blind-vote favourite: #1 on LMArena Text (1,517) yet only 50 on AA v5 — and fully open today via paid API and subscriptions.

    Source ↗
  3. 3
    GPT-6 Astra (2026)

    OpenAI's Critical-cyber flagship is also the #2 WebDev model (1,777) and #3 on AA v5 (57) — broadly available, with its sharpest cyber functions gated.

    Source ↗
  4. 4
    Gemini 4 Carbon (2026)

    The test-table winner you cannot open: #1 on AA v5 (59), but only Fairwind-vetted cyber defenders can touch it today.

  5. 5
    Claude Sonnet 5.5 (2026)

    #3 WebDev (1,768) and #4 AA v5 (54) at a lower price than Opus — the value pick that is open today.

    Source ↗
  6. 6
    Muse Wonder (2026)

    #3 on LMArena Text (1,509) and available via Meta's API — a quiet blind-vote winner that trails the leaders on the new AA index.

  7. 7
    Claude Fable 5.1 (2026)

    The public Claude that redirects exploit requests: #5 WebDev (1,741) and #5 Text (1,503), but cyber work goes to Opus-tier gates.

    Source ↗
  8. 8
    GPT-6.1 Sol (2026)

    #4 WebDev (1,756) and 55 on AA v5 — the coding specialist that trails Astra on the text board.

    Source ↗
  9. 9
    Kimi K3.1 Pro (2026)

    The open-weights promise: #11 WebDev (1,655) but a v5 score of 46, and the weights only land on 4 November.

  10. 10
    DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (2026)

    The only top-10 model with weights you can download today — but AA v5 scores it 32, far behind the closed leaders.

    Source ↗

What DeepSeek noticed

The benchmark winner and the usability winner are different models: Gemini 4 Carbon is #1 on AA v5 (59) but absent from the independent LMArena boards, while Claude Opus 5.5 is #2 on AA and #1 on WebDev (1,807).

Source ↗

LMArena's two boards disagree sharply. Gemini 4 Argon is #1 on Text (1,517) but only #8 on WebDev (1,678); Claude Opus 5.5 is #1 on WebDev but #2 on Text.

Source ↗

AA's v5 rebuild, with 60% private test questions, crushed open-weight scores: the best downloadable-weights model scores 32 against 58 for Claude Opus 5.5, and Kimi K3.1 Pro fell from 55 to 46.

Source ↗

Reddit's coding communities still put Claude Opus 5.5 first (94 opinions, 87.5 score on a 7-day tracker), even as Gemini 4 Argon tops the blind Text board.

Source ↗
🇨🇳 Wenxin10 places · 2 notes

The same question, answered by Wenxin alone. The final list above combines all the AIs.

  1. 1
    Gemini 4 Carbon (Google, 2026)

    #1 on paper — but locked behind a defender-only door you can't walk through yet.

  2. 2
    GPT-5 (OpenAI, 2026)

    The benchmark king you can actually open in ChatGPT today — at a price.

    Source ↗
  3. 3
    Claude 4 Opus (Anthropic, 2026)

    Coders and writers love it; the blind-vote favourite for reasoning — and it's open.

  4. 4
    Llama 4 405B (Meta, open-weights, 2026)

    The open-weights giant that punches above its price — free if you have the hardware.

  5. 5
    Gemini 4 Pro (Google, 2026)

    Gemini 4's open sibling — almost as smart, actually usable by everyone.

    Source ↗
  6. 6
    Mistral Large 3 (Mistral AI, 2026)

    Europe's answer to the frontier — efficient, multilingual, and on API today.

    Source ↗
  7. 7
    DeepSeek-V4 (DeepSeek, 2026)

    The cost-crusher that forced everyone to rethink pricing — open and cheap.

  8. 8
    Qwen 3 235B (Alibaba, 2026)

    The Chinese open-weight sleeper that tops some coding leaderboards quietly.

    Source ↗
  9. 9
    Grok 3 (xAI, 2026)

    Elon's model is fast and unfiltered — but lags the very top on hard benchmarks.

  10. 10
    Cerebras-GPT (Cerebras, 2026)

    The speed-demon on inference — not the smartest, but the fastest frontier you can call.

What Wenxin noticed

Claude 4 Opus consistently tops LMArena's blind-vote Text leaderboard in 2026, suggesting human raters prefer its reasoning style even when it trails GPT-5 on some raw benchmarks — the 'human favourite' is not always the 'benchmark king'.

Source ↗

The gap between benchmark rank and human-vote rank is largest for Gemini 4 Carbon (benchmark #1, vote N/A) and smallest for Claude 4 Opus (benchmark ~3-4, vote ~1-2) — showing where public perception aligns or diverges from scores.

Source ↗
🇨🇳 Qwen10 places · 3 notes

The same question, answered by Qwen alone. The final list above combines all the AIs.

  1. 1
    Claude Opus 5.5

    The public's reliable heavyweight that trades the absolute top paper score for immediate availability.

    Source ↗
  2. 2
    GPT-5.6 Sol

    A close second on paper that developers can actually deploy today without a government clearance.

    Source ↗
  3. 3
    GPT-6 Astra

    Strong composite scores and massive context windows make it a workhorse for accessible enterprise research.

  4. 4
    Muse Wonder

    Human voters love it almost as much as the top closed models, bridging the gap between frontier benchmarks and public APIs.

    Source ↗
  5. 5
    Grok 4.7

    Dominates the web development arena in human votes but trails slightly in overall composite reasoning scores.

    Source ↗
  6. 6
    Claude Fable 5.1

    The highly preferred conversationalist in blind tests, sitting just below the flagship Opus in raw benchmark power.

    Source ↗
  7. 7
    Kimi K2.6

    The top open-weight contender that lets developers run frontier-level logic on their own hardware.

    Source ↗
  8. 8
    Gemini 4 Carbon

    The undisputed number one on paper, but heavily penalized here because ordinary users cannot open it today.

    Source ↗
  9. 9
    Gemini 4 Argon

    The human-vote favorite with a 1517 Elo, yet kept entirely behind the Fairwind vetting wall.

    Source ↗
  10. 10
    DeepSeek V4 Pro

    An open-weights workhorse that narrows the gap for fintech and desktop agents running locally.

    Source ↗

What Qwen noticed

Gemini 4 Carbon takes the #1 spot on paper with an Intelligence Index score of 59.4, but its restriction to cybersecurity defenders creates a massive gap between benchmark supremacy and public utility.

Source ↗

LMArena human voters strongly prefer Gemini 4 Argon (1517 Elo) and Muse Wonder (1509 Elo), showing that blind conversational preference does not always strictly track composite benchmark scores.

Source ↗

Open-weight models like Kimi K2.6 and DeepSeek V4 Pro trail closed frontier models by over 10 to 20 points on the Intelligence Index, widening the gap in late 2026.

Source ↗