1stTop pick
Researched 1d agoGemini 4 Argon
- GPQA Diamond
- 96.4%
- Output (from)
- $10.00 / 1M
The Best Mainstream LLM APIs, Ranked (2026)
Last refreshed 2026-10-17. Next refresh: weekly.
The best LLM APIs for developers in 2026 — ranked by benchmark quality first, then price. Updated daily with live provider pricing.
Verdict
Use Gemini 4 Argon for mainstream API work today.
GPT-6 Astra is the runner-up, 0.6 points back on GPQA Diamond.
2ndShortlistRestricted
Researched 1d agoGPT-6 Astra
- GPQA Diamond
- 95.8%
- Output (from)
- $50.00 / 1M
3rdShortlist
Researched 2d agoClaude Sonnet 5.5
- GPQA Diamond
- 95.6%
- Output (from)
- $10.00 / 1M
How we rank
Mainstream API picks now lead with capability: GPQA Diamond first, MMLU as fallback, then price only as the tie-break.
- Eligibility — Chat/completion models that pass the generic API leaderboard filter (no embeddings/rerankers/modality SKUs).
- Primary ranking — GPQA Diamond, then MMLU when GPQA is missing or tied.
- Variant collapse — We keep one row per model family (`familySlug` + parameter tier). When headline scores tie within ±0.5 pt (±10 Elo on Chatbot Arena), we pick the canonical SKU by lowest tracked input price, then GA over preview or limited access, then newest `release`. A folded sibling within the benchmark noise band can show a "Tied within margin" chip on that score cell.
- Price tie-break — Lower tracked input $/1M wins only after the capability scores are exhausted.
- Pricing — Rates reflect tracked provider rows — spot/check enterprise tiers separately.
| # | Model | Input $/1M | Output $/1M | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gemini 4 Argon ReasoningVisionTools Capability signal: GPQA Diamond 96.4% | $2.00 | $10.00 | |
| 2 | GPT-6 Astra RestrictedReasoningVisionTools Capability signal: GPQA Diamond 95.8% | $10.00 | $50.00 | |
| 3 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 ReasoningVisionTools Capability signal: GPQA Diamond 95.6% | $2.00 | $10.00 | |
| 4 | Gemini 3.8 Flash ReasoningVisionTools Capability signal: GPQA Diamond 95.4% | $0.75 | $3.75 | |
| 5 | GPT-6.1 Sol ReasoningVisionTools Capability signal: GPQA Diamond 95.4% | $2.00 | $10.00 | |
| 6 | Gemini 3.7 Flash ReasoningVisionTools Capability signal: GPQA Diamond 94.8% | $0.75 | $3.75 | |
| 7 | GPT-5.6 Sol ReasoningVisionTools Capability signal: GPQA Diamond 94.6% | $4.00 | $20.00 | |
| 8 | Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview PreviewVisionTools Capability signal: GPQA Diamond 94.3% | $2.00 | $12.00 | |
| 9 | GPT-6 Sol ReasoningVisionTools Capability signal: GPQA Diamond 94.3% | $2.00 | $10.00 | |
| 10 | Claude Opus 4.7 ReasoningVisionTools Capability signal: GPQA Diamond 94.2% | $5.00 | $25.00 | |
| 11 | Gemini 3.6 Flash ReasoningVisionTools Capability signal: GPQA Diamond 94.1% | $0.75 | $3.75 | |
| 12 | Grok 4.6 ReasoningVisionTools Capability signal: GPQA Diamond 94% | $2.00 | $6.00 | |
| 13 | GPT-5.5 ReasoningVisionTools Capability signal: GPQA Diamond 93.6% | $5.00 | $30.00 | |
| 14 | Claude Opus 4.8 ReasoningVisionTools Capability signal: GPQA Diamond 93.6% | $5.00 | $25.00 | |
| 15 | GPT-5.5 Pro ReasoningVisionTools Capability signal: GPQA Diamond 93.6% | $30.00 | $180.00 | |
| 16 | Kimi K3 ReasoningVisionTools Capability signal: GPQA Diamond 93.5% | $3.00 | $15.00 | |
| 17 | MiniMax M3 ReasoningVisionTools Capability signal: GPQA Diamond 92.9% | $0.30 | $1.20 | |
| 18 | Grok 4.7 ReasoningVisionTools Capability signal: GPQA Diamond 92.7% | $2.00 | $6.00 | |
| 19 | Qwen3.8-Max ReasoningVisionTools Capability signal: GPQA Diamond 92.6% | $2.00 | $6.00 | |
| 20 | Qwen3.7-Max ReasoningTools Capability signal: GPQA Diamond 92.4% | $1.25 | $3.75 |
Honorable mentions
Next seats in this ranking. Lines below are from each model's stored description in LLMReference seed data—spot-check the model page before relying on a capability claim.
Gemini 3.8 Flash is Google DeepMind's generally available most intelligent Flash model, engineered for long-horizon software engineering, autonomous agents, and complex enterprise workflows, released September 2, 2026. It accepts text, image, video, audio, and PDF inputs and returns text, with a 1,048,576-token context window, up to 65,536 output tokens, and Gemini API support for thinking (low/medium/high; minimal is not supported), function calling, tool use, structured outputs, code execution, prompt caching, search grounding, URL context, computer use (preview), and batch, flex, and priority consumption. Official model ID: gemini-3.8-flash. Sibling of live gemini-3.7-flash under a new family gemini-3.8.
95.4%
GPQA Diamond
OpenAI GPT-6.1 Sol (API id gpt-6.1-sol), announced September 29, 2026, upgrades GPT-6 Sol toward near-Astra intelligence for complex coding, computer use, and professional work at one-fifth of Astra's standard input/output token prices. First-party docs: 1,050,000 context, 128,000 max output, knowledge cutoff Apr 30, 2026, text+image input to text output. Standard short-context list $2 input / $0.10 cached input / $2.50 cache writes / $10 output per 1M tokens (cached input 50% below GPT-6 Sol's $0.20). >272K input: 2x input/cache and 1.5x output. Batch/Flex 50% of Standard; Fast mode 2x. reasoning.effort low/medium/high/xhigh/max (none/minimal not supported). Function calling, structured outputs, prompt caching, computer use and code interpreter via Responses tools. Available ChatGPT Work and Codex for Plus/Pro/Business/Enterprise/Edu; not yet in Chat.
95.4%
GPQA Diamond
Gemini 3.7 Flash is Google DeepMind's generally available multimodal workhorse model for coding and agents, released August 13, 2026. It accepts text, image, video, audio, and PDF inputs and returns text, with a 1,048,576-token context window, up to 65,536 output tokens, and Gemini API support for thinking (low/medium/high; minimal is not supported), function calling, tool use, structured outputs, code execution, prompt caching, and batch processing. Official model ID: gemini-3.7-flash.
94.8%
GPQA Diamond
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