ModelRefs / Best AI Reasoning Models in 2026
Best AI Reasoning Models in 2026
AI models built for multi-step reasoning, math and planning. MMLU, GSM8K and ARC benchmarks compared.
Overview
Reasoning models are evaluated on MMLU, GSM8K, ARC and BIG-Bench. Look for chain-of-thought support and large context windows.
ModelRefs tracks 29 reasoning models with a published reference page. Each page states the provider, the capabilities ModelRefs has evidence for, the benchmark results it holds with their dates and sources, and the limitations and coverage gaps that remain.
Models in this category
29 reasoning models have a published reference page on ModelRefs; the first 24 are listed here.
Listed alphabetically. Category membership means a model is a candidate worth evaluating for this kind of work, not a ranking and not an endorsement — compare the evidence on each page against your own requirements.
- Claude Opus 4
- Claude Sonnet 4
- Command R
- Command R+
- DeepSeek R1
- DeepSeek V3
- Gemini 1.5 Pro
- Gemini 2.0 Flash
- Gemini 2.5 Flash
- Gemma 3 27B
- GPT-4.1
- GPT-4.1 Mini
- GPT-4o
- GPT-5
- GPT-5 Mini
- Llama 3.1 405B
- Llama 3.1 70B
- Llama 3.1 8B
- Llama 4 Scout
- Mistral Large 2
- Mistral Nemo
- Mistral Small 3.1
- Mixtral 8x7B
- Nemotron-4 340B
For an ordered view of the same ground, see the reasoning models ranking, which scores models on the benchmark evidence ModelRefs holds.
Other model categories
Continue your research
Use these connected ModelRefs sections to compare alternatives, inspect implementation paths, and review the evidence and governance boundaries relevant to Best AI Reasoning Models in 2026.
Frequently asked questions
What is an AI reasoning model?
A reasoning model is an LLM tuned to perform multi-step inference — math, logic, code planning — usually via chain-of-thought or RLHF-on-reasoning techniques.