Best AI models for research.
334 available models considered · 42 with comparable evidence
Research assistance starts with a question and evidence you can inspect. A model can help compare sources, identify gaps and explain a difficult argument. The shortlist emphasizes reasoning, language and instruction following; the research workflow still needs access to the right material.
For a balanced task, the current best measured match is GPT-6 Astra at 87.6/100 task fit. Change the difficulty or add requirements in the finder.
Choose task difficulty
Change the range
Quick tasks
Summarize one supplied article or extract the questions it leaves open.
Open finder →Default range
Balanced
Compare several supplied sources and organize their agreements and disagreements.
Open finder →Change the range
Complex tasks
Synthesize conflicting evidence, assess assumptions and develop alternative explanations.
Open finder →Balanced task range
Best measured matches
Task fit applies the published weights for research. Price helps choose a provider after capability; it does not raise a weaker model into this range.
Task fit
87.6 / 100
Capability 82.2/100
Task fit
85.1 / 100
Capability 81.6/100
Task fit
81.8 / 100
Capability 81.1/100
Lowest eligible listed rate
$0.0422 in · $0.0844 out / M tokens
TrustedRouter ↗Price checked 22 Sept 2026
Measured as deepseek-v4.1-flash-max · max effort. Source ↗
- Claude Fable 5.1 ↗
Anthropic
Task fit
86.3 / 100
Capability 83.4/100
Lowest eligible listed rate
$10 in · $50 out / M tokens
Amazon Bedrock ↗Price checked 22 Sept 2026
Measured as claude-fable-5-1-max-effort · max effort. Source ↗
- Claude Fable 5 ↗
Anthropic
Task fit
86.3 / 100
Capability 83/100
Lowest eligible listed rate
$10 in · $50 out / M tokens
Amazon Bedrock ↗Price checked 22 Sept 2026
Measured as claude-fable-5-max-effort · max effort. Source ↗
- GPT-5.6 Sol ↗
OpenAI
Task fit
85.6 / 100
Capability 81.1/100
Lowest eligible listed rate
$2 in · $10 out / M tokens
Nous Portal ↗Price checked 22 Sept 2026
Measured as gpt-5.6-sol-max · max effort. Source ↗
- GPT-5.5 ↗
OpenAI
Task fit
84.8 / 100
Capability 80.2/100
- Kimi K3 ↗
Moonshot AI · open weights
Task fit
83.4 / 100
Capability 79.2/100
- Gemini 3.7 Flash ↗
Google
Task fit
83.3 / 100
Capability 78.8/100
Lowest eligible listed rate
$0.75 in · $3.75 out / M tokens
DeepInfra ↗Price checked 22 Sept 2026
Measured as gemini-3.7-flash-high · high thinking. Source ↗
- Claude Opus 5 ↗
Anthropic
Task fit
83.2 / 100
Capability 80.1/100
Lowest eligible listed rate
$5 in · $25 out / M tokens
Amazon Bedrock ↗Price checked 22 Sept 2026
Measured as claude-opus-5-max-effort · max effort. Source ↗
How to read this guide
This score does not measure web-search quality, citation accuracy or whether an answer is factually correct. Model knowledge and access to current sources are separate concerns.
The recommendations use the same Balanced settings as the interactive finder. See the Capability methodology for sources, exact identity rules, task weights and difficulty ranges.