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Best for · November 2026

The best everyday AI model for a business team

Most business work does not need the most expensive model. These are capable enough for most of it at a price that holds up at volume. Start with the first one unless you know you need more.

Updated Nov 12, 2026 · 7 models qualify · kept by WrenFull leaderboard

One job here means the customer message, the account notes and two help articles read; a 300-word reply written. Costs use each vendor’s list price; a product built on the model charges its own price on top. See every model and job.

  1. 1

    GPT-6.1 Sol · OpenAI

    The sensible OpenAI default: 55 on Artificial Analysis's index against 57 for GPT-6 Astra, at a fifth of Astra's list price.

    $10 per 1,000 support repliesScore 70 of 100Everyday defaultIntelligence Index 55$2 read · $10 written per 1M tokensReads 1M tokens at once

    Caveat: Two points separate it from Astra on the index, which is within noise; test Astra only where Sol's answers fall short.

  2. 2

    Claude Sonnet 5.5 · Anthropic

    A sound everyday default: 55 on Artificial Analysis's index, four points behind Claude Opus 5.5, at half its list price.

    $10 per 1,000 support repliesScore 66 of 100Everyday defaultIntelligence Index 55$2 read · $10 written per 1M tokensReads 1M tokens at once

    Caveat: The saving depends on the effort setting: at the top setting Artificial Analysis's test run cost $10.02 per task, level with Opus 5.5 ($10.04).

  3. 3

    GPT-6.1 Terra · OpenAI

    Half the list price of GPT-6.1 Sol for four points less on Artificial Analysis's index (51 against 55): the cheaper OpenAI default where the work is routine.

    $5 per 1,000 support repliesScore 65 of 100Everyday defaultIntelligence Index 51$1 read · $5 written per 1M tokensReads 1.05M tokens at once

    Caveat: Requests that feed it more than 272,000 tokens of text at once are billed at twice the input price and 1.5 times the output price, per OpenAI.

  4. 4

    Qwen3.8 Max · Alibaba

    Alibaba's hosted flagship scores 34 on Artificial Analysis's index, a little above the open models GLM-5.3 (32) and MiMo-V2.6-Pro (30), at about 1.4 times GLM's list price and about five times MiMo's.

    $8.40 per 1,000 support repliesScore 63 of 100Everyday defaultIntelligence Index 34$2 read · $6 written per 1M tokensReads 984K tokens at once

    Caveat: The hosted model is closed; the open version is a different model that Artificial Analysis has not scored and that needs data-centre hardware.

  5. 5

    Muse Spark 1.3 · Meta

    Meta's earlier everyday model: near the top of Scale's test of replies to people in distress (84.88) but mid-table on hard exams, with no vendor list price on record.

    No list price publishedScore 59 of 100Everyday default$0.78 per 1M tokens, typical mix (estimate)

    Caveat: No vendor list price was found; the board uses Artificial Analysis's blended figure of $0.78 per million tokens from 10 October.

  6. 6

    Mistral Large 4 · Mistral AI

    The European option: about a quarter of Claude Sonnet 5.5's list price and free to host yourself, but independent scores are mid-table (26 on Artificial Analysis's index).

    $2.94 per 1,000 support repliesScore 58 of 100Everyday defaultIntelligence Index 26$0.70 read · $2.10 written per 1M tokensReads 524K tokens at once

    Caveat: Free to use and build on, but a business that resells the model as a service needs a separate commercial licence from Mistral.

  7. 7

    Grok 4.7 · xAI

    Carried by all three big clouds and listed by xAI at $2 in / $6 out per million tokens (the unit vendors bill by), but mid-table: 35 on Artificial Analysis's index against 55 for GPT-6.1 Sol.

    $8.40 per 1,000 support repliesScore 52 of 100Everyday defaultIntelligence Index 35$2 read · $6 written per 1M tokensReads 500K tokens at once

    Caveat: It can read half as much text at once as most models on this board.

Head to head

Questions people ask

What is the best AI model for everyday business work right now?

GPT-6.1 Sol (OpenAI) leads this list as of November 2026: The sensible OpenAI default: 55 on Artificial Analysis's index against 57 for GPT-6 Astra, at a fifth of Astra's list price. It costs $2 per million tokens it reads and $10 per million tokens it writes on the vendor's list price.

What is the runner-up for everyday business work?

Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Anthropic): A sound everyday default: 55 on Artificial Analysis's index, four points behind Claude Opus 5.5, at half its list price.

What do 1,000 support replies cost?

On GPT-6.1 Sol, about $10 at list price. The cheapest on this list is Mistral Large 4 at about $2.94. One job here means the customer message, the account notes and two help articles read; a 300-word reply written. A product built on a model charges its own price on top.

How is this list ranked?

Models in the everyday default group, ordered by leaderboard score, highest first. The score works like this: Score is 0 to 100 and computed, not typed. 40% is independent testing (Artificial Analysis, Arena, Scale, Epoch, Vals and others; each test is scaled against the best score on this board, and tests of real work, such as finished freelance projects or professional tasks, count double the exams). 30% is price: the vendor's list price for a typical mix of reading and writing, on a fixed scale from $0.05 to $60 per million tokens, so a model that costs a fifth as much gains real ground. 15% is what people report after running it, from Signals and linked threads. 15% is fit: how much text it can take in at once and where a business can get it (the products and clouds that carry it), with a small credit for open weights. A missing component drops out and the rest are reweighted. A model with no independent test yet is provisional and ranks below every measured one. Within three points is a tie. Vendor-published figures are labelled and never counted.

Other jobs

Every figure links to its source on the model profile pages. Vendor figures are labelled as vendor figures and never counted as independent tests.