--- title: "The value frontier on 2026-09-30 · Undominated.ai" canonical: https://undominated.ai/now/2026-09-30/ description: "Immutable snapshot of the value frontier on 2026-09-30. Living page: /now/. No backfill." --- # The value frontier on 2026-09-30 · Undominated.ai > Immutable snapshot of the value frontier on 2026-09-30. Living page: /now/. No backfill. Immutable stamp # The value frontier on 2026-09-30 This URL does not move. The living stamp is /now/. Absence in a later snapshot is not rewritten here. Priced for the balanced mix: three parts input to one part output, no cache assumed. Changing the mix is a different question; this page is a stamp, not a slider. This stamp is kept as published. The board has changed since: correction §83 and correction §96, and the data refresh of 2026-10-06 18:04 UTC. The living stamp at /now/ carries the changes. [Read correction §83](/corrections/#correction-2026-09-30-83-hy3-and-deepseek-v4-pro-0813-were-priced-at-their-discount-windows)[Read correction §96](/corrections/#correction-2026-10-05-96-a-model-s-price-was-whichever-row-set-openrouter-s-model-level-price-promotions-and-4-bit-copies-included) As of 2026-09-30 2026-09-30 12 12 undominated Share models 358 providers 6 rated, priced 135 undominated 12 strictly beaten 91% ** 123 of 135 rated, priced models have another that scores at least as high, costs no more, and wins on one of the two. The short chartreuse length is the undominated set. A staircase, not a curve. Between two rungs there is no model, so a smooth line would invent options that do not exist. Chartreuse marks the undominated set. Each graphite dot has a model that scores at least as high, costs no more, and wins on one of the two. Logos name the vendor; they are not a ranking colour. ## The rungs, best first - 1 [Claude Fable 5.1 Anthropic](/models/anthropic__claude-fable-5.1/) LMArena 1507.6 ** $/M $20.00/M ** [Check](/check/anthropic__claude-fable-5.1/) - 2 [Claude Opus 5 Anthropic](/models/anthropic__claude-opus-5/) LMArena 1504.9 ** $/M $10.00/M ** [Check](/check/anthropic__claude-opus-5/) - 3 [Gemini 3.8 Flash Google](/models/google__gemini-3.8-flash/) LMArena 1494.7 ** $/M $1.50/M ** [Check](/check/google__gemini-3.8-flash/) - 4 [GLM 5.3 Flash Z.ai](/models/z-ai__glm-5.3-flash/) LMArena 1471.9 ** $/M $0.238/M ** [Check](/check/z-ai__glm-5.3-flash/) - 5 [Gemma 4 31B Google](/models/google__gemma-4-31b-it/) LMArena 1441.7 ** $/M $0.153/M ** [Check](/check/google__gemma-4-31b-it/) - 6 [Hy3 Tencent](/models/tencent__hy3/) LMArena 1440.6 ** $/M $0.144/M ** [Check](/check/tencent__hy3/) - 7 [Gemma 4 26B A4B Google](/models/google__gemma-4-26b-a4b-it/) LMArena 1434.5 ** $/M $0.121/M ** [Check](/check/google__gemma-4-26b-a4b-it/) - 8 [Qwen3.5-Flash Qwen](/models/qwen__qwen3.5-flash-02-23/) LMArena 1397.7 ** $/M $0.114/M ** [Check](/check/qwen__qwen3.5-flash-02-23/) - 9 [Qwen3 30B A3B Instruct 2507 Qwen](/models/qwen__qwen3-30b-a3b-instruct-2507/) LMArena 1383.6 ** $/M $0.084/M ** [Check](/check/qwen__qwen3-30b-a3b-instruct-2507/) - 10 [gpt-oss-120b OpenAI](/models/openai__gpt-oss-120b/) LMArena 1365.9 ** $/M $0.070/M ** [Check](/check/openai__gpt-oss-120b/) - 11 [Gemma 3 4B Google](/models/google__gemma-3-4b-it/) LMArena 1290.7 ** $/M $0.063/M ** [Check](/check/google__gemma-3-4b-it/) - 12 [gpt-oss-20b OpenAI](/models/openai__gpt-oss-20b/) LMArena 1287.3 ** $/M $0.036/M ** [Check](/check/openai__gpt-oss-20b/) ## Quality span 1287.3 – 1507.6 1287.3 to 1507.6 Elo among undominated rungs on this stamp. **** **** ** ## Price span $0.036 – $20.00 $0.036/M to $20.00/M per million tokens, balanced mix. - [gpt-oss-20b](/models/openai__gpt-oss-20b/) - [Claude Fable 5.1](/models/anthropic__claude-fable-5.1/) ## Largest adjacent step gpt-oss-120b is 75.2 Elo above Gemma 3 4B, at 1.12× the price. Adjacent on this stair, not a catalogue knee. [gpt-oss-120b](/models/openai__gpt-oss-120b/) ↓ [Gemma 3 4B](/models/google__gemma-3-4b-it/) ## Who is on it - Google 4 of 12 ** - Anthropic 2 of 12 ** - OpenAI 2 of 12 ** - Qwen 2 of 12 ** - Tencent 1 of 12 ** - Z.ai 1 of 12 ** ## Stamps we have The dated archive starts with the first snapshot. There is no invented history. - [2026-08-24 10 undominated](/now/2026-08-24/) - [2026-08-25 10 undominated](/now/2026-08-25/) - [2026-08-26 9 undominated](/now/2026-08-26/) - [2026-08-28 9 undominated](/now/2026-08-28/) - [2026-08-29 9 undominated](/now/2026-08-29/) - [2026-08-30 9 undominated](/now/2026-08-30/) - [2026-09-02 9 undominated](/now/2026-09-02/) - [2026-09-03 10 undominated](/now/2026-09-03/) - [2026-09-04 10 undominated](/now/2026-09-04/) - [2026-09-08 10 undominated](/now/2026-09-08/) - [2026-09-11 10 undominated](/now/2026-09-11/) - [2026-09-15 11 undominated](/now/2026-09-15/) - [2026-09-22 12 undominated](/now/2026-09-22/) - [2026-09-23 13 undominated](/now/2026-09-23/) - [2026-09-29 12 undominated](/now/2026-09-29/) - [2026-09-30 12 undominated](/now/2026-09-30/) - [2026-10-06 12 undominated](/now/2026-10-06/) ## Cite APA Copy Undominated.ai. (2026-09-30). The value frontier. https://undominated.ai/now/2026-09-30/ BibTeX Copy @misc{undominated-now-2026-09-30, author = {{Undominated.ai}}, title = {The value frontier}, year = {2026}, url = {https://undominated.ai/now/2026-09-30/}, note = {2026-09-30} } [LMArena scores used under CC BY 4.0](/methodology/) [Open the living /now/ stamp](/now/) ## Continue your investigation - [Inspect changes](/wire/) - [See today’s frontier](/frontier/) - [Check lifecycle notices](/deprecations/) - [Use snapshots](/api/)