Intelligence Per Dollar
Benchmark points per blended dollar across every credibly ranked model. Scores are min-max normalized across 254 models with 4+ independent benchmarks; cost assumes a typical 3:1 input:output token mix. Leader = 100.
This is not a quality ranking. #1 here means the most benchmark points per dollar, so a mid-scoring budget model will outrank a frontier model that costs 100x more. Check the Score and % of top score columns for raw capability, and use the task rankings when output quality is what compounds in your workflow.
Value leaderboard
| # | Model | Score | % of top score | In / Out per 1M | Blended $/1M | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | inclusionAI: Ling 3.0 Flash BEST VALUEinclusionai/ling-3.0-flash | 39.3 | 39% | $0.02 / $0.06 | $0.03 | 100.0 |
| 2 | Z.ai: GLM 5.3 Flash (batch)z-ai/glm-5.3-flash:batch | 70.6 | 71% | $0.06 / $0.20 | $0.10 | 59.6 |
| 3 | OpenAI: gpt-oss-20bopenai/gpt-oss-20b | 24.3 | 24% | $0.02 / $0.09 | $0.04 | 54.1 |
| 4 | OpenAI: GPT-6 Luna (batch)openai/gpt-6-luna:batch | 62.2 | 62% | $0.05 / $0.25 | $0.10 | 49.9 |
| 5 | OpenAI: gpt-oss-20b (batch)openai/gpt-oss-20b:batch | 24.3 | 24% | $0.02 / $0.11 | $0.05 | 42.3 |
| 6 | Mistral: Mistral Small 3mistralai/mistral-small-24b-instruct-2501 | 28.8 | 29% | $0.05 / $0.08 | $0.06 | 40.1 |
| 7 | Mistral: Mistral Small 3.2 24Bmistralai/mistral-small-3.2-24b-instruct | 59.6 | 60% | $0.09 / $0.25 | $0.13 | 36.0 |
| 8 | inclusionAI: Ling 3.0 Flash VLinclusionai/ling-3.0-flash-vl | 38.6 | 39% | $0.06 / $0.18 | $0.09 | 34.4 |
| 9 | DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (batch)deepseek/deepseek-v4.1-flash:batch | 66.3 | 66% | $0.11 / $0.34 | $0.17 | 31.6 |
| 10 | inclusionAI: Ling 3.0 Flash Fininclusionai/ling-3.0-flash-fin | 35.0 | 35% | $0.06 / $0.18 | $0.09 | 31.2 |
| 11 | Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B google/gemma-4-26b-a4b-it | 50.9 | 51% | $0.09 / $0.30 | $0.14 | 28.6 |
| 12 | Google: Gemma 4 31Bgoogle/gemma-4-31b-it | 53.7 | 54% | $0.09 / $0.34 | $0.15 | 28.2 |
| 13 | Google: Gemma 3 4Bgoogle/gemma-3-4b-it | 21.3 | 21% | $0.05 / $0.10 | $0.06 | 27.3 |
| 14 | OpenAI: GPT-6 Lunaopenai/gpt-6-luna | 62.2 | 62% | $0.10 / $0.50 | $0.20 | 24.9 |
| 15 | Z.ai: GLM 5.3 Flashz-ai/glm-5.3-flash | 70.6 | 71% | $0.15 / $0.50 | $0.24 | 23.8 |
| 16 | Upstage: Solar Pro 4upstage/solar-pro4 | 45.3 | 45% | $0.09 / $0.36 | $0.16 | 23.1 |
| 17 | OpenAI: GPT-5.6 Luna (batch)openai/gpt-5.6-luna:batch | 62.3 | 62% | $0.10 / $0.60 | $0.23 | 22.2 |
| 18 | Z.ai: GLM 4.7 Flashz-ai/glm-4.7-flash | 37.8 | 38% | $0.06 / $0.40 | $0.15 | 20.8 |
| 19 | Qwen: Qwen3 32Bqwen/qwen3-32b | 33.1 | 33% | $0.08 / $0.28 | $0.13 | 20.4 |
| 20 | DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4.1-flash | 66.3 | 66% | $0.15 / $0.60 | $0.26 | 20.2 |
| 21 | OpenAI: GPT-5 Nano (batch)openai/gpt-5-nano:batch | 17.1 | 17% | $0.03 / $0.20 | $0.07 | 19.9 |
| 22 | OpenAI: GPT-4.1 Nano (batch)openai/gpt-4.1-nano:batch | 16.7 | 17% | $0.05 / $0.20 | $0.09 | 15.3 |
| 23 | DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4 Flash Vision Expdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash-vision-exp | 57.7 | 58% | $0.22 / $0.66 | $0.33 | 14.0 |
| 24 | NVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightningnvidia/nemotron-3.5-lightning | 16.9 | 17% | $0.07 / $0.20 | $0.10 | 13.2 |
| 25 | StepFun: Step 3.5 Flashstepfun/step-3.5-flash | 24.5 | 24% | $0.10 / $0.30 | $0.15 | 13.1 |
| 26 | Qwen: Qwen3.5-9Bqwen/qwen3.5-9b | 18.3 | 18% | $0.10 / $0.15 | $0.11 | 13.0 |
| 27 | DeepSeek: DeepSeek V3deepseek/deepseek-chat | 70.4 | 70% | $0.32 / $0.89 | $0.46 | 12.2 |
| 28 | OpenAI: gpt-oss-120bopenai/gpt-oss-120b | 39.2 | 39% | $0.15 / $0.60 | $0.26 | 12.0 |
| 29 | Xiaomi: MiMo-V2.6-Proxiaomi/mimo-v2.6-pro | 79.0 | 79% | $0.43 / $0.87 | $0.54 | 11.6 |
| 30 | OpenAI: GPT-5.6 Lunaopenai/gpt-5.6-luna | 62.3 | 62% | $0.20 / $1.20 | $0.45 | 11.1 |
Budget champions : 80+ score, cheapest first
| # | Model | Score | % of top score | In / Out per 1M | Blended $/1M | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Google: Gemini 2.5 Pro (batch)google/gemini-2.5-pro:batch | 94.2 | 94% | $0.62 / $5.00 | $1.72 | 4.4 |
| 2 | OpenAI: o4 Mini Highopenai/o4-mini-high | 81.0 | 81% | $1.10 / $4.40 | $1.93 | 3.4 |
| 3 | OpenAI: GPT-6 Sol (batch)openai/gpt-6-sol:batch | 81.2 | 81% | $1.00 / $5.00 | $2.00 | 3.3 |
| 4 | Meta: Muse Spark 1.3meta/muse-spark-1.3 | 82.3 | 82% | $1.25 / $4.25 | $2.00 | 3.3 |
| 5 | OpenAI: GPT-5.6 Sol (batch)openai/gpt-5.6-sol:batch | 80.2 | 80% | $1.00 / $5.00 | $2.00 | 3.2 |
| 6 | OpenAI: GPT-5.4 (batch)openai/gpt-5.4:batch | 80.9 | 81% | $1.25 / $7.50 | $2.81 | 2.3 |
| 7 | Google: Gemini 2.5 Progoogle/gemini-2.5-pro | 94.2 | 94% | $1.25 / $10.00 | $3.44 | 2.2 |
| 8 | OpenAI: GPT-6 Solopenai/gpt-6-sol | 81.2 | 81% | $2.00 / $10.00 | $4.00 | 1.6 |
| 9 | Anthropic: Claude Opus 5.5 (batch)anthropic/claude-opus-5.5:batch | 100.0 | 100% | $2.00 / $10.00 | $4.00 | 2.0 |
| 10 | OpenAI: GPT-5.6 Solopenai/gpt-5.6-sol | 80.2 | 80% | $2.00 / $10.00 | $4.00 | 1.6 |
Free models with credible scores
Per-dollar math breaks at $0. These are simply the strongest free options:
- Z.ai: GLM 5.2 (free) : score 73.3
- Qwen: Qwen3.8 27B (free) : score 55.6
- Google: Gemma 4 31B (free) : score 53.7
- Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B (free) : score 50.9
- Thinking Machines: Inkling Small (free) : score 44.5
- Thinking Machines: Inkling (free) : score 39.4
- inclusionAI: Ling 3.0 Flash VL (free) : score 38.6
- NVIDIA: Nemotron 3 Ultra (free) : score 35.5
Assumptions
Value = blended benchmark score divided by blended price per million tokens, indexed to the leader. A 3:1 input:output ratio fits most chat and RAG workloads; estimate your exact mix with the cost calculator. Scoring details in the methodology. Models with fewer than 4 independent benchmarks are excluded rather than guessed.