Best models · Updated 2026
Best AI Models for Reasoning & Research
25 models for Reasoning & Research, ordered by context window — not by price. Two models at the same rate per million tokens are not the same cost for the same document.
Why this table is not ranked by price
Models do not tokenize text the same way, so one document is a different number of tokens on each of them — and a provider can change tokenizer between versions of the same model. That makes $/1M a rate, not a price you can put in rank order: the cheaper rate can cost more per document. The columns below carry each provider's published list rate so you can cost them against your own token counts. Where a rate is introductory or announced to change, the model's own page says so.
That is a refusal to publish one price ranking that holds for every reader — not a refusal to choose on cost. Once a workload is fixed, its documents, token counts and quality bar are known, and comparing rates for that one job is a different and legitimate exercise: it is what our use-case shortlists do, one workload at a time.
| Model | Contextordered by this | Input / 1Mnot comparable | Output / 1Mnot comparable | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
GPT-5.4 OpenAI | 1.05M | $2.50 | $15.00 | View → |
GPT-5.5 OpenAI | 1.05M | $5.00 | $30.00 | View → |
Muse Spark 1.1 Meta | 1.05M | $1.25 | $4.25 | View → |
Muse Spark 1.2 Meta | 1.05M | $1.25 | $4.25 | View → |
| 1.05M | $0.10 | $0.20 | View → | |
Claude Fable 5 Anthropic | 1M | $10.00 | $50.00 | View → |
Claude Opus 4.6 Anthropic | 1M | $5.00 | $25.00 | View → |
Claude Opus 4.7 Anthropic | 1M | $5.00 | $25.00 | View → |
Claude Opus 4.8 Anthropic | 1M | $5.00 | $25.00 | View → |
Claude Opus 5 Anthropic | 1M | $5.00 | $25.00 | View → |
| 1M | $1.25 | $2.50 | View → | |
| 1M | $1.25 | $2.50 | View → | |
Grok 4.3 xAI | 1M | $1.25 | $2.50 | View → |
Grok 4.5 xAI | 500K | $2.00 | $6.00 | View → |
Claude Opus 4.5 Anthropic | 200K | $5.00 | $25.00 | View → |
GLM-5 z.ai | 200K | $1.00 | $3.20 | View → |
| Context window not publishedThese may still fit your build. Their providers do not publish a context window, so they cannot be placed in the order above and we will not invent a figure to place them. | ||||
| — | — | — | View → | |
Gemini 2.5 Pro Google | — | $1.25 | $10.00 | View → |
Gemini 3.1 Pro (Preview) Google | — | $2.00 | $12.00 | View → |
Gemini 3.5 Flash Google | — | $1.50 | $9.00 | View → |
GLM-5.1 z.ai | — | $1.40 | $4.40 | View → |
GLM-5.2 z.ai | — | $1.40 | $4.40 | View → |
Mistral Large 3 Mistral AI | — | $0.50 | $1.50 | View → |
WizardLM 2 Microsoft AI | — | — | — | View → |
YiLarge other | — | — | — | View → |
Ordered by context window — not by price, and not by paid placement. A long chain of reasoning is bounded by how much material the model can hold at once, so the context window is the published spec that actually changes the answer here. Every figure is the provider's own published number; a dash means the provider does not publish it, and we would rather leave the cell empty than estimate it.
FAQ
Questions about AI models for Reasoning & Research
Which AI model is best for Reasoning & Research?+
There is no single answer — it depends on your workload, your quality bar and your volume. GPT-5.4, GPT-5.5, Muse Spark 1.1 lead this table on context window. Shortlist on the spec that constrains your build, then cost the shortlist against your own token counts.
Is the cheapest AI model for Reasoning & Research the cheapest to run?+
Not reliably. Models do not tokenize text the same way, so the same document is a different number of tokens on each one — and a provider can change tokenizer between versions of the same model. A lower rate per million tokens can still cost more per document. Compare published rates against your own token counts before choosing on price.
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