Best AI Models for Cline
Cline is an autonomous AI coding agent that runs in VS Code. It can create files, run commands, and browse the web. Models need strong function calling and reasoning.
What Matters for Cline
Best Models for Cline
Top 15 by tool-optimized score
All Models Ranked for Cline (378 models)
Scored by: benchmark performance (90%) from MMLU, GPQA, HumanEval, SWE-bench, and 15+ standardized evaluations, with capabilities and context as tiebreakers (10%).
| # | Model | Score | Output $/M |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Qwen3.8 Max Arena Elo: 1497 | 87 | $6.00 |
| 2 | Gemini 3.6 Flash Arena Elo: 1485 | 86 | $7.50 |
| 3 | Muse Spark 1.1 Arena Elo: 1487 | 86 | $4.25 |
| 4 | Claude Fable 5 (batch) | 86 | $25.00 |
| 5 | Gemini 3.5 Flash Arena Elo: 1477 | 86 | $9.00 |
| 6 | Claude Opus 5 (Fast) | 85 | $50.00 |
| 7 | Claude Opus 5 | 85 | $25.00 |
| 8 | Grok 4.5 Arena Elo: 1468 | 85 | $6.00 |
| 9 | Claude Fable 5 SWE-bench: 95% | 85 | $50.00 |
| 10 | Claude Opus 4.8 (Fast) | 85 | $50.00 |
| 11 | Claude Opus 4.8 (batch) | 85 | $12.50 |
| 12 | Claude Opus 4.7 (Fast) | 85 | $150.00 |
| 13 | MiMo-V2.5-Pro Arena Elo: 1467 | 85 | $0.870 |
| 14 | Claude Opus 4.7 (batch) | 85 | $12.50 |
| 15 | GLM 5.1 Arena Elo: 1468 | 85 | $2.99 |
| 16 | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite Arena Elo: 1459 | 84 | $2.50 |
| 17 | Hy3 Arena Elo: 1453 | 84 | $0.528 |
| 18 | Qwen3.7 Plus Arena Elo: 1458 | 84 | $1.28 |
| 19 | Qwen3.6 Max Preview Arena Elo: 1460 | 84 | $6.16 |
| 20 | GPT-5.5 Pro (batch) | 84 | $90.00 |
| 21 | GPT-5.5 (batch) | 84 | $15.00 |
| 22 | Kimi K2.6 Arena Elo: 1461 | 84 | $2.44 |
| 23 | Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview Custom Tools | 84 | $12.00 |
| 24 | Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview (batch) | 84 | $6.00 |
| 25 | GLM 5 Arena Elo: 1457 | 84 | $2.55 |
| 26 | Inkling Arena Elo: 1442 | 83 | $4.05 |
| 27 | MiniMax M3 Arena Elo: 1445 | 83 | $1.20 |
| 28 | Gemma 4 31B Arena Elo: 1451 | 83 | $0.340 |
| 29 | Qwen3.6 Plus Arena Elo: 1443 | 83 | $1.95 |
| 30 | GPT-5.4 Pro | 83 | $180.00 |
| 31 | GPT-5.4 Pro (batch) | 83 | $90.00 |
| 32 | GPT-5.4 (batch) | 83 | $7.50 |
| 33 | GPT-5.3-Codex | 83 | $14.00 |
| 34 | Qwen3.5 397B A17B Arena Elo: 1442 | 83 | $2.34 |
| 35 | Claude Opus 4.6 (batch) | 83 | $12.50 |
| 36 | GPT-5.2-Codex | 83 | $14.00 |
| 37 | GLM 4.7 Arena Elo: 1442 | 83 | $1.75 |
| 38 | GPT-5.2 Pro | 83 | $168.00 |
| 39 | GPT-5.2 Pro (batch) | 83 | $84.00 |
| 40 | GPT-5.2 (batch) | 83 | $7.00 |
| 41 | Claude Opus 4.1 Arena Elo: 1449 | 83 | $75.00 |
| 42 | Inkling Small Arena Elo: 1431 | 82 | $1.20 |
| 43 | GPT-5.6 Luna Pro | 82 | $0.600 |
| 44 | GPT-5.6 Luna Pro (batch) | 82 | $0.600 |
| 45 | GPT-5.6 Luna | 82 | $0.600 |
| 46 | GPT-5.6 Luna (batch) | 82 | $0.600 |
| 47 | GPT-5.6 Terra Pro | 82 | $6.00 |
| 48 | GPT-5.6 Terra Pro (batch) | 82 | $6.00 |
| 49 | GPT-5.6 Terra | 82 | $6.00 |
| 50 | GPT-5.6 Terra (batch) | 82 | $6.00 |
More Tool Rankings
Based on our analysis of coding benchmarks, capability matching, and pricing, Qwen3.8 Max currently ranks #1 for Cline. Rankings are rebuilt as benchmark, pricing, and provider data refresh.
We score models using benchmark performance (90%) from LMArena, HumanEval, SWE-bench, MMLU, and 15+ standardized evaluations. Capabilities and context serve as tiebreakers (10%). Only models with the capabilities Cline needs are included in the tool-specific rankings.
We currently track 378 AI models compatible with Cline. This includes models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, DeepSeek, and other providers accessible via API.
Many open-source models are compatible with Cline through API providers like OpenRouter, Together AI, and Groq. Check our rankings to see which open-source models perform best.
Rankings refresh whenever the underlying benchmark, pricing, and catalog sources refresh. That means some signals update faster than others, and the page reflects the latest verified source data available.