What is the best LLM for general use?

The best LLM depends on your specific needs. Top performers include Gemini 3 Pro Preview (73), GPT-5.2 (73), Gemini 3 Flash (71), GPT-5.1 (70), and Claude Opus 4.5 (70). For cost-effectiveness with strong performance, consider Kimi K2 Thinking (67), DeepSeek V3.2 (66), or MiMo-V2-Flash (66). Use our comparison tool to filter by your requirements.

Which LLM is cheapest to use?

The most cost-effective LLMs include KAT-Coder-Pro V1 via Novita (FREE!), gpt-oss-120B via CompactifAI ($0.10/M tokens), GPT-5 nano ($0.14/M tokens), and MiMo-V2-Flash ($0.15/M tokens). Open-source models offer excellent value, with some providers offering rates as low as $0.05 per million input tokens. Use our price filter to find the most affordable options for your use case.

What's the difference between input and output pricing?

Input pricing is what you pay for tokens sent to the model (your prompts), while output pricing is for tokens generated by the model (responses). Output tokens are typically 2-4x more expensive than input tokens. Our tool shows both prices to help you calculate total costs based on your usage patterns.

Which LLM is fastest for real-time applications?

For speed, look for models with high tokens/second output and low latency. Clarifai's gpt-oss-120B leads with 800+ tokens/second, while Groq offers 470+ tokens/second. Providers like Fireworks (435 tok/s), Google AI Studio's Gemini Flash-Lite (616 tok/s), and Microsoft Azure deliver excellent speed. Grok 4 Fast provides 321 tok/s with great quality-to-speed ratio.

What are the best open-source LLMs in 2025?

Open-source LLMs have made remarkable progress. Top options include Kimi K2 Thinking (Quality Index: 67), DeepSeek V3.2 (66), MiMo-V2-Flash (66), MiniMax-M2.1 (64), gpt-oss-120B (58), and Qwen3-235B (57). These models offer performance competitive with proprietary alternatives at a fraction of the cost. Use our 'Open Source Only' filter to explore all available options.

What does Quality Index mean in the comparison?

Quality Index is a normalized score (0-73) based on comprehensive benchmarks including GPQA Diamond (PhD-level reasoning), AIME 2025 (math), LiveCodeBench (coding), MMLU-Pro (knowledge), Terminal-Bench Hard (agentic coding), and more. Higher scores indicate better overall performance. However, specific tasks may favor different models regardless of overall quality scores.

Which LLM has the largest context window?

Modern LLMs now support massive context windows. Llama 4 Scout offers an incredible 10M tokens, MiniMax-Text-01 handles 4M tokens, Grok 4.1 Fast supports 2M tokens, and Gemini 3 Pro/Flash along with Claude 4.5 Sonnet offer 1M token contexts. GPT-5.2 provides 400K tokens. Check our Context Window filter to find models that can handle your document size requirements.

How do pricing and providers compare for the same model?

The same model can have different pricing across providers. For example, gpt-oss-120B ranges from $0.10/M tokens (CompactifAI/Deepinfra) to $0.26/M tokens (Groq/Together). Speed and latency also vary significantly - Clarifai delivers 802 tok/s while others offer 91-472 tok/s. Our tool shows all provider options for each model so you can optimize for cost, speed, or reliability based on your needs.