Understand the numbers
The value frontier Every model, plotted by what it costs against how good it is. The staircase is the frontier: for those models, no other model scores at least as high, costs no more, and wins on one of the two. Everything below and to the right has such a model on the staircase, though not always a like-for-like replacement.
12 undominated of 145
133 worse deals
as of Oct 6, 2026
Changing the workload below moves the frontier less than you would expect: 46% of frontier models are on it under every workload (7 move). What does change is the price — the same model swings up to 3.6× across these shapes. So the control is not about which models to consider. It is about what you would actually pay for them.
General · Balanced
Model Claude Opus 5.5 · 1511.7 · $8.00/M · on the frontier Claude Fable 5.1 · 1510.6 · $20.00/M · a better, cheaper option exists Claude Opus 4.6 · 1503.2 · $10.00/M · a better, cheaper option exists Claude Opus 5 · 1502.1 · $10.00/M · a better, cheaper option exists Gemini 3.8 Flash · 1497.0 · $3.00/M · on the frontier Claude Fable 5 · 1491.7 · $20.00/M · a better, cheaper option exists MiMo-V2.6-Pro · 1491.0 · $0.540/M · on the frontier Muse Spark 1.3 · 1489.9 · $2.00/M · a better, cheaper option exists Claude Opus 4.7 · 1489.9 · $10.00/M · a better, cheaper option exists Gemini 3.7 Flash · 1487.0 · $3.00/M · a better, cheaper option exists Muse Spark 1.2 · 1483.2 · $2.00/M · a better, cheaper option exists Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview · 1480.2 · $4.50/M · a better, cheaper option exists Gemini 3.6 Flash · 1479.5 · $1.50/M · a better, cheaper option exists Muse Spark 1.1 · 1479.2 · $2.00/M · a better, cheaper option exists Gemini 3.5 Flash · 1477.7 · $3.38/M · a better, cheaper option exists Kimi K3 · 1475.9 · $3.76/M · a better, cheaper option exists GLM 5.3 · 1471.4 · $1.00/M · a better, cheaper option exists GLM 5.2 · 1470.4 · $1.12/M · a better, cheaper option exists GLM 5.3 Flash · 1469.6 · $0.238/M · on the frontier GPT-5.5 · 1466.8 · $11.25/M · a better, cheaper option exists Claude Sonnet 5.5 · 1466.6 · $4.00/M · a better, cheaper option exists MiMo-V2.5-Pro · 1465.0 · $0.544/M · a better, cheaper option exists DeepSeek V4.1 Flash · 1462.5 · $0.182/M · on the frontier GLM 5.1 · 1461.5 · $1.83/M · a better, cheaper option exists Claude Opus 4.8 · 1461.0 · $10.00/M · a better, cheaper option exists Gemini 2.5 Pro · 1457.8 · $3.44/M · a better, cheaper option exists Claude Sonnet 4.6 · 1457.8 · $6.00/M · a better, cheaper option exists MiMo-V2.6-Flash · 1456.4 · $0.175/M · on the frontier GPT-5.6 Sol · 1456.3 · $8.00/M · a better, cheaper option exists Kimi K2.6 · 1455.5 · $0.961/M · a better, cheaper option exists Qwen3.7 Plus · 1454.6 · $0.560/M · a better, cheaper option exists GPT-5.4 · 1452.2 · $5.63/M · a better, cheaper option exists Claude Opus 4.5 · 1451.0 · $10.00/M · a better, cheaper option exists Grok 4.5 · 1448.1 · $3.00/M · a better, cheaper option exists Qwen3.6 Max Preview · 1446.8 · $2.31/M · a better, cheaper option exists GLM 5 · 1446.3 · $1.09/M · a better, cheaper option exists GPT-5.6 Terra · 1446.3 · $4.50/M · a better, cheaper option exists GPT-6.1 Sol · 1445.6 · $4.00/M · a better, cheaper option exists Kimi K2.5 · 1445.2 · $1.20/M · a better, cheaper option exists DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 · 1445.2 · $1.21/M · a better, cheaper option exists Gemma 4 31B · 1443.4 · $0.205/M · a better, cheaper option exists Claude Sonnet 5 · 1442.9 · $4.00/M · a better, cheaper option exists GPT-6 Astra · 1442.3 · $20.00/M · a better, cheaper option exists Inkling · 1441.8 · $1.73/M · a better, cheaper option exists Hy3 · 1440.7 · $0.231/M · a better, cheaper option exists Qwen3.8 27B · 1440.7 · $0.562/M · a better, cheaper option exists GLM 4.6 · 1439.9 · $0.760/M · a better, cheaper option exists Claude Sonnet 4.5 · 1438.6 · $6.00/M · a better, cheaper option exists Qwen3.5 397B A17B · 1438.0 · $0.878/M · a better, cheaper option exists GLM 5V Turbo · 1437.2 · $1.90/M · a better, cheaper option exists Qwen3.6 Plus · 1436.7 · $0.731/M · a better, cheaper option exists GLM 4.7 · 1435.5 · $0.738/M · a better, cheaper option exists Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite · 1434.7 · $0.850/M · a better, cheaper option exists Gemma 4 26B A4B · 1433.9 · $0.127/M · on the frontier DeepSeek V4 Flash 0423 · 1432.1 · $0.113/M · on the frontier MiniMax M3 · 1432.1 · $0.485/M · a better, cheaper option exists GPT-5.6 Luna · 1431.0 · $0.450/M · a better, cheaper option exists GLM 4.5 · 1430.3 · $1.00/M · a better, cheaper option exists R1 0528 · 1427.9 · $0.920/M · a better, cheaper option exists MiMo-V2.5 · 1427.5 · $0.175/M · a better, cheaper option exists Grok 4.6 · 1427.4 · $3.00/M · a better, cheaper option exists DeepSeek V3.2 · 1424.5 · $0.290/M · a better, cheaper option exists DeepSeek V3.2 Exp · 1422.4 · $0.305/M · a better, cheaper option exists GPT-5.1 · 1422.2 · $3.44/M · a better, cheaper option exists Mistral Medium 3.5 · 1421.2 · $3.00/M · a better, cheaper option exists Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct · 1420.1 · $0.370/M · a better, cheaper option exists DeepSeek V3.1 · 1419.7 · $0.453/M · a better, cheaper option exists Qwen3 235B A22B Instruct 2507 · 1419.3 · $0.205/M · a better, cheaper option exists Claude Opus 4.1 · 1418.6 · $30.00/M · a better, cheaper option exists Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct · 1417.3 · $0.268/M · a better, cheaper option exists DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus · 1417.1 · $0.453/M · a better, cheaper option exists Qwen3.5-122B-A10B · 1417.1 · $0.715/M · a better, cheaper option exists Gemini 2.5 Flash · 1417.0 · $0.850/M · a better, cheaper option exists Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview · 1415.7 · $0.563/M · a better, cheaper option exists Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507 · 1415.2 · $0.748/M · a better, cheaper option exists Inkling Small · 1413.7 · $0.638/M · a better, cheaper option exists Qwen3 Max · 1412.4 · $1.56/M · a better, cheaper option exists GPT-5.2 · 1412.3 · $4.81/M · a better, cheaper option exists GPT-5.4 Mini · 1411.4 · $1.69/M · a better, cheaper option exists o3 · 1409.9 · $3.50/M · a better, cheaper option exists Qwen3.5-27B · 1408.9 · $0.536/M · a better, cheaper option exists GPT-5 · 1406.1 · $3.44/M · a better, cheaper option exists MiniMax M2.7 · 1404.6 · $0.525/M · a better, cheaper option exists Step 3.5 Flash · 1403.0 · $0.150/M · a better, cheaper option exists Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking · 1400.7 · $1.30/M · a better, cheaper option exists Grok 4.7 · 1399.9 · $3.00/M · a better, cheaper option exists Qwen3.5-Flash · 1397.0 · $0.114/M · a better, cheaper option exists Grok 4.3 · 1396.7 · $1.56/M · a better, cheaper option exists Claude Haiku 4.5 · 1396.1 · $2.00/M · a better, cheaper option exists GPT-6 Sol · 1395.4 · $4.00/M · a better, cheaper option exists Qwen3.5-35B-A3B · 1394.4 · $0.355/M · a better, cheaper option exists GPT-6 Luna · 1391.5 · $0.200/M · a better, cheaper option exists Solar Pro 4 · 1386.2 · $0.525/M · a better, cheaper option exists Qwen3 30B A3B Instruct 2507 · 1384.1 · $0.143/M · a better, cheaper option exists GLM 4.5 Air · 1383.9 · $0.310/M · a better, cheaper option exists GPT-4.1 · 1383.0 · $3.50/M · a better, cheaper option exists GLM 4.6V · 1376.8 · $0.450/M · a better, cheaper option exists DeepSeek V3 0324 · 1375.0 · $0.438/M · a better, cheaper option exists GPT-5 Mini · 1373.2 · $0.688/M · a better, cheaper option exists R1 · 1372.7 · $1.15/M · a better, cheaper option exists GPT-5.4 Nano · 1372.1 · $0.463/M · a better, cheaper option exists Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking · 1368.3 · $0.413/M · a better, cheaper option exists Qwen3 235B A22B · 1366.6 · $0.796/M · a better, cheaper option exists o1 · 1365.8 · $26.25/M · a better, cheaper option exists gpt-oss-120b · 1365.4 · $0.065/M · on the frontier Nova 2 Lite · 1361.8 · $0.850/M · a better, cheaper option exists MiniMax M2.5 · 1359.3 · $0.521/M · a better, cheaper option exists Gemma 3 27B · 1357.8 · $0.100/M · a better, cheaper option exists Mercury 2 · 1355.2 · $0.375/M · a better, cheaper option exists o4 Mini · 1353.2 · $1.93/M · a better, cheaper option exists GLM 4.7 Flash · 1350.9 · $0.145/M · a better, cheaper option exists MiniMax M1 · 1342.8 · $0.850/M · a better, cheaper option exists GPT-4.1 Mini · 1340.4 · $0.700/M · a better, cheaper option exists Qwen3 32B · 1340.1 · $0.130/M · a better, cheaper option exists Trinity Large Thinking · 1340.0 · $0.388/M · a better, cheaper option exists MiniMax M2 · 1339.9 · $0.525/M · a better, cheaper option exists Claude Sonnet 4 · 1339.1 · $6.00/M · a better, cheaper option exists o3 Mini High · 1336.6 · $1.93/M · a better, cheaper option exists Gemma 3 12B · 1334.2 · $0.075/M · a better, cheaper option exists GLM 4.5V · 1332.8 · $0.900/M · a better, cheaper option exists DeepSeek V3 · 1332.5 · $0.500/M · a better, cheaper option exists GPT-5 Nano · 1320.0 · $0.138/M · a better, cheaper option exists o3 Mini · 1319.4 · $1.93/M · a better, cheaper option exists Granite 4.2 8B · 1317.8 · $0.108/M · a better, cheaper option exists Qwen3 30B A3B · 1316.6 · $0.215/M · a better, cheaper option exists GPT-4o (2024-05-13) · 1300.4 · $7.50/M · a better, cheaper option exists Gemma 3 4B · 1290.8 · $0.063/M · on the frontier gpt-oss-20b · 1287.7 · $0.036/M · on the frontier GPT-4o-mini (2024-07-18) · 1286.4 · $0.263/M · a better, cheaper option exists GPT-4.1 Nano · 1284.8 · $0.175/M · a better, cheaper option exists GPT-4o (2024-08-06) · 1282.5 · $4.38/M · a better, cheaper option exists Llama 3.3 70B Instruct · 1274.1 · $0.201/M · a better, cheaper option exists GPT-4 Turbo · 1271.7 · $15.00/M · a better, cheaper option exists Qwen2.5 72B Instruct · 1269.0 · $0.370/M · a better, cheaper option exists Mistral Large 2407 · 1266.1 · $3.00/M · a better, cheaper option exists Llama 3.1 70B Instruct · 1260.9 · $0.720/M · a better, cheaper option exists Mistral Small 3 · 1233.6 · $0.058/M · a better, cheaper option exists Gemma 2 27B · 1231.3 · $0.650/M · a better, cheaper option exists Qwen2.5 Coder 32B Instruct · 1230.0 · $0.745/M · a better, cheaper option exists Command R+ (08-2024) · 1228.9 · $4.38/M · a better, cheaper option exists Phi 4 · 1216.7 · $0.088/M · a better, cheaper option exists Command R (08-2024) · 1187.3 · $0.263/M · a better, cheaper option exists Llama 3.1 8B Instruct · 1186.5 · $0.025/M · on the frontier Llama 3.2 3B Instruct · 1109.5 · $0.120/M · a better, cheaper option exists Llama 3.2 1B Instruct · 1054.6 · $0.071/M · a better, cheaper option exists
General capability 1511.7
Effective $/M $8.00/M Compared with the previous price rung, Gemini 3.8 Flash: +14.7 Elo · +$5.00/M for Balanced. Score differences are not task-success or capability guarantees.
Compare General scores and capabilities effective $ per million tokens — log scale · General capability Cite this claim Plain text and BibTeX Plain Copy
133 of 145 rated, priced models have an alternative with an equal-or-higher measured score and an equal-or-lower price, with a strict advantage on at least one axis. 12 are not dominated on these two axes. As of 2026-10-06. Lens: LMArena Elo (CC BY 4.0). Ranking source digest: 06cd12db54e2968c. https://undominated.ai/frontier/
Publication: sha256:ecef83f767cd4d2c21766f6a5b4dffa36c06351f23657542d473bc1a030c0932; calculation SHA-256: 5ae4d0bee9b70298dd437b05df87c32acb407040b50bf88240677f295f25955d; permitted inputs: https://undominated.ai/data/publications/manifests/ecef83f767cd4d2c21766f6a5b4dffa36c06351f23657542d473bc1a030c0932.jsonBibTeX Copy
@misc{undominated-dominated-census-2026-10-06,
author = {{Undominated.ai}},
title = {Dominated census — Undominated.ai},
year = {2026},
url = {https://undominated.ai/frontier/},
note = {as of 2026-10-06; LMArena Elo (CC BY 4.0); ranking source 06cd12db54e2968c},
annote = {Publication: sha256:ecef83f767cd4d2c21766f6a5b4dffa36c06351f23657542d473bc1a030c0932; calculation SHA-256: 5ae4d0bee9b70298dd437b05df87c32acb407040b50bf88240677f295f25955d; permitted inputs: https://undominated.ai/data/publications/manifests/ecef83f767cd4d2c21766f6a5b4dffa36c06351f23657542d473bc1a030c0932.json}
}Download BibTeX LMArena scores used under CC BY 4.0 · numbers recomputed from the catalogue on this page. Input identity & calculation SHA .
