Our Top AI Model -- April 2026
Our top AI model for April 2026 is GPT-5.5, OpenAI's April 23, 2026 release. It holds state-of-the-art scores on Terminal-Bench 2.0 (82.7%), GDPval (84.9%), OSWorld-Verified (78.7%), and FrontierMath Tier 4 (35.4%), with a 1M token context window. Claude Opus 4.7 remains the strongest pick for SWE-Bench Pro-style GitHub issue work, and Gemini 3.1 Pro still leads ARC-AGI-1.
The Picks
- #1
GPT-5.5
Best overallOpenAI's April 23, 2026 release. State-of-the-art on Terminal-Bench 2.0 (82.7%), GDPval wins-or-ties (84.9%), OSWorld-Verified (78.7%), FrontierMath Tier 4 (35.4%), and CyberGym (81.8%). Matches GPT-5.4 per-token latency while operating at a higher level of intelligence and using significantly fewer tokens to complete the same Codex tasks. API pricing $5/M input, $30/M output, 1M token context.
- #2
Claude Opus 4.7
Best for SWE-Bench-style codingAnthropic's April 16, 2026 release. Still leads GPT-5.5 on SWE-Bench Pro (64.3% vs 58.6%), MCP Atlas (79.1%), and Humanity's Last Exam. The pick when your coding workload looks like real-world GitHub issue resolution or lives heavily inside MCP tool chains. Same $5/M input, $25/M output pricing as Opus 4.6.
- #3
GPT-5.5 Pro
Best for hardest questionsOpenAI's higher-accuracy tier for Pro, Business, and Enterprise ChatGPT users. Leads BrowseComp (90.1%), FrontierMath Tier 1-3 (52.4%), FrontierMath Tier 4 (39.6%), and Humanity's Last Exam with tools (57.2%). Priced at $30/M input and $180/M output when it reaches the API.
- #4
Gemini 3.1 Pro
Best long contextHandles massive documents and codebases with multi-million-token windows. Still leads ARC-AGI-1 Verified (98.0%) and BrowseComp (85.9%). Ideal for tasks that require ingesting and reasoning over entire repositories or long documents.
- #5
Claude Sonnet 4.6
Best valueMost of Opus's quality at a fraction of the cost and latency. The smart choice for high-volume tasks where speed and cost matter more than peak capability.
- #6
DeepSeek R1
Best open-weightCompetitive reasoning at lower cost, fully open. The leading option for teams that need to self-host or want complete transparency into model weights.
How They Compare
| Model | Provider | Best For | Context Window | Pricing Tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GPT-5.5 | OpenAI | Overall intelligence, agentic coding, computer use | 1M tokens | Premium |
| Claude Opus 4.7 | Anthropic | SWE-Bench Pro coding and MCP tool chains | 1M tokens (Max+) | Premium |
| GPT-5.5 Pro | OpenAI | Hardest research and accuracy-critical work | 1M tokens | Premium+ |
| Gemini 3.1 Pro | Long-context processing | 1M+ tokens | Standard | |
| Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Anthropic | Value and speed | 1M tokens (Max+) | Mid-tier |
| DeepSeek R1 | DeepSeek | Open-weight reasoning | 128K tokens | Budget |
Changelog
- April 23, 2026: GPT-5.5 promoted to top overall model on its April 23 launch. State-of-the-art on Terminal-Bench 2.0 (82.7%), GDPval (84.9%), OSWorld-Verified (78.7%), FrontierMath Tier 4 (35.4%), and CyberGym (81.8%). Matches GPT-5.4 per-token latency while delivering higher intelligence and using fewer tokens on equivalent Codex tasks. Claude Opus 4.7 moves to #2 as the pick for SWE-Bench Pro-style work. GPT-5.5 Pro added as a separate tier for the hardest questions.
- April 16, 2026: Claude Opus 4.7 promoted to top model on its April 16 launch. Notable gains on the hardest software engineering tasks, state-of-the-art on Finance Agent and GDPval-AA at that time, plus higher-resolution vision (2,576 pixels on the long edge) and a new xhigh effort level. Pricing unchanged from Opus 4.6 at $5/M input and $25/M output.
- March 2026: Initial picks published. Claude Opus 4.6 selected as top model.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why GPT-5.5 over Claude Opus 4.7?
GPT-5.5 leads Claude Opus 4.7 on the majority of OpenAI's published benchmarks, including Terminal-Bench 2.0 (82.7% vs 69.4%), GDPval wins-or-ties (84.9% vs 80.3%), FrontierMath Tier 1-3 (51.7% vs 43.8%), FrontierMath Tier 4 (35.4% vs 22.9%), and CyberGym (81.8% vs 73.1%). Claude Opus 4.7 still leads on SWE-Bench Pro and MCP Atlas, which is why it holds the #2 slot for specific coding workflows.
Should I pay for GPT-5.5 Pro?
GPT-5.5 Pro is available to Pro, Business, and Enterprise ChatGPT users and is designed for harder questions and higher-accuracy work. Early testers said responses were significantly more comprehensive, well-structured, accurate, relevant, and useful than GPT-5.4 Pro, with the clearest gains in business, legal, education, and data science. It is priced at $30/M input and $180/M output once it reaches the API.
How often does the top model change?
We re-evaluate whenever a major model release happens. Historically this has been every 2-3 months, though April 2026 saw two flagship launches (Claude Opus 4.7 on April 16 and GPT-5.5 on April 23) a week apart.