> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://usefulai.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Best AI Models in 2026

export const groups = [{
  "group": "Language Models",
  "cats": [{
    "title": "LLMs",
    "href": "/models/llms",
    "count": 15,
    "desc": "General-purpose models for reasoning, chat, and knowledge work.",
    "top": ["/images/icons/48/anthropic.com.png", "/images/icons/48/openai.com.png", "/images/icons/48/x.ai.png", "/images/icons/48/google.com.png"]
  }, {
    "title": "LLMs for Coding",
    "href": "/models/llms-for-coding",
    "count": 13,
    "desc": "Models tuned for writing, refactoring, and debugging code.",
    "top": ["/images/icons/48/anthropic.com.png", "/images/icons/48/openai.com.png", "/images/icons/48/x.ai.png", "/images/icons/48/z.ai.png"]
  }, {
    "title": "LLMs for Writing",
    "href": "/models/llms-for-writing",
    "count": 15,
    "desc": "Models for prose, editing, and long-form content.",
    "top": ["/images/icons/48/anthropic.com.png", "/images/icons/48/google.com.png", "/images/icons/48/meta.ai.png", "/images/icons/48/x.ai.png"]
  }, {
    "title": "LLMs for Agents",
    "href": "/models/llms-for-agents",
    "count": 16,
    "desc": "Models built for tool use and autonomous multi-step work.",
    "top": ["/images/icons/48/anthropic.com.png", "/images/icons/48/openai.com.png", "/images/icons/48/z.ai.png", "/images/icons/48/x.ai.png"]
  }, {
    "title": "LLMs for Search & Research",
    "href": "/models/llms-for-search-research",
    "count": 12,
    "desc": "Models that search the web and cite their sources.",
    "top": ["/images/icons/48/anthropic.com.png", "/images/icons/48/openai.com.png", "/images/icons/48/deepseek.com.png", "/images/icons/48/google.com.png"]
  }]
}, {
  "group": "Vision & Generation",
  "cats": [{
    "title": "Image Generation",
    "href": "/models/image-generation",
    "count": 15,
    "desc": "Models that turn text prompts into images.",
    "top": ["/images/icons/48/openai.com.png", "/images/icons/48/reve.com.png", "/images/icons/48/google.com.png", "/images/icons/48/microsoft.com.png"]
  }, {
    "title": "Video Generation",
    "href": "/models/video-generation",
    "count": 13,
    "desc": "Models that generate video from text or images.",
    "top": ["/images/icons/48/google.com.png", "/images/icons/48/seed.bytedance.com.png", "/images/icons/48/qwen.ai.png", "/images/icons/48/kling.ai.png"]
  }, {
    "title": "Video Understanding",
    "href": "/models/video-understanding",
    "count": 14,
    "desc": "Models that analyze and describe video content.",
    "top": ["/images/icons/48/google.com.png", "/images/icons/48/seed.bytedance.com.png", "/images/icons/48/kimi.com.png", "/images/icons/48/mimo.xiaomi.com.png"]
  }, {
    "title": "Vision LLMs",
    "href": "/models/vision-llms",
    "count": 17,
    "desc": "Multimodal models that read images alongside text.",
    "top": ["/images/icons/48/anthropic.com.png", "/images/icons/48/google.com.png", "/images/icons/48/meta.ai.png", "/images/icons/48/openai.com.png"]
  }]
}, {
  "group": "Speech & Audio",
  "cats": [{
    "title": "Transcription",
    "href": "/models/transcription",
    "count": 15,
    "desc": "Speech-to-text for prerecorded audio files.",
    "top": ["/images/icons/48/elevenlabs.io.png", "/images/icons/48/microsoft.com.png", "/images/icons/48/smallest.ai.png", "/images/icons/48/mistral.ai.png"]
  }, {
    "title": "Realtime Transcription",
    "href": "/models/real-time-transcription",
    "count": 15,
    "desc": "Low-latency streaming speech-to-text.",
    "top": ["/images/icons/48/elevenlabs.io.png", "/images/icons/48/cartesia.ai.png", "/images/icons/48/qwen.ai.png", "/images/icons/48/x.ai.png"]
  }, {
    "title": "Text-to-Speech",
    "href": "/models/text-to-speech",
    "count": 17,
    "desc": "Models that turn text into natural-sounding speech.",
    "top": ["/images/icons/48/speechify.com.png", "/images/icons/48/google.com.png", "/images/icons/48/cartesia.ai.png", "/images/icons/48/qwen.ai.png"]
  }, {
    "title": "Realtime Voice",
    "href": "/models/speech-to-speech",
    "count": 9,
    "desc": "Speech-to-speech models for live voice agents.",
    "top": ["/images/icons/48/openai.com.png", "/images/icons/48/x.ai.png", "/images/icons/48/qwen.ai.png", "/images/icons/48/google.com.png"]
  }, {
    "title": "Music Generation",
    "href": "/models/music-generation",
    "count": 9,
    "desc": "Models that compose music and audio from a prompt.",
    "top": ["/images/icons/48/suno.ai.png", "/images/icons/48/mureka.ai.png", "/images/icons/48/google.com.png", "/images/icons/48/minimax.io.png"]
  }]
}, {
  "group": "Retrieval & Documents",
  "cats": [{
    "title": "Document OCR & Parsing",
    "href": "/models/document-ocr-parsing",
    "count": 15,
    "desc": "Models that extract text and structure from documents.",
    "top": ["/images/icons/48/llamaindex.ai.png", "/images/icons/48/huggingface.co.png", "/images/icons/48/google.com.png", "/images/icons/48/reducto.ai.png"]
  }, {
    "title": "Embeddings",
    "href": "/models/embeddings",
    "count": 13,
    "desc": "Models that turn text into vectors for search and RAG.",
    "top": ["/images/icons/48/voyageai.com.png", "/images/icons/48/octen.ai.png", "/images/icons/48/qwen.ai.png", "/images/icons/48/google.com.png"]
  }, {
    "title": "Reranking",
    "href": "/models/reranking",
    "count": 9,
    "desc": "Models that reorder search results by relevance.",
    "top": ["/images/icons/48/zeroentropy.dev.png", "/images/icons/48/cohere.com.png", "/images/icons/48/voyageai.com.png", "/images/icons/48/qwen.ai.png"]
  }]
}];

export const Logos = ({icons}) => <span className="flex items-center">
    {icons.map((src, i) => <img key={src + i} src={src} alt="" noZoom className={"h-6 w-6 shrink-0 rounded-md border-2 border-white bg-white object-contain dark:border-zinc-900 dark:bg-zinc-900" + (i > 0 ? " -ml-1.5" : "")} />)}
  </span>;

export const PlusN = ({n}) => n > 0 ? <span className="ml-0.5 inline-flex shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-md border-2 border-white bg-zinc-100 text-[10px] font-semibold tabular-nums text-zinc-600 dark:border-zinc-900 dark:bg-white/10 dark:text-zinc-300" style={{
  width: "24px",
  height: "24px"
}}>+{n}</span> : null;

export const ModelCategoryCard = ({c}) => <a href={c.href} className="not-prose group flex min-w-0 flex-col rounded-xl border border-zinc-200 bg-white p-4 no-underline transition-colors hover:border-zinc-300 dark:border-white/10 dark:bg-white/[0.03] dark:hover:border-white/20">
    <h3 className="m-0 block text-[15px] font-semibold leading-6 text-zinc-950 dark:text-white">{c.title}</h3>
    <span className="mt-1 block flex-1 text-[13px] leading-5 text-zinc-500 dark:text-zinc-400">{c.desc}</span>
    <span className="mt-3.5 flex items-center justify-between gap-3 border-t border-zinc-100 pt-3 dark:border-white/5">
      <span className="flex items-center"><Logos icons={c.top} /><PlusN n={c.count - c.top.length} /></span>
      <span className="flex shrink-0 items-center gap-1 text-[13px] font-medium text-zinc-500 transition-colors group-hover:text-zinc-900 dark:text-zinc-400 dark:group-hover:text-white">View <Icon icon="chevron-right" size={10} /></span>
    </span>
  </a>;

export const GroupLabel = ({children}) => <h2 className="not-prose mb-3 mt-8 text-xs font-semibold uppercase tracking-wide text-zinc-400 dark:text-zinc-500">{children}</h2>;

export const grid2 = {
  display: "grid",
  gridTemplateColumns: "repeat(auto-fill, minmax(300px, 1fr))",
  gap: "12px"
};

Browse the best AI models by task. Each guide compares the models themselves — not the apps built around them — on category-specific benchmarks alongside price, license, and access.

{groups.map((g) => (
<div key={g.group}>
  <GroupLabel>{g.group}</GroupLabel>
  <div className="not-prose" style={grid2}>
    {g.cats.map((c) => <ModelCategoryCard key={c.href} c={c} />)}
  </div>
</div>
))}