Claude Opus 5.5 is the best AI model for agents. MiMo-V2.6-Pro comes close for 7% of the cost, and DeepSeek V4.1 Flash gets through each step fastest.
Claude Opus 5.5 is the best AI model for agents. MiMo-V2.6-Pro comes close for 7% of the cost, and DeepSeek V4.1 Flash gets through each step fastest.
26 models · Updated September 2026 · Data from Artificial Analysis
Claude Opus 5.5
Anthropic · High effort
The highest score of any model we compared at this setting.
MiMo-V2.6-Pro
Xiaomi · Standard effort
86% of Claude Opus 5.5's score for 7% of the cost.
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash
DeepSeek · Max effort
The quickest full answer from a model scoring 38 or more.
Over 45 s at every tested setting
Claude Opus 5.5
Anthropic · High effort
The highest score of any model we compared at this setting.
MiMo-V2.6-Pro
Xiaomi · Standard effort
86% of Claude Opus 5.5's score for 7% of the cost.
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash
DeepSeek · Max effort
The quickest full answer from a model scoring 38 or more.
Each job favors a different model. Pick the one closest to yours.
Long jobs where one wrong step is expensive
Use
Claude Opus 5.5
Anthropic · High effort
The highest intelligence score at everyday effort, so it plans better and recovers from bad tool results more often. $197 per 1,000 tasks.
Long jobs where one wrong step is expensive
Use Claude Opus 5.5
The highest intelligence score at everyday effort, so it plans better and recovers from bad tool results more often. $197 per 1,000 tasks.
High-volume agents that run in the background
Use MiMo-V2.6-Pro
$13.63 per 1,000 tasks, about 7% of what Claude Opus 5.5 costs. Each step takes about 61 seconds, so keep it for queues and overnight runs.
Agents someone is waiting on
Use DeepSeek V4.1 Flash
12 seconds per step. A 20-step run takes about 4 minutes, against 14 with Claude Opus 5.5. It scores 39.5, so give it clear, well-scoped jobs.
Sub-agents for lookups and simple steps
Use GPT-6 Luna
$4.66 per 1,000 tasks. Let a stronger model plan and hand the searching, reading and formatting to this one.
Staying with OpenAI
Use GPT-6 Astra
The highest-scoring OpenAI model at everyday effort: 49.6 at medium effort, with 15 seconds per step.
Coding agents
Agents that write and fix code have their own ranking, with Claude and OpenAI picks.
Setting up the agent itself
Generate a starting config for your agent framework, with the model, tools and limits filled in.
Each dot is a model. Higher scores better, further left is cheaper, so the best deals sit top left. The cost axis is logarithmic: every step left is a big saving. Hover a dot for its numbers.
Sort by the pillar you care about, and set your monthly volume to see the bill. Costs include each model's thinking tokens at the setting shown.
An agent calls the model again and again: plan, call a tool, read the result, decide the next step. The wait for each answer is multiplied by the number of steps, so a model that feels fine in chat can make an agent slow.
For a 20-step run: Claude Opus 5.5 takes about 14 minutes, GPT-6 Astra takes about 5 minutes, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash takes about 4 minutes, MiMo-V2.6-Pro takes about 20 minutes. If a person is waiting, speed can matter more than the last few points of intelligence.
Most agent steps are routine: search, read, extract, format. Let Claude Opus 5.5 plan and check the work, and hand those steps to DeepSeek V4.1 Flash. If four in five calls go to DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, 1,000 tasks cost about $57.03 instead of $197, roughly 71% less.
We compare every model at the setting people run day to day: its strongest reasoning setting that gives a full answer within 45 seconds. For agents that run unattended, max effort can pay off: Claude Opus 5.5 goes from 53.6 to 57.6, at 3.3 times the cost per task. Switch to Max effort above to compare.
Intelligence is the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index at that setting, which includes agentic tasks alongside coding, knowledge and reasoning. There's no tool-calling score published for every model at everyday settings, so we don't rank on one.
Cost starts from a typical agent task of 30,000 tokens, 60% of it context the agent reads and 40% what it writes. We scale the writing part by how much each model wrote, thinking included, in Artificial Analysis's tests.
Speed is the median time to a full answer in the same tests. For an agent, read it as time per step.
Best value is the most intelligence per dollar and fastest is the quickest step, both among models scoring 38 or more (within 30% of the leader). Neither pick goes to a model its maker has replaced.
Claude Opus 5.5 at high effort. It scores 53.6 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, the highest at everyday settings, and costs about $197 per 1,000 agent tasks. MiMo-V2.6-Pro gives the most intelligence per dollar at $13.63.
Claude Opus 5.5, as far as public data shows. Artificial Analysis doesn't publish a tool-calling score for every model at everyday settings, so we use its Intelligence Index, which includes agentic tasks. Claude Opus 5.5 leads it at 53.6.
GPT-6 Luna, at about $4.66 per 1,000 agent tasks. It scores 33.9, so use it for simple steps or as a sub-agent under a stronger planner.
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, at about 12 seconds per step. A 20-step run takes about 4 minutes, against 14 with Claude Opus 5.5.
Enough to hold the task, the tool results and the steps so far, which grows quickly on long runs. All three of our picks accept at least 1 million tokens, so context is rarely the limit. Cost is the one to watch, because the whole history is sent again on every step.
For unattended runs on hard problems, it can be worth it. Claude Opus 5.5 goes from 53.6 to 57.6 at max effort, but each step costs several times as much and can take minutes. For agents a person is waiting on, stay with everyday settings.
Answer three questions and get a pick for each part of your workload, with the monthly cost.