Comparison · updated every month
Which AI should you use? AI model comparison, October 2026
Alessandro Papaupdated on 14 tools comparedUPDATED EVERY MONTH
IN SHORT
In October 2026 the strongest models on the public leaderboards are Anthropic's Claude Opus 5.5, Google's Gemini 4 Argon and OpenAI's GPT-6 Astra, with small gaps between them. The best model overall matters less than the right one for the job: for writing and analysis, for high volumes at low cost, for keeping data in-house. We update this page every month with prices and rankings from official sources.
What’s new in October 2026
- 30 September 2026Google announces Gemini 4 Argon, its new frontier model. Access goes to safety partners first, then to the API and Google AI Ultra.source
- 2 October 2026Gemini 4 Argon enters the LMArena text leaderboard in first place with 1525 points, ahead of the Claude models.source
- 21 September 2026xAI releases Grok 4.7, its most capable model, at $2 / $6 per million tokens.source
- 2 September 2026Meta releases Muse Spark 1.3, a closed multimodal model, already ninth on LMArena.source
The comparison in one table
| Tool | Price from | Closed or open | Context | Leaderboards | How to use it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Opus 5.5Frontier models | API: $4 / $20 per million tokens (input / output) | Closed | 1 million tokens, responses up to 128,000 | 1st on Artificial Analysis (index 58); 4th on LMArena text (1504) | Claude app (Pro $20/month), API, Amazon Bedrock, Google Cloud, Microsoft Foundry |
| Claude Fable 5.1Frontier models | API: $10 / $50 per million tokens | Closed | 1 million tokens, responses up to 128,000 | Index 53 on Artificial Analysis; 6th on LMArena (1501) | Claude app and API |
| GPT-6 AstraFrontier models | API: $10 / $50 per million tokens | Closed | 1.05 million tokens, responses up to 128,000 | Index 53 on Artificial Analysis | ChatGPT and API |
| Gemini 4 ArgonFrontier models | API (launch price): $2 / $10 per million tokens | Closed | Responses up to 1 million tokens | 1st on LMArena text (1525); index 53 on Artificial Analysis | Safety partners first, then paid API and Google AI Ultra |
| Grok 4.7Frontier models | API: $2 / $6 per million tokens (below 200,000 tokens) | Closed | 500,000 tokens | Not in the top 15 on LMArena or Artificial Analysis in October 2026 | Grok app, X and API |
| Muse Spark 1.3Frontier models | Free in Meta AI; paid API | Closed (proprietary) | Not verified | 9th on LMArena text (1494) | Meta AI on WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook and meta.ai |
| Claude Sonnet 5.5Fast and affordable | API: $2 / $10 per million tokens | Closed | 1 million tokens | 2nd on Artificial Analysis (index 56) | Claude app and API |
| GPT-6.1 SolFast and affordable | API: $2 / $10 per million tokens | Closed | 1.05 million tokens | Index 52 on Artificial Analysis | ChatGPT and API |
| Gemini 3.8 FlashFast and affordable | API: $0.75 / $3.75 per million tokens (until 31/12/2026, then double) | Closed | Not verified | 8th on LMArena text (1495) | Gemini app, Google Workspace and API |
| Claude Haiku 4.5Fast and affordable | API: $1 / $5 per million tokens | Closed | 200,000 tokens | Not in the top 15 | Claude app and API |
| GPT-6 LunaFast and affordable | API: $0.10 / $0.50 per million tokens | Closed | 1.05 million tokens | Not in the top 15 | API |
| Mistral Large and MediumFast and affordable | API: Mistral Large $0.50 / $1.50 per million tokens | Closed or open-weight, depending on the model | Not verified | Not in the top 15 | Le Chat (Pro $14.99/month) and API |
| DeepSeek V4 Pro and FlashOpen-weight | API: V4 Pro $1.32 / $3.96 (half price off-peak) | Open-weight (MIT licence) | 1 million tokens, responses up to 384,000 | Not in the top 15 | DeepSeek app, API or self-hosted |
| Qwen 3.7 Max and Qwen 3.8Open-weight | Qwen 3.8 open-weight; 3.7 Max via API only | 3.8 open-weight (Apache 2.0); 3.7 Max closed | 1 million tokens (3.7 Max) | Not in the top 15 | Qwen Chat, Alibaba Cloud API or self-hosted |
Prices and features checked on the official pages on 7 October 2026. The sources are at the bottom of each profile.
Which one to choose if…
Analysis, long documents and complex work
Claude Opus 5.5Gemini 4 ArgonGPT-6 Astra
They are the three strongest on the October 2026 leaderboards. Gemini 4 Argon, however, is not yet available to everyone.
Everyday chatbots and automations
Claude Sonnet 5.5GPT-6.1 SolGemini 3.8 Flash
Close to the frontier models, but faster, and they cost between half and a fifth as much.
High volumes at minimum cost
GPT-6 LunaGemini 3.8 FlashDeepSeek V4 Pro and Flash
Classify, extract and route thousands of texts a day for a few cents.
Data that must not leave the company
DeepSeek V4 Pro and FlashQwen 3.7 Max and Qwen 3.8Mistral Large and Medium
Open-weight models to install on your own servers, or a European provider.
A subscription for the team
Claude Opus 5.5GPT-6 AstraMistral Large and Medium
Claude Pro ($20/month), ChatGPT or Le Chat Pro ($14.99/month): training the team matters more than the choice of app.
Very hard reasoning
Claude Fable 5.1Claude Opus 5.5
For problems where other models are not enough, accepting higher costs and longer response times.
How to read the leaderboards
We use two public leaderboards because they measure different things. LMArena pits the responses of two anonymous models against each other and asks people which they prefer: it tells you which model people like most in real use. Artificial Analysis runs the same automated tests on reasoning, knowledge, maths and code on every model and derives an index from them: it tells you which model is most capable on paper.
When a model sits high on both, as Claude Opus 5.5 and Gemini 4 Argon do in October 2026, it is a good sign. When the leaderboards disagree, it is worth looking at your own use case. And differences of a few points, on either one, are just noise.
The right model matters more than the best one
In client projects we almost never use a single model. An automation that reads PDF orders can use a cheap model to extract the data and a frontier model only for the doubtful cases. A chatbot answers with a fast model and switches to a more capable one when the question gets complicated. That way costs stay low and quality stays high where it matters.
That is why the table splits the models into three groups: frontier for hard work, fast and affordable for automations and high volumes, open-weight for anyone who wants to keep everything in-house.
What we build with these models
Everyone knows how to write a Facebook post with ChatGPT. The interesting work is putting AI inside a company’s processes, with precise instructions, on the right data and with a person checking where it counts. That is what we do:
- chatbots on company content, such as Conversly, that answer customers and pass leads to the CRM;
- automations that read orders, emails and documents and turn them into data for the management system and CRM, with n8n, Make or code;
- a company second brain that answers the team’s questions citing its sources, with each person’s permissions;
- video and content produced faster, as we explain on our page about vertical video;
- training for the team, as required by Article 4 of the EU AI Act.
This page is updated with AI too: every month an agent we set up re-reads the providers’ official pages and the leaderboards, updates prices, models and news, and the site only rebuilds if the data passes the checks.
Tool by tool
Claude Opus 5.5by Anthropic
API: $4 / $20 per million tokens (input / output)
Who it’s for: Long, complex work: analysis, documents, code, agents that work for hours. The model Anthropic recommends for most cases.
- Closed or open
- Closed
- Context
- 1 million tokens, responses up to 128,000
- Leaderboards
- 1st on Artificial Analysis (index 58); 4th on LMArena text (1504)
- How to use it
- Claude app (Pro $20/month), API, Amazon Bedrock, Google Cloud, Microsoft Foundry
STRENGTHS
- Top of the Artificial Analysis index in October 2026.
- Built for long tasks: code, research, document analysis.
- Also available through the Amazon, Google and Microsoft clouds.
LIMITATIONS
- More expensive than the fast models for simple, repetitive work.
- It always reasons before answering: for short questions it is slower than it needs to be.
Claude Fable 5.1by Anthropic
API: $10 / $50 per million tokens
Who it’s for: Very demanding reasoning and long-horizon agent work, when Opus is not enough.
- Closed or open
- Closed
- Context
- 1 million tokens, responses up to 128,000
- Leaderboards
- Index 53 on Artificial Analysis; 6th on LMArena (1501)
- How to use it
- Claude app and API
STRENGTHS
- Anthropic's model for the hardest problems.
- A one-million-token context window.
- Suited to agents that work autonomously for long periods.
LIMITATIONS
- The most expensive in the Claude family.
- Slower: use it where it is really needed.
GPT-6 Astraby OpenAI
API: $10 / $50 per million tokens
Who it’s for: Complex reasoning and code, for those already working in the OpenAI and ChatGPT ecosystem.
- Closed or open
- Closed
- Context
- 1.05 million tokens, responses up to 128,000
- Leaderboards
- Index 53 on Artificial Analysis
- How to use it
- ChatGPT and API
STRENGTHS
- OpenAI's most capable model, with web search, files and computer use.
- A huge ecosystem of tools and integrations.
- ChatGPT is the best-known AI app, so it is the easiest to get people to adopt.
LIMITATIONS
- One of the highest API prices.
- Not in the top 15 of the LMArena text leaderboard as of 2 October 2026.
Gemini 4 Argonby Google
API (launch price): $2 / $10 per million tokens
Who it’s for: Long reasoning tasks, code and huge documents. Announced on 30 September 2026, with limited access for now.
- Closed or open
- Closed
- Context
- Responses up to 1 million tokens
- Leaderboards
- 1st on LMArena text (1525); index 53 on Artificial Analysis
- How to use it
- Safety partners first, then paid API and Google AI Ultra
STRENGTHS
- First on the LMArena leaderboard in early October 2026.
- A very low launch price for a frontier model.
- It can write very long responses in a single pass.
LIMITATIONS
- Not yet available to everyone: Google has not given a date.
- Not yet in the official Gemini API model list.
Grok 4.7by xAI
API: $2 / $6 per million tokens (below 200,000 tokens)
Who it’s for: Anyone who wants a frontier model at a modest price, or works with content from X.
- Closed or open
- Closed
- Context
- 500,000 tokens
- Leaderboards
- Not in the top 15 on LMArena or Artificial Analysis in October 2026
- How to use it
- Grok app, X and API
STRENGTHS
- xAI's most capable model, at a low API price.
- Integrated with X for real-time news and conversations.
LIMITATIONS
- Double the price above 200,000 tokens.
- Behind Claude, Gemini and GPT on the public leaderboards.
Muse Spark 1.3by Meta
Free in Meta AI; paid API
Who it’s for: Anyone using Meta AI inside WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook, or wanting a multimodal model from Meta.
- Closed or open
- Closed (proprietary)
- Context
- Not verified
- Leaderboards
- 9th on LMArena text (1494)
- How to use it
- Meta AI on WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook and meta.ai
STRENGTHS
- Already inside apps used by billions of people.
- Multimodal: text, images and visual reasoning.
LIMITATIONS
- No longer an open-weight model like the old Llama models.
- Little public data on API prices and context.
Claude Sonnet 5.5by Anthropic
API: $2 / $10 per million tokens
Who it’s for: The best balance of speed and intelligence: automations, chatbots, writing, everyday code.
- Closed or open
- Closed
- Context
- 1 million tokens
- Leaderboards
- 2nd on Artificial Analysis (index 56)
- How to use it
- Claude app and API
STRENGTHS
- Second on the Artificial Analysis index, at half the price of Opus.
- Fast enough for chatbots and automations.
LIMITATIONS
- For huge volumes there are much cheaper models.
GPT-6.1 Solby OpenAI
API: $2 / $10 per million tokens
Who it’s for: Performance close to OpenAI's frontier model at a fifth of the price.
- Closed or open
- Closed
- Context
- 1.05 million tokens
- Leaderboards
- Index 52 on Artificial Analysis
- How to use it
- ChatGPT and API
STRENGTHS
- Almost on a par with GPT-6 Astra according to OpenAI, at a much lower cost.
- Excellent value for money on the Artificial Analysis index.
LIMITATIONS
- On the hardest problems it stays below the frontier models.
Gemini 3.8 Flashby Google
API: $0.75 / $3.75 per million tokens (until 31/12/2026, then double)
Who it’s for: Agents, automations and high-volume business tasks, within the Google ecosystem.
- Closed or open
- Closed
- Context
- Not verified
- Leaderboards
- 8th on LMArena text (1495)
- How to use it
- Gemini app, Google Workspace and API
STRENGTHS
- Google's most intelligent Flash model, stable and available to everyone.
- Eighth on LMArena at the price of a budget model.
LIMITATIONS
- The price doubles from 1 January 2027.
Claude Haiku 4.5by Anthropic
API: $1 / $5 per million tokens
Who it’s for: Quick responses and simple tasks in large quantities.
- Closed or open
- Closed
- Context
- 200,000 tokens
- Leaderboards
- Not in the top 15
- How to use it
- Claude app and API
STRENGTHS
- The fastest in the Claude family.
LIMITATIONS
- Knowledge cut-off in early 2025, with retirement scheduled no earlier than 15 October 2026.
GPT-6 Lunaby OpenAI
API: $0.10 / $0.50 per million tokens
Who it’s for: Precise tasks at very high volumes: classifying, extracting data, routing.
- Closed or open
- Closed
- Context
- 1.05 million tokens
- Leaderboards
- Not in the top 15
- How to use it
- API
STRENGTHS
- Among the lowest prices of all for a model from a major provider.
LIMITATIONS
- Designed for targeted tasks, not long reasoning.
Mistral Large and Mediumby Mistral AI (France)
API: Mistral Large $0.50 / $1.50 per million tokens
Who it’s for: Anyone who wants a European provider, low prices and the option of installing the models in-house.
- Closed or open
- Closed or open-weight, depending on the model
- Context
- Not verified
- Leaderboards
- Not in the top 15
- How to use it
- Le Chat (Pro $14.99/month) and API
STRENGTHS
- A European company: an advantage for anyone who has to keep data in Europe.
- Very low API prices.
- The cheapest subscription among the major players (Le Chat Pro).
LIMITATIONS
- Far from the top in the general leaderboards.
- Medium 3.5 price ($1.50 / $7.50) taken from comparison sources.
DeepSeek V4 Pro and Flashby DeepSeek (China)
API: V4 Pro $1.32 / $3.96 (half price off-peak)
Who it’s for: Anyone who wants a powerful model to install on their own servers, or a cheap API for high volumes.
- Closed or open
- Open-weight (MIT licence)
- Context
- 1 million tokens, responses up to 384,000
- Leaderboards
- Not in the top 15
- How to use it
- DeepSeek app, API or self-hosted
STRENGTHS
- Downloadable weights: you can run it on your own servers without sending data outside.
- One of the cheapest APIs, with a 50% discount off-peak.
LIMITATIONS
- The API and app are run in China: for company data, self-hosting is the better option.
- Running the model in-house requires serious hardware.
Qwen 3.7 Max and Qwen 3.8by Alibaba (China)
Qwen 3.8 open-weight; 3.7 Max via API only
Who it’s for: Anyone looking for quality open-weight models to install and customise.
- Closed or open
- 3.8 open-weight (Apache 2.0); 3.7 Max closed
- Context
- 1 million tokens (3.7 Max)
- Leaderboards
- Not in the top 15
- How to use it
- Qwen Chat, Alibaba Cloud API or self-hosted
STRENGTHS
- In August 2026 Alibaba also released the weights of the largest model in the 3.8 series.
- Apache 2.0 licence: commercial use is allowed too.
LIMITATIONS
- Versions and licences vary from one model to another: check them case by case.
- Data taken from comparison sources.
HOW WE COMPARED
Every month we read the providers' official model and pricing pages and two public leaderboards: LMArena (people's votes on anonymous responses) and the Artificial Analysis index (automated tests). This version is dated 7 October 2026; for the models marked in the sources we used comparison sites, because the official page was not accessible. API prices in dollars per million tokens, excluding VAT. Leaderboards change often and differences of a few points are not significant.
Frequently asked questions
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What is the best AI today?
In October 2026 Claude Opus 5.5 is first on the Artificial Analysis index and Gemini 4 Argon is first on LMArena, with GPT-6 Astra just behind. The gaps are small and change every month. For a business, choosing the right model for each task matters more than chasing whoever tops the leaderboard.
ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini?
All three are excellent. Claude is very strong at long tasks, writing and document analysis. ChatGPT has the biggest ecosystem and the best-known app. Gemini is integrated with Google Workspace and has very cost-effective Flash models. The choice often depends on the tools the team already uses.
How much does it cost to use AI via API?
You pay per token, meaning per chunk of text read and written. It ranges from $0.10 per million input tokens for the cheapest models to $10 for frontier models, and output costs three to five times as much. For a typical business chatbot or automation, the model spend is often a few euros or a few tens of euros a month.
What does open-weight model mean?
It means the provider publishes the model itself, which you can download and run on your own servers. That way data does not leave the company and you do not depend on an external API. In exchange you need suitable hardware and someone to manage it. DeepSeek V4 and Qwen 3.8 are open-weight.
Is company data safe with these models?
With the APIs and business plans of Anthropic, OpenAI and Google, data is not used to train the models. For stricter requirements you choose providers or clouds that process data in Europe, or open-weight models installed in-house.
