Benchmark suiteLatest source data: Oct 16, 2026Checked: October 19, 2026

Model value rankings.

A focused view of which frontier models deliver the strongest benchmark signal for the money, balancing quality, blended token price, latency, and output speed.

Ranked models

97

Require quality and price matches

Best value

Gemini 4 Argon

86 value index

Lowest price

$0.100

Hy3

Fastest TTFT

0.45s

Muse Spark Open

Value formula

Quality first, then cost and speed.

The value index normalizes each available signal before blending benchmark quality, blended price, time to first token, and output speed. It avoids raw score-per-dollar math, which can wildly overstate very cheap models.

Best models for the money

Higher value index is better. Missing source rows are omitted from the value ranking rather than treated as zero.

Top 30 of 97

#1
Gemini 4 Argon

Gemini 4 Argon (High)

GoogleProprietary
86value index
Price
$4.00blended / 1M tokens
Latency
Not listedtime to first token
Speed
Not listedoutput speed
Quality
86quality signal
ArenaArtificial Analysis
#2
Claude Opus 4.6

claude-opus-4-6

AnthropicProprietary
83value index
Price
$10.00blended / 1M tokens
Latency
Not listedtime to first token
Speed
Not listedoutput speed
Quality
92quality signal
ArenaArtificial Analysis
#3
GPT-6.1 Sol

GPT-6.1 Sol (Max)

OpenAIProprietary
80value index
Price
$4.00blended / 1M tokens
Latency
1.73stime to first token
Speed
56 tok/soutput speed
Quality
88quality signal
ArenaArtificial Analysis
#4
Qwen3.8 Max

qwen3.8-max

AlibabaProprietary
79value index
Price
$3.00blended / 1M tokens
Latency
Not listedtime to first token
Speed
Not listedoutput speed
Quality
73quality signal
ArenaArtificial Analysis
#5
GPT-5.6 Sol xHigh

gpt-5.6-sol-xhigh

OpenAIProprietary
78value index
Price
$8.00blended / 1M tokens
Latency
Not listedtime to first token
Speed
Not listedoutput speed
Quality
80quality signal
ArenaArtificial Analysis
#6
Claude Opus 5 High

claude-opus-5-high

AnthropicProprietary
78value index
Price
$10.00blended / 1M tokens
Latency
Not listedtime to first token
Speed
Not listedoutput speed
Quality
84quality signal
ArenaArtificial Analysis
#7
Claude Opus 5.5

Claude Opus 5.5 (High)

AnthropicProprietary
77value index
Price
$8.00blended / 1M tokens
Latency
7.20stime to first token
Speed
79 tok/soutput speed
Quality
90quality signal
ArenaArtificial Analysis
#8
GPT-6 Sol

GPT-6 Sol (Max)

OpenAIProprietary
76value index
Price
$4.00blended / 1M tokens
Latency
Not listedtime to first token
Speed
Not listedoutput speed
Quality
71quality signal
ArenaArtificial Analysis
#9
Claude Sonnet 5.5

Claude Sonnet 5.5 (xHigh)

AnthropicProprietary
76value index
Price
$4.00blended / 1M tokens
Latency
0.73stime to first token
Speed
106 tok/soutput speed
Quality
77quality signal
ArenaArtificial Analysis
#10
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash

DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash (Max)

DeepSeekOpen weights
75value index
Price
$0.525blended / 1M tokens
Latency
0.64stime to first token
Speed
360 tok/soutput speed
Quality
55quality signal
ArenaArtificial Analysis
#11
Muse Spark 1.1

Muse Spark 1.1

MetaProprietary
74value index
Price
$2.00blended / 1M tokens
Latency
Not listedtime to first token
Speed
Not listedoutput speed
Quality
63quality signal
ArenaArtificial Analysis
#12
Muse Spark 1.2

Muse Spark 1.2 (xHigh)

MetaProprietary
73value index
Price
$2.00blended / 1M tokens
Latency
Not listedtime to first token
Speed
Not listedoutput speed
Quality
62quality signal
ArenaArtificial Analysis
#13
Muse Spark 1.3

Muse Spark 1.3 (Max)

MetaProprietary
73value index
Price
$2.00blended / 1M tokens
Latency
22.7stime to first token
Speed
263 tok/soutput speed
Quality
67quality signal
ArenaArtificial Analysis
#14
Gemini 3.8 Flash

Gemini 3.8 Flash (High)

GoogleProprietary
71value index
Price
$1.50blended / 1M tokens
Latency
Not listedtime to first token
Speed
Not listedoutput speed
Quality
58quality signal
ArenaArtificial Analysis
#15
Gemini 3.5 Flash Medium

gemini-3.5-flash-medium

GoogleProprietary
71value index
Price
$3.38blended / 1M tokens
Latency
Not listedtime to first token
Speed
Not listedoutput speed
Quality
61quality signal
ArenaArtificial Analysis
#16
Claude Sonnet 4.6

claude-sonnet-4-6

AnthropicProprietary
68value index
Price
$6.00blended / 1M tokens
Latency
Not listedtime to first token
Speed
Not listedoutput speed
Quality
62quality signal
ArenaArtificial Analysis
#17
Gemini 3.7 Flash

Gemini 3.7 Flash (High)

GoogleProprietary
68value index
Price
$1.50blended / 1M tokens
Latency
Not listedtime to first token
Speed
Not listedoutput speed
Quality
54quality signal
ArenaArtificial Analysis
#18
Grok 4.5

grok-4.5

xAIProprietary
68value index
Price
$3.00blended / 1M tokens
Latency
Not listedtime to first token
Speed
Not listedoutput speed
Quality
56quality signal
ArenaArtificial Analysis
#19
Qwen3.8 Flash Next

Qwen3.8-Flash-Next

AlibabaProprietary
68value index
Price
$0.230blended / 1M tokens
Latency
1.22stime to first token
Speed
53 tok/soutput speed
Quality
58quality signal
ArenaArtificial Analysis
#20
GPT-6 Astra

GPT-6 Astra (Max)

OpenAIProprietary
68value index
Price
$20.00blended / 1M tokens
Latency
1.99stime to first token
Speed
57 tok/soutput speed
Quality
93quality signal
ArenaArtificial Analysis
#21
Grok 4.6

Grok 4.6 (High)

xAIProprietary
67value index
Price
$3.00blended / 1M tokens
Latency
Not listedtime to first token
Speed
Not listedoutput speed
Quality
55quality signal
ArenaArtificial Analysis
#22
Grok 4.7

Grok 4.7 (xHigh)

xAIProprietary
67value index
Price
$3.00blended / 1M tokens
Latency
2.87stime to first token
Speed
73 tok/soutput speed
Quality
60quality signal
ArenaArtificial Analysis
#23
GLM 5.3 Flash

glm-5.3-flash

Z.aiOpen weights
67value index
Price
$0.237blended / 1M tokens
Latency
2.11stime to first token
Speed
84 tok/soutput speed
Quality
54quality signal
ArenaArtificial Analysis
#24
GLM 5.2

GLM-5.2 (Max)

Z.aiOpen weights
66value index
Price
$2.15blended / 1M tokens
Latency
Not listedtime to first token
Speed
Not listedoutput speed
Quality
52quality signal
ArenaArtificial Analysis
#25
GPT-5.5 High

gpt-5.5-high

OpenAIProprietary
66value index
Price
$11.25blended / 1M tokens
Latency
Not listedtime to first token
Speed
Not listedoutput speed
Quality
68quality signal
ArenaArtificial Analysis
#26
GLM 5.3

GLM-5.3 (Max)

Z.aiOpen weights
66value index
Price
$2.15blended / 1M tokens
Latency
2.50stime to first token
Speed
89 tok/soutput speed
Quality
56quality signal
ArenaArtificial Analysis
#27
Claude Sonnet 5 High

claude-sonnet-5-high

AnthropicProprietary
65value index
Price
$4.00blended / 1M tokens
Latency
Not listedtime to first token
Speed
Not listedoutput speed
Quality
54quality signal
ArenaArtificial Analysis
#28
Claude Opus 4.8

claude-opus-4-8

AnthropicProprietary
65value index
Price
$10.00blended / 1M tokens
Latency
Not listedtime to first token
Speed
Not listedoutput speed
Quality
64quality signal
ArenaArtificial Analysis
#29
DeepSeek V4 Flash

DeepSeek-V4-Flash (High)

DeepSeekOpen weights
65value index
Price
$0.175blended / 1M tokens
Latency
Not listedtime to first token
Speed
Not listedoutput speed
Quality
46quality signal
ArenaArtificial Analysis
#30
Muse Wonder

Muse Wonder (Max)

MetaProprietary
65value index
Price
$8.00blended / 1M tokens
Latency
34.4stime to first token
Speed
173 tok/soutput speed
Quality
74quality signal
ArenaArtificial Analysis

Benchmark guide

What the scores mean.

A quick reading key for interpreting the value rankings without over-weighting one benchmark, price point, or speed measurement.

Higher: value indexLower: price + latency
What does the value index measure?

The value index blends normalized benchmark quality, blended token price, latency, and output speed. It is designed to answer which models deliver strong public performance for the money, not which model is best in every task.

Why not use raw score divided by price?

Raw score-per-dollar can exaggerate extremely cheap models and make small benchmark differences look larger than they are. Normalizing each signal keeps the ranking easier to compare across quality, price, and speed.

Why are some models missing from value rankings?

A model needs both a benchmark quality signal and a confident price match to be ranked. If the price or benchmark source is missing, the model is omitted rather than treated as free or zero quality.

How should I use price, latency, and speed together?

Price estimates cost, latency measures time to first token, and speed measures output throughput after generation begins. The best model for a product depends on which constraint matters most in the actual workflow.