AI Reasoning Benchmark

How do reasoning models stack up against standard LLMs? This benchmark compares 270 reasoning models against 116 standard models on composite score, pricing, and capabilities - helping you decide when chain-of-thought thinking is worth the trade-off.

Reasoning vs Standard - Head-to-Head

Reasoning Models

270

Models

Top Score

Avg Score

$14.12

Avg $/1M Out

Standard Models

116

Models

Top Score

Avg Score

$3.61

Avg $/1M Out

Reasoning models from 42 providers. Score difference: +11 points average for reasoning models.

Reasoning Models - Ranked by Score

#	Model	Provider	Score	Context	$/1M Out
1	Claude Fable 5Anthropic	Anthropic	97	1M	$50.00
2	Claude Fable 5 (batch)Anthropic	Anthropic	97	1M	$25.00
3	Claude Opus 5 (Fast)Anthropic	Anthropic	95	1M	$50.00
4	Claude Opus 5Anthropic	Anthropic	95	1M	$25.00
5	Claude Opus 4.8 (Fast)Anthropic	Anthropic	95	1M	$50.00
6	Claude Opus 4.8Anthropic	Anthropic	95	1M	$25.00
7	Claude Opus 4.7 (Fast)Anthropic	Anthropic	95	1M	$150.00
8	Claude Opus 4.7Anthropic	Anthropic	95	1M	$25.00
9	Claude Opus 4.7 (batch)Anthropic	Anthropic	95	1M	$12.50
10	Claude Opus 4.8 (batch)Anthropic	Anthropic	95	1M	$12.50
11	GPT-5.5 ProOpenAI	OpenAI	93	1.1M	$180.00
12	GPT-5.5 Pro (batch)OpenAI	OpenAI	93	1.1M	$90.00
13	GPT-5.5OpenAI	OpenAI	93	1.1M	$30.00
14	GPT-5.5 (batch)OpenAI	OpenAI	93	1.1M	$15.00
15	Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview Custom ToolsGoogle	Google	92	1.0M	$12.00
16	Gemini 3.1 Pro PreviewGoogle	Google	92	1.0M	$12.00
17	Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview (batch)Google	Google	92	1.0M	$6.00
18	GPT-5.4 ProOpenAI	OpenAI	92	1.1M	$180.00
19	GPT-5.4 Pro (batch)OpenAI	OpenAI	92	1.1M	$90.00
20	GPT-5.4OpenAI	OpenAI	92	1.1M	$15.00
21	GPT-5.4 (batch)OpenAI	OpenAI	92	1.1M	$7.50
22	GPT-5.3-CodexOpenAI	OpenAI	91	400K	$14.00
23	GPT-5.2-CodexOpenAI	OpenAI	91	400K	$14.00
24	GPT-5.2 ProOpenAI	OpenAI	91	400K	$168.00
25	GPT-5.2 Pro (batch)OpenAI	OpenAI	91	400K	$84.00
26	GPT-5.2OpenAI	OpenAI	91	400K	$14.00
27	GPT-5.2 (batch)OpenAI	OpenAI	91	400K	$7.00
28	Claude Opus 4.6Anthropic	Anthropic	90	1M	$25.00
29	Claude Opus 4.6 (batch)Anthropic	Anthropic	90	1M	$12.50
30	GPT-5.6 Luna ProOpenAI	OpenAI	89	1.1M	$0.60
31	GPT-5.6 Luna Pro (batch)OpenAI	OpenAI	89	1.1M	$0.60
32	GPT-5.6 LunaOpenAI	OpenAI	89	1.1M	$0.60
33	GPT-5.6 Luna (batch)OpenAI	OpenAI	89	1.1M	$0.60
34	GPT-5.6 Terra ProOpenAI	OpenAI	89	1.1M	$6.00
35	GPT-5.6 Terra Pro (batch)OpenAI	OpenAI	89	1.1M	$6.00
36	GPT-5.6 TerraOpenAI	OpenAI	89	1.1M	$6.00
37	GPT-5.6 Terra (batch)OpenAI	OpenAI	89	1.1M	$6.00
38	GPT-5.6 Sol ProOpenAI	OpenAI	89	1.1M	$30.00
39	GPT-5.6 Sol Pro (batch)OpenAI	OpenAI	89	1.1M	$15.00
40	GPT-5.6 SolOpenAI	OpenAI	89	1.1M	$30.00
41	GPT-5.6 Sol (batch)OpenAI	OpenAI	89	1.1M	$15.00
42	Grok 4.5xAI	xAI	89	500K	$6.00
43	Grok 4.3xAI	xAI	89	1M	$2.50
44	Grok 4.20xAI	xAI	89	2M	$2.50
45	GPT-5.1-Codex-MaxOpenAI	OpenAI	89	400K	$10.00
46	GPT-5.1OpenAI	OpenAI	89	400K	$10.00
47	GPT-5.1-CodexOpenAI	OpenAI	89	400K	$10.00
48	GPT-5 ProOpenAI	OpenAI	89	400K	$120.00
49	GPT-5 Pro (batch)OpenAI	OpenAI	89	400K	$60.00
50	GPT-5 Codex (batch)OpenAI	OpenAI	89	400K	$5.00
51	GPT-5OpenAI	OpenAI	89	400K	$10.00
52	GPT-5 (batch)OpenAI	OpenAI	89	400K	$5.00
53	Gemini 3 Flash PreviewGoogle	Google	88	1.0M	$3.00
54	Gemini 3 Flash Preview (batch)Google	Google	88	1.0M	$1.50
55	Grok 4.20 Multi-AgentxAI	xAI	88	2M	$2.50
56	GPT-5.1 (batch)OpenAI	OpenAI	88	400K	$5.00
57	GPT-5.1-Codex-MiniOpenAI	OpenAI	88	400K	$2.00
58	DeepSeek V4 ProDeepSeek	DeepSeek	87	1.0M	$0.87
59	o3 ProOpenAI	OpenAI	87	200K	$80.00
60	o3 Pro (batch)OpenAI	OpenAI	87	200K	$40.00
61	o3OpenAI	OpenAI	87	200K	$8.00
62	o3 (batch)OpenAI	OpenAI	87	200K	$4.00
63	Claude Sonnet 5Anthropic	Anthropic	85	1M	$10.00
64	Claude Sonnet 4.6Anthropic	Anthropic	85	1M	$15.00
65	Claude Sonnet 4.6 (batch)Anthropic	Anthropic	85	1M	$7.50
66	Claude Opus 4.5Anthropic	Anthropic	85	200K	$25.00
67	Claude Opus 4.5 (batch)Anthropic	Anthropic	85	200K	$12.50
68	Gemini 2.5 ProGoogle	Google	84	1.0M	$10.00
69	Gemini 2.5 Pro (batch)Google	Google	84	1.0M	$5.00
70	Gemini 2.5 Pro Preview 06-05Google	Google	84	1.0M	$10.00
71	Gemini 2.5 Pro Preview 05-06Google	Google	84	1.0M	$10.00
72	Claude Sonnet 4.5Anthropic	Anthropic	82	1M	$15.00
73	Claude Sonnet 4.5 (batch)Anthropic	Anthropic	82	1M	$7.50
74	Claude Opus 4.1Anthropic	Anthropic	82	200K	$75.00
75	Claude Opus 4Anthropic	Anthropic	82	200K	$75.00
76	o4 Mini High (batch)OpenAI	OpenAI	81	200K	$2.20
77	o4 MiniOpenAI	OpenAI	81	200K	$4.40
78	o4 Mini (batch)OpenAI	OpenAI	81	200K	$2.20
79	DeepSeek V3.2DeepSeek	DeepSeek	81	164K	$0.38
80	Qwen3.8 MaxAlibaba	Alibaba	81	1M	$6.00
81	Gemma 4 31BGoogle	Google	81	262K	$0.34
82	Gemma 4 31B (free)Google	Google	81	262K	Free
83	Muse Spark 1.2meta	meta	80	1.0M	$4.25
84	Muse Spark 1.1meta	meta	80	1.0M	$4.25
85	Gemini 3.6 FlashGoogle	Google	80	1.0M	$7.50
86	Gemini 3.6 Flash (batch)Google	Google	80	1.0M	$3.75
87	Qwen3.5 397B A17BAlibaba	Alibaba	79	262K	$2.34
88	R1 0528DeepSeek	DeepSeek	79	164K	$2.15
89	GPT-5.4 NanoOpenAI	OpenAI	79	400K	$1.25
90	GPT-5.4 Nano (batch)OpenAI	OpenAI	79	400K	$0.63
91	GPT-5.4 MiniOpenAI	OpenAI	79	400K	$4.50
92	GPT-5.4 Mini (batch)OpenAI	OpenAI	79	400K	$2.25
93	Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite PreviewGoogle	Google	79	1.0M	$1.50
94	Gemini 2.5 Flash LiteGoogle	Google	79	1.0M	$0.40
95	Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite (batch)Google	Google	79	1.0M	$0.20
96	Gemini 2.5 FlashGoogle	Google	79	1.0M	$2.50
97	Gemini 2.5 Flash (batch)Google	Google	79	1.0M	$1.25
98	Gemini 3.5 FlashGoogle	Google	79	1.0M	$9.00
99	Gemini 3.5 Flash (batch)Google	Google	79	1.0M	$4.50
100	GLM 5.2Zhipu AI	Zhipu AI	79	1.0M	$0.74
101	GLM 5.2 (batch)Zhipu AI	Zhipu AI	78	512K	$2.20
102	GLM 5.1Zhipu AI	Zhipu AI	78	205K	$2.99
103	MiniMax M2.7MiniMax	MiniMax	78	205K	$1.08
104	GLM 5 TurboZhipu AI	Zhipu AI	78	203K	$4.00
105	MiniMax M2.5MiniMax	MiniMax	78	205K	$0.90
106	GLM 5Zhipu AI	Zhipu AI	78	205K	$2.55
107	Qwen3.5-122B-A10BAlibaba	Alibaba	78	262K	$2.40
108	Qwen3.5-27BAlibaba	Alibaba	77	262K	$1.56
109	Gemini 3.5 Flash LiteGoogle	Google	77	1.0M	$2.50
110	Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite (batch)Google	Google	77	1.0M	$1.25
111	GPT-5 Mini (batch)OpenAI	OpenAI	77	400K	$1.00
112	GPT-5 Nano (batch)OpenAI	OpenAI	77	400K	$0.20
113	MiMo-V2.5-ProXiaomi	Xiaomi	76	1.1M	$0.87
114	Qwen3.5-35B-A3BAlibaba	Alibaba	76	262K	$1.00
115	Qwen3.7 PlusAlibaba	Alibaba	76	1M	$1.28
116	Kimi K2.6Moonshot AI	Moonshot AI	76	262K	$2.44
117	o3 MiniOpenAI	OpenAI	75	200K	$4.40
118	GLM 4.7Zhipu AI	Zhipu AI	75	205K	$1.75
119	GLM 4.6Zhipu AI	Zhipu AI	75	205K	$2.00
120	Claude Opus 4.1 (batch)Anthropic	Anthropic	75	200K	$37.50
121	GLM 4.5Zhipu AI	Zhipu AI	75	131K	$2.20
122	Qwen3.7 MaxAlibaba	Alibaba	75	1M	$4.42
123	Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20Alibaba	Alibaba	75	1M	$1.80
124	Qwen3.6 Max PreviewAlibaba	Alibaba	75	262K	$6.16
125	Claude Sonnet 4Anthropic	Anthropic	74	1M	$15.00
126	o1OpenAI	OpenAI	74	200K	$60.00
127	o1 (batch)OpenAI	OpenAI	74	200K	$30.00
128	MiniMax M3MiniMax	MiniMax	74	1.0M	$1.20
129	o3 Mini High (batch)OpenAI	OpenAI	74	200K	$2.20
130	o3 Mini (batch)OpenAI	OpenAI	74	200K	$2.20
131	R1DeepSeek	DeepSeek	74	164K	$2.50
132	MiniMax M3 (batch)MiniMax	MiniMax	74	524K	$0.60
133	Qwen3.6 PlusAlibaba	Alibaba	74	1M	$1.95
134	Inklingthinkingmachines	thinkingmachines	74	1.0M	$4.05
135	Hy3Tencent	Tencent	74	262K	$0.53
136	o1-proOpenAI	OpenAI	74	200K	$600.00
137	o1-pro (batch)OpenAI	OpenAI	74	200K	$300.00
138	MiMo-V2.5Xiaomi	Xiaomi	73	1.1M	$0.28
139	Gemma 4 26B A4B Google	Google	73	262K	$0.34
140	Gemma 4 26B A4B (free)Google	Google	73	262K	Free
141	Inkling (batch)thinkingmachines	thinkingmachines	73	524K	$2.02
142	GLM 5V TurboZhipu AI	Zhipu AI	72	203K	$4.00
143	o4 Mini HighOpenAI	OpenAI	72	200K	$4.40
144	MiniMax M2.1MiniMax	MiniMax	72	205K	$1.20
145	MiniMax M2MiniMax	MiniMax	72	205K	$1.02
146	DeepSeek V3.2 ExpDeepSeek	DeepSeek	72	164K	$0.41
147	DeepSeek V3.1DeepSeek	DeepSeek	72	164K	$0.95
148	Mistral Medium 3.5Mistral AI	Mistral AI	72	262K	$7.50
149	Inkling Smallthinkingmachines	thinkingmachines	72	524K	$1.20
150	MiniMax M1MiniMax	MiniMax	71	1M	$2.20
151	GLM 4.5 AirZhipu AI	Zhipu AI	71	131K	$0.85
152	Claude Haiku 4.5Anthropic	Anthropic	70	200K	$5.00
153	Claude Haiku 4.5 (batch)Anthropic	Anthropic	70	200K	$2.50
154	Qwen3 VL 235B A22B ThinkingAlibaba	Alibaba	69	131K	$4.00
155	DeepSeek V3.1 TerminusDeepSeek	DeepSeek	69	164K	$1.00
156	Qwen3.5-FlashAlibaba	Alibaba	69	1M	$0.26
157	Hy3 previewTencent	Tencent	68	262K	$0.21
158	Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-02-15Alibaba	Alibaba	68	1M	$1.56
159	Qwen3 Max ThinkingAlibaba	Alibaba	68	262K	$3.90
160	Qwen3 Next 80B A3B ThinkingAlibaba	Alibaba	67	262K	$1.20
161	Qwen3.5-9BAlibaba	Alibaba	67	262K	$0.15
162	Step 3.5 FlashStepFun	StepFun	66	262K	$0.30
163	Composer 2Cursor	Cursor	66	200K	$2.50
164	Composer 2 FastCursor	Cursor	66	200K	$7.50
165	GLM 4.6VZhipu AI	Zhipu AI	66	131K	$0.90
166	Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507Alibaba	Alibaba	66	262K	$2.30
167	Qwen3 30B A3B Thinking 2507Alibaba	Alibaba	64	82K	$2.40
168	Qwen3 30B A3BAlibaba	Alibaba	64	131K	$0.50
169	o3 Mini HighOpenAI	OpenAI	64	200K	$4.40
170	Trinity Large Thinkingarcee-ai	arcee-ai	64	262K	$0.85
171	GPT-5 MiniOpenAI	OpenAI	64	400K	$2.00
172	GLM 4.7 FlashZhipu AI	Zhipu AI	64	203K	$0.40
173	GLM 4.5VZhipu AI	Zhipu AI	63	66K	$1.80
174	Mercury 2Inception	Inception	61	128K	$0.75
175	Qwen3 8BAlibaba	Alibaba	61	131K	$0.45
176	Nova 2 LiteAmazon	Amazon	61	1M	$2.50
177	Kimi K2.5Moonshot AI	Moonshot AI	59	262K	$2.85
178	gpt-oss-20bOpenAI	OpenAI	57	131K	$0.13
179	gpt-oss-20b (free)OpenAI	OpenAI	57	131K	Free
180	Olmo 3 32B ThinkAllen AI	Allen AI	55	66K	$0.50
181	Kimi K2.7 CodeMoonshot AI	Moonshot AI	54	262K	$3.50
182	Kimi K2.7 Code (batch)Moonshot AI	Moonshot AI	54	262K	$2.00
183	Qwen3 235B A22BAlibaba	Alibaba	54	131K	$1.82
184	Kimi K2 ThinkingMoonshot AI	Moonshot AI	53	262K	$2.50
185	GPT-5 NanoOpenAI	OpenAI	47	400K	$0.40
186	R1 Distill Llama 70BDeepSeek	DeepSeek	41	8K	$0.80
187	gpt-oss-120bOpenAI	OpenAI	40	131K	$0.17
188	Ling 3.0 Tiny (free)inclusionai	inclusionai	40	262K	Free
189	DeepSeek V4 Flash Latest~deepseek	~deepseek	40	1.0M	$0.18
190	DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731DeepSeek	DeepSeek	40	1.0M	$0.18
191	Qwen3.7 FlashAlibaba	Alibaba	40	1M	$0.13
192	Claude Opus 5 (batch)Anthropic	Anthropic	40	1M	$12.50
193	Ling-3.0-flashinclusionai	inclusionai	40	262K	$0.06
194	Laguna S 2.1poolside	poolside	40	1.0M	$0.18
195	Laguna S 2.1 (free)poolside	poolside	40	262K	Free
196	LongCat 2.0Meituan	Meituan	40	1.0M	$1.20
197	Kimi K3Moonshot AI	Moonshot AI	40	1.0M	$15.00
198	Grok Latest~x-ai	~x-ai	40	500K	$6.00
199	Aion-3.0-Miniaion-labs	aion-labs	40	131K	$1.40
200	Aion-3.0aion-labs	aion-labs	40	131K	$6.00
201	Laguna XS 2.1poolside	poolside	40	262K	$0.12
202	Laguna XS 2.1 (free)poolside	poolside	40	262K	Free
203	Claude Sonnet 5 (batch)Anthropic	Anthropic	40	1M	$5.00
204	Fugu Ultrasakana	sakana	40	1M	$30.00
205	North Mini Code (free)Cohere	Cohere	40	256K	Free
206	Claude Fable Latest~anthropic	~anthropic	40	1M	$50.00
207	Nemotron 3.5 Content Safety (free)NVIDIA	NVIDIA	40	128K	Free
208	Nemotron 3 UltraNVIDIA	NVIDIA	40	512K	$3.60
209	Nemotron 3 Ultra (batch)NVIDIA	NVIDIA	40	512K	$1.80
210	Nemotron 3 Ultra (free)NVIDIA	NVIDIA	40	1M	Free
211	Step 3.7 FlashStepFun	StepFun	40	262K	$1.15
212	Grok Build 0.1xAI	xAI	40	256K	$2.00
213	Perceptron Mk1perceptron	perceptron	40	33K	$1.50
214	Ring-2.6-1Tinclusionai	inclusionai	40	262K	$0.63
215	Nemotron 3 Nano Omni (free)NVIDIA	NVIDIA	40	256K	Free
216	Anthropic Claude Haiku Latest~anthropic	~anthropic	40	200K	$5.00
217	OpenAI GPT Mini Latest~openai	~openai	40	400K	$4.50
218	Google Gemini Pro Latest~google	~google	40	1.0M	$12.00
219	MoonshotAI Kimi Latest~moonshotai	~moonshotai	40	1.0M	$14.00
220	Google Gemini Flash Latest~google	~google	40	1.0M	$7.50
221	Anthropic Claude Sonnet Latest~anthropic	~anthropic	40	1M	$10.00
222	OpenAI GPT Latest~openai	~openai	40	1.1M	$30.00
223	Qwen3.6 FlashAlibaba	Alibaba	40	1M	$1.13
224	Qwen3.6 35B A3BAlibaba	Alibaba	40	262K	$1.00
225	Qwen3.6 27BAlibaba	Alibaba	40	262K	$3.60
226	DeepSeek V4 Flash 0423DeepSeek	DeepSeek	40	1.0M	$0.28
227	Claude Opus Latest~anthropic	~anthropic	40	1M	$25.00
228	Mistral Small 4Mistral AI	Mistral AI	40	262K	$0.60
229	Nemotron 3 SuperNVIDIA	NVIDIA	40	1M	$0.40
230	Nemotron 3 Super (free)NVIDIA	NVIDIA	40	262K	Free
231	Seed-2.0-LiteByteDance	ByteDance	40	262K	$2.00
232	Seed-2.0-MiniByteDance	ByteDance	40	262K	$0.40
233	Aion-2.0aion-labs	aion-labs	40	131K	$1.60
234	Solar Pro 3Upstage	Upstage	40	131K	$0.60
235	Seed 1.6 FlashByteDance	ByteDance	40	262K	$0.30
236	Seed 1.6ByteDance	ByteDance	40	262K	$2.00
237	Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3BNVIDIA	NVIDIA	40	262K	$0.20
238	Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B (free)NVIDIA	NVIDIA	40	256K	Free
239	Falcon-H1-Arabic 34B InstructTII	TII	40	262K	Free
240	Falcon-H1-Arabic 7B InstructTII	TII	40	262K	Free
241	Falcon-H1-Arabic 3B InstructTII	TII	40	131K	Free
242	Nano Banana 2 Lite (Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Image)Google	Google	-	66K	$1.50
243	Nano Banana 2 (Gemini 3.1 Flash Image)Google	Google	-	131K	$3.00
244	Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image)Google	Google	-	131K	$12.00
245	Gemini 3.1 Flash LiteGoogle	Google	-	1.0M	$1.50
246	Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite (batch)Google	Google	-	1.0M	$0.75
247	GPT-5.4 Image 2OpenAI	OpenAI	-	272K	$15.00
248	Nano Banana 2 (Gemini 3.1 Flash Image Preview)Google	Google	-	66K	$3.00
249	Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image Preview)Google	Google	-	66K	$12.00
250	Cogito v2.1 671Bdeepcogito	deepcogito	-	128K	$1.25
251	Sonar Pro SearchPerplexity	Perplexity	-	200K	$15.00
252	gpt-oss-safeguard-20bOpenAI	OpenAI	-	131K	$0.30
253	Nemotron Nano 12B 2 VL (free)NVIDIA	NVIDIA	-	128K	Free
254	GPT-5 Image MiniOpenAI	OpenAI	-	400K	$2.00
255	Qwen3 VL 8B ThinkingAlibaba	Alibaba	-	131K	$2.10
256	GPT-5 ImageOpenAI	OpenAI	-	400K	$10.00
257	Qwen3 VL 30B A3B ThinkingAlibaba	Alibaba	-	262K	$2.40
258	Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking)Alibaba	Alibaba	-	1M	$1.20
259	Nemotron Nano 9B V2 (free)NVIDIA	NVIDIA	-	128K	Free
260	Hunyuan A13B InstructTencent	Tencent	-	131K	$0.57
261	ERNIE 4.5 VL 424B A47B Baidu	Baidu	-	123K	$1.25
262	Qwen3 14BAlibaba	Alibaba	-	131K	$0.91
263	Qwen3 32BAlibaba	Alibaba	-	131K	$0.28
264	Reka Flash 3rekaai	rekaai	-	66K	$0.20
265	Sonar Reasoning ProPerplexity	Perplexity	-	128K	$8.00
266	Sonar Deep ResearchPerplexity	Perplexity	-	128K	$8.00
267	SWE-1.5Windsurf	Windsurf	-	0	Free
268	Falcon Arabic 7B InstructTII	TII	-	33K	Free
269	Falcon3 10B InstructTII	TII	-	33K	Free
270	Falcon3 7B InstructTII	TII	-	33K	Free

Top Standard Models (Non-Reasoning) - For Comparison

#	Model	Provider	Score	Context	$/1M Out
1	GPT-5.3 ChatOpenAI	OpenAI	91	128K	$14.00
2	GPT-5.2 ChatOpenAI	OpenAI	91	128K	$14.00
3	Gemma 2 27BGoogle	Google	77	8K	$0.65
4	GPT-4o (batch)OpenAI	OpenAI	72	128K	$5.00
5	DeepSeek V3 0324DeepSeek	DeepSeek	72	164K	$1.12
6	GPT-4o (2024-11-20)OpenAI	OpenAI	71	128K	$10.00
7	GPT-4o (2024-08-06)OpenAI	OpenAI	71	128K	$10.00
8	GPT-4oOpenAI	OpenAI	71	128K	$10.00
9	GPT-4o (2024-05-13)OpenAI	OpenAI	71	128K	$15.00
10	DeepSeek V3DeepSeek	DeepSeek	70	164K	$1.03

Understanding AI Reasoning Benchmarks

What Is Chain-of-Thought?

Chain-of-thought (CoT) prompting enables AI models to break down complex problems into intermediate steps before producing a final answer. Models like OpenAI o1 and DeepSeek R1 internalize this process, generating hidden reasoning traces that dramatically improve accuracy on math, logic, and multi-step tasks compared to direct answering.

When Reasoning Helps

Reasoning models shine on tasks that require multiple logical steps: mathematical proofs, complex coding challenges, scientific analysis, strategic planning, and any problem where standard models tend to hallucinate or skip steps. For simple Q&A or creative writing, standard models are often faster and equally effective.

Speed vs Accuracy

Reasoning models consume more tokens and take longer to respond because they generate internal thinking traces. This trade-off is worthwhile when correctness matters more than latency - for example in code generation, financial analysis, or exam-style problems. For real-time chat, standard models remain the better choice.

Emerging Reasoning Models

The reasoning model landscape is evolving rapidly. OpenAI's o1 and o3 series led the way, followed by DeepSeek R1 bringing open-source reasoning. Google, Anthropic, and other providers have since introduced their own reasoning-capable models, driving down costs and expanding access to chain-of-thought capabilities.