Model release
Gemini 4 Argon: restricted preview, broader API access pending
Google initially restricts Argon to trusted cyber defenders in Fairwind while preparing broader safeguards and access.
Launch guides
What changed when the new models shipped
Release dates tell you when something appeared. These guides explain what changed, who it fits, what remains unproven, and what to test before switching.
Model release
GPT-6.1 Sol: the newer Sol release at the same base price
GPT-6.1 Sol is the newer Sol release at the same $2/$10 Standard short-context rates, with cached input at $0.10 per million tokens.
OpenAI
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Claude Sonnet 5.5: everyday coding with breaking API changes
Sonnet 5.5 is released at Sonnet 5's $2/$10 token price, with 1M context and 128K standard output.
Anthropic
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Claude Opus 5.5: Anthropic's recommended starting point for many workloads at a lower price than Opus 5
Claude Opus 5.5 replaces Opus 5 as Anthropic's recommended starting point and costs less per token ($4/$20 vs $5/$25). Published benchmark rows are dated, effort- and harness-specific snapshots, not a universal model ranking.
Anthropic
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GPT-6 Sol and Luna: lower API rates than the GPT-5.6 tiers
OpenAI's September 22, 2026 release added Sol and Luna below Astra. Sol's $2/$10 rate is half GPT-5.6 Sol's $4/$20 promotional rate; Luna's $0.10/$0.50 is half its predecessor's input rate and about 58% lower on output ($0.50 vs $1.20).
OpenAI
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Grok 4.7: a larger base model at Grok 4.6's price
Grok 4.7 is xAI's flagship since 2026-09-21 — a larger new base model with longer reinforcement learning on multi-hour tasks, sold at Grok 4.6's $2/$6 rate card.
xAI
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DeepSeek V4.1-Flash: the hosted successor to retired V4-Flash
DeepSeek's September release is an MIT-licensed multimodal model. DeepSeek reports comparisons against V4-Pro; those vendor results are not an independently matched ranking. The same announcement retired V4-Flash API aliases.
DeepSeek
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GPT-6 Astra: OpenAI's computer-use flagship arrives gated
OpenAI's first GPT-6-family model is a computer-use flagship — and the first model it gates at the Preparedness Framework's 'Critical' cybersecurity threshold.
OpenAI
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Gemini 3.8 Flash: September 2026 launch and dated coding results
Google's September 2, 2026 launch positioned Gemini 3.8 Flash for coding and agentic work. In Datacurve's independent DeepSWE 1.1 snapshot dated 2026-09-22, its score was within 0.3 points of GPT-6 Astra at about half the reported task cost; this is a dated benchmark comparison, not a current cross-model rank.
Model release
Muse Spark 1.3: Meta's self-reported DeepSWE result
In its 2026-09-02 release, Meta reported 75.4% on DeepSWE 1.1 at $1.25/$4.25 per MTok; this is a vendor-reported result, not a universal leaderboard ranking. The same announcement says max reasoning is available on Muse Code and Meta Model API.
Meta
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Claude Fable 5.1 and Mythos 5.1: the September refresh
Fable 5.1's 2026-09-01 launch announcement reported a leading position on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index v4.1.1 at $10/$50 pricing, with a restricted-access Mythos 5.1 sibling for cyber and bio research. Later index snapshots use different versions and model rows; this guide does not claim a current top-ranked model.
Anthropic
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GLM 5.3 Flash: Z.ai's lower-cost multimodal model
Z.ai's August 2026 model page describes GLM 5.3 Flash and its hosted API. Treat the earlier 'Ox Alpha' identity attribution as community reporting, not an independently established release fact.
Z.ai
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GLM 5.3: Coding Plan default and separately billed API
GLM 5.3 became the Coding Plan default in August 2026. The hosted token API and open-weight checkpoint have separate access and licensing terms; check Z.ai's current docs for live rates and limits.
Z.ai
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Gemini 3.7 Flash: the August 2026 coding and agent release
Gemini 3.7 Flash arrived three weeks after 3.6 Flash as Google’s Flash workhorse for coding and agents, with introductory API rates through the end of 2026. Gemini 3.8 Flash (2026-09-02) is newer; compare both on the target workload instead of inferring fit from release order.
Model release
DeepSeek V4-Pro GA: the 0813 checkpoint on the same API id
DeepSeek moved V4-Pro to general availability on 2026-08-13. The API id stayed `deepseek-v4-pro`; hosted billing is peak/off-peak after 2026-08-16.
DeepSeek
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Grok 4.6: xAI’s August 2026 API release
Grok 4.6 was xAI's August frontier API row, with a 500K context window and published $2/$6 per-million-token rates. Grok 4.7 replaced it on 2026-09-21 at the same price.
xAI
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Muse Glimmer 30B: Apache-2.0 local agent weights
Muse Glimmer 30B is an open-weight multimodal model described by its release materials as a Muse Spark distill. Hardware fit depends on quantisation, runtime and context; Meta publishes no hosted per-token list for Glimmer.
Meta
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Muse Spark 1.2: Meta's August 2026 coding-model update
This August 2026 launch snapshot covers Muse Spark 1.2; Muse Spark 1.3 is the newer model available in the current catalog.
Meta
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Muse Code: Meta's multi-agent terminal agent
Muse Code is Meta's coding agent. Meta describes multi-agent and long-horizon workflows; check the current product page for rollout, platform and account availability.
Meta
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Qwen3.8-Max: hosted API versus the published open-weight checkpoint
Qwen3.8-Max is live as a hosted API with multimodal extras; the Qwen3.8-2.4T-A95B checkpoint is now on Hugging Face under the Qwen3.8-Max License and is a separate identity.
Qwen
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DeepSeek V4-Flash-0731: why the post-training update matters
Retired from the first-party API on 2026-09-10: DeepSeek says the legacy `deepseek-v4-flash` id temporarily routes to V4.1-Flash at its rates. This page preserves a historical note about the 0731 revision; it is not a current model recommendation.
DeepSeek
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Claude Opus 5: July 2026 launch, now superseded by Opus 5.5
At its July 2026 launch, Claude Opus 5 targeted complex agentic coding and long-horizon work with a 1-million-token context. Opus 5.5 launched on 2026-09-22 at lower $4/$20 rates; Anthropic now lists Opus 5 as Active (legacy), so compare Opus 5.5 first for new work.
Anthropic
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Gemini 3.6 Flash: the efficient multimodal workhorse
At its July 21, 2026 launch, Gemini 3.6 Flash emphasized speed, multimodal input and lower output use. Google now labels it an older-generation model; compare the newer Flash release for current work.
Model release
Kimi K3: open weights, huge context, and a datacentre-sized trade-off
Kimi K3 brings frontier ambitions, multimodal input, and open weights — but its scale changes what self-hosting means.
Moonshot AI
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GPT-5.6 Sol, Terra, and Luna: what the three-tier release changes
OpenAI's July family is a tier decision before it is a model decision: Sol for difficult work, Terra for balance, and Luna for volume. Since 2026-09-22 GPT-6 Sol and Luna are the newer Sol/Luna options at lower rates; input and output savings differ by tier.
OpenAI
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Grok 4.5: xAI's July 2026 API model
This July 2026 guide records Grok 4.5's documented API surface; use xAI's current model and pricing pages to check the exact live limits and charges before deployment.
xAI
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Claude Sonnet 5: historical mid-tier launch snapshot
This June 2026 launch snapshot is superseded by Sonnet 5.5. Compare current model status and dated benchmark configurations before using the older result for a new selection.
Anthropic
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Kimi K2.6: historical open-weight volume model
This April 2026 snapshot concerns Kimi K2.6; newer Kimi K2.8 and K3 models are listed separately. Check the current Kimi model card and API docs before relying on old rates, limits or weight availability.
Moonshot AI
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GLM 5.2: open weights, text-only, unpublished size
GLM 5.2 is a historical Z.ai model entry before GLM 5.3. Its profile's context, output and token price describe the documented API row; parameter count remains unpublished or conflicting across primary materials.
Z.ai
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Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview: long context and multimodal input
Gemini 3.1 Pro targets long-document and multimodal API workloads. Check the current endpoint's release state, limits and account access before production use.
Model release
Claude Haiku 4.5: volume tier with a smaller context envelope
Haiku 4.5 is Anthropic's budget route for classification and extraction, but its 200K context and 4.5-generation positioning mean it is a volume tool, not a frontier substitute.
Anthropic
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Release date not verifiedQwen3.8-27B: Apache 2.0 dense VLM for local work
Qwen3.8-27B is a 27B dense vision-language checkpoint under Apache 2.0 — a practical local path that is not the hosted Qwen3.8-Max API.
Qwen
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Release date not verifiedQwen3.8-Flash-Next: an early look at the Qwen 4 architecture
Alibaba shipped an experimental preview of the architecture that will underpin Qwen 4: 125B total / 6B active MoE plus a 51B n-gram embedding table, at very low active-parameter cost.
Qwen
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