Tracker
AI model releases 2026
Every AI model launch, preview and reported plan from our reporting, newest first, with prices and the sourced story behind each entry. Updated with every edition.
Prices and claims are what each story reports; a company’s own benchmark stays a company claim. The claim check compares each maker’s main claim with an independent test that our story cites. Released models so far: 6 backed, 9 mixed, 12 not checked yet.
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Showing 9 entries of 38. Show all
October 2026
An agent model with up to 1 million tokens of context, for text and images. MiniMax says it is nearly three times faster and 70% cheaper to use than before. Weights are due later.
Claim check: MixedArtificial Analysis scores it 42, fourth of 173 models, but measured 120.1 tokens per second, not 200+, and a 93% hallucination rate.
Price $0.15 / $0.60 per million input / output tokens
MiniMax launches M3.1 Flash at half the price of M3Meta’s open-weight model: 816 billion parameters, about 42 billion active per token, and up to 1 million tokens of context. Meta calls it the most capable US open-weight model. Large API sellers need a separate agreement.
Claim check: MixedArtificial Analysis gives it 39 points; Meta’s own table puts two Chinese open models ahead on coding tests.
Meta releases Muse Spark Open, an 816B open-weight model Try it yourself: who can use it, the price, an example promptNow open to AI Pro and Ultra subscribers in the Gemini app and in Search, and to developers on the paid Gemini API. Free users and AI Plus don’t get it yet.
Claim check: MixedArtificial Analysis scores it 53, eighth of 216 models, with Claude Opus 5.5 ahead. Google’s claim of clearer answers is untested.
Price $2 / $10 per million input / output tokens until November 30, then $4 / $20
Google opens Gemini 4 Argon to paying users and developers Try it yourself: who can use it, the price, an example promptMeta’s first frontier models, built for agents on long tasks. Muse Wonder is in the Meta Model API and Muse Code; Muse Wonder Full only in Muse Code’s paid plans. Meta says Wonder will soon power its Muse app.
Claim check: MixedArtificial Analysis scores Wonder Full 56, two points behind Claude Opus 5.5, but weaker on facts. Meta’s “state-of-the-art” agent results are its own tests.
Price $4 / $20 per million input / output tokens (Muse Wonder)
Meta’s Muse Wonder models close in on the AI frontier Try it yourself: who can use it, the price, an example promptA model with 1 trillion parameters, 49 billion used per token, reading text and images. Public preview through Mistral’s API; Mistral says the weights follow by the end of October.
Claim check: MixedArtificial Analysis scores the preview 38 on its Intelligence Index, 64th of 225 models: above the middle score of 26, but far from the leaders. Mistral’s cyber ranking is its own claim.
Price $1.36 / $4.18 per million input / output tokens (preview)
Mistral previews Large 4, a 1-trillion-parameter model
September 2026
Google’s new flagship, for now only for trusted cyber defenders in its Fairwind Program. Google says it leads on 12 of 18 tests and can write up to 1 million tokens at once. No date for a wider release.
Claim check: MixedArtificial Analysis scores it 53, level with GPT-6 Astra and five points behind Claude Opus 5.5, at $1.99 per task.
Price $2 / $10 per million input / output tokens at first, later $4 / $20
Google’s Gemini 4 Argon goes to cyber defenders firstThe second Claude 5.5 model. Anthropic says it is more than 30% faster than Sonnet 5 and costs up to 30% less per task.
Claim check: MixedArtificial Analysis puts it two points behind Opus 5.5. At maximum effort it lists $5.46 per task (October 8), about 7% more than Sonnet 5; Anthropic’s savings figures refer mostly to lower effort settings.
Price $2 / $10 per million input / output tokens
Anthropic’s Sonnet 5.5 nears Opus at half the token priceText-to-speech in more than 100 languages; can clone a voice from a short sample after the owner records a consent statement.
Claim check: MixedArtificial Analysis ranks Flash second in its voice arena. The first places Google cites come from tests by Hume AI, whose founder co-wrote Google’s post.
Price About $0.54 to $0.81 per hour of audio until the end of the year
Google’s new Gemini voices can copy a person’s voiceTwo cheaper tiers below GPT-6 Astra in the API. OpenAI’s own tables put Sol ahead of Claude Opus 5 on AutomationBench.
Claim check: MixedArtificial Analysis finds them about level with GPT-5.6, at roughly half the cost per task: cheaper, not smarter.
Price $2 (Sol) and $0.10 (Luna) per million input tokens, half of GPT-5.6’s prices
OpenAI’s GPT-6 Sol and Luna cut API prices in half
How this tracker works
An entry appears when one of our stories covers a model launch, a preview, a reported plan, or a model becoming available on a new platform. A claim is Backed when an outside test supports it, Mixed when it holds only in part or only in some settings, and Disputed when an outside test contradicts it. The date is the one the story gives; when a story gives none, it is the story’s own date. We add entries with each edition and correct them under the story when a fact changes.
Reusing this list: you may quote it with a link to this page. Facts belong to the sources each story cites.