🔬 Best AI for Research
Compare AI models for research tasks — literature review, hypothesis generation, data interpretation, and academic writing.Rankings combine multiple benchmark scores weighted by relevance to this use case. Updated August 2026.
Why This Matters
Research is one of the most common AI workloads — and the best model depends heavily on the specific task. A model that excels at creative writing may struggle with structured data extraction, and vice versa.
We built this use-case ranking by combining multiple benchmark categories with weights tuned to match real-world usage patterns. For research, the score emphasizes the benchmarks that matter most: task accuracy, output quality, and consistency. Speed and cost are factored in but secondary to quality.
All scores are from public independent benchmarks. For a broader view across all tasks, see the overall LLM leaderboard or the expert picks page.
Quick Answer
The best AI models for research are:1. Claude Mythos 5 (Anthropic, score: 74.7), 2. Claude Mythos Preview (Anthropic, score: 74.5), 3. Gemini 3.1 Pro (Google, score: 74.4).
| # | Model | Provider | Score | Speed | Price (output) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Claude Mythos 5 | Anthropic | 74.7 | 50 t/s | $50/M |
| 2 | Claude Mythos Preview | Anthropic | 74.5 | 80 t/s | $15/M |
| 3 | Gemini 3.1 Pro | 74.4 | 136 t/s | $12/M | |
| 4 | Qwen3.7 Max | Alibaba | 73.5 | 203 t/s | $7.5/M |
| 5 | Claude Fable 5 | Anthropic | 72.4 | 71 t/s | $50/M |
| 6 | Claude Opus 5 | Anthropic | 70.7 | 60 t/s | $25/M |
| 7 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 (max) | Anthropic | 68.3 | 50 t/s | $15/M |
| 8 | Claude Opus 4.8 | Anthropic | 68.0 | 50 t/s | $15/M |
| 9 | GPT-5.6 Sol | OpenAI | 67.7 | 72 t/s | $30/M |
| 10 | Kimi K3 | Moonshot AI | 66.3 | 37 t/s | $15/M |
| 11 | Claude Opus 4.7 | Anthropic | 63.7 | 80 t/s | $15/M |
| 12 | GPT-5.5 | OpenAI | 60.6 | 60 t/s | $10/M |
| 13 | Muse Spark 1.1 | Meta | 59.7 | 208 t/s | $4.25/M |
| 14 | Gemini 3.6 Flash | 58.8 | 233 t/s | $7.5/M | |
| 15 | Gemini 3.5 Flash | 58.8 | 267 t/s | $9/M |