// ranked · October 2026
Best LLM for Research
Ranked by LiveBench’s research category: evidence-backed reports on regulatory, legal, tax, strategy and scientific questions.
Muse Wonder leads on LiveBench research at 88.0, ahead of SpaceXAI: Grok 4.7 (86.4) and GPT-6 Astra (85.2).
Muse Wonder vs SpaceXAI: Grok 4.7, head to headBest value in the top 10
Claude Haiku 5.5
Lowest measured cost per point among the leaders — $0.0237 per point for a score of 81.9.
Best under $1.00 / 1M
Claude Haiku 5.5
Highest score at a blended list price of $1.00 per 1M tokens or less — 81.9 at $0.200.
Top 10
| # | Model | Research score | Blended / 1M | Context | Capabilities |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Muse Wonder meta/muse-wonder | 88.0 | $8.00 | 1.0M | reasoningtoolsvision |
| 2 | SpaceXAI: Grok 4.7 x-ai/grok-4.7 | 86.4 | $3.00 | 500K | reasoningtoolsvision |
| 3 | GPT-6 Astra openai/gpt-6-astra | 85.2 | $20.00 | 1.1M | reasoningtoolsvision |
| 4 | Claude Opus 5.5 anthropic/claude-opus-5.5 | 85.0 | $8.00 | 1M | reasoningtoolsvision |
| 5 | SpaceXAI: Grok 4.6 x-ai/grok-4.6 | 84.5 | $3.00 | 500K | reasoningtoolsvision |
| 6 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 anthropic/claude-sonnet-5.5 | 83.6 | $4.00 | 1M | reasoningtoolsvision |
| 7 | GPT-6.1 Sol openai/gpt-6.1-sol | 83.5 | $4.00 | 1.1M | reasoningtoolsvision |
| 8 | Gemini 4 Argon google/gemini-4-argon | 83.1 | $4.00 | 1.0M | reasoningtoolsvision |
| 9 | Claude Fable 5.1 anthropic/claude-fable-5.1 | 82.0 | $20.00 | 1M | reasoningtoolsvision |
| 10 | Claude Haiku 5.5 anthropic/claude-haiku-5.5 | 81.9 | $0.200 | 1M | reasoningtoolsvision |
18 more models qualify — see the full leaderboard.
FAQ
What is the best LLM for Research in October 2026?
Muse Wonder leads on LiveBench research at 88.0, ahead of SpaceXAI: Grok 4.7 (86.4) and GPT-6 Astra (85.2).
What is the best value in the top 10 for research?
Claude Haiku 5.5. Lowest measured cost per point among the leaders — $0.0237 per point for a score of 81.9.
What is the best under $1.00 / 1m for research?
Claude Haiku 5.5. Highest score at a blended list price of $1.00 per 1M tokens or less — 81.9 at $0.200.
How is this ranking produced?
Ranked by LiveBench’s research category: evidence-backed reports on regulatory, legal, tax, strategy and scientific questions.
Other rankings
How this ranking is produced
- One metric, stated above — nothing here is weighted or scored by us. Scores come from LiveBench release 2026-10-25; models without a published run don't appear in score-based rankings.
- Price, context and capabilities — live from OpenRouter, refreshed every 15 minutes.
- Ties — scores less than a point apart are called a tie; effort settings alone move a LiveBench score by more than that.
A public benchmark is someone else's workload. Before committing, see LLM & agent evaluation.