Best LLMs in 2026: A Practical Comparison

Stop Asking "What's the Best LLM?" — Ask "Best for What?"

Every week someone in a training session asks me: "Should I be using ChatGPT or Claude?" And every week my answer is the same: it depends on what you're trying to do.

There is no single best LLM. There's the best LLM for coding, the best for long-document analysis, the best for quick everyday tasks, and the best if you don't want to pay anything. The landscape moves fast — models that were cutting-edge six months ago are now mid-tier — so I update this page regularly.

Here's my honest take on the models worth knowing about in 2026, based on what I actually see working in training sessions with real professionals.

Platform Feature Comparison

How the five main AI platforms compare across key features — based on their current consumer offerings.

Best in classAvailableNot available
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FeatureChatGPTOpenAIClaudeAnthropicGeminiGoogleGrokxAIManusManus AIPerplexityPerplexity
Everyday answersChatGPT: AvailableClaude: AvailableGemini: Best in classGrok: Best in classManus: AvailablePerplexity: Available
WritingChatGPT: AvailableClaude: Best in classGemini: AvailableGrok: AvailableManus: AvailablePerplexity: Available
CodingChatGPT: AvailableClaude: Best in classGemini: AvailableGrok: AvailableManus: AvailablePerplexity: Available
ThinkingChatGPT: Best in classClaude: Best in classGemini: AvailableGrok: AvailableManus: AvailablePerplexity: Available
Deep researchChatGPT: Best in classClaude: AvailableGemini: AvailableGrok: AvailableManus: AvailablePerplexity: Best in class
Web searchChatGPT: AvailableClaude: AvailableGemini: AvailableGrok: Best in classManus: AvailablePerplexity: Available
Voice chatChatGPT: Best in classClaude: AvailableGemini: AvailableGrok: AvailableManus: Not availablePerplexity: Available
Image genChatGPT: Best in classClaude: Not availableGemini: Best in classGrok: AvailableManus: AvailablePerplexity: Not available
Video genChatGPT: AvailableClaude: Not availableGemini: Best in classGrok: AvailableManus: Not availablePerplexity: Not available
Live cameraChatGPT: AvailableClaude: Not availableGemini: Best in classGrok: AvailableManus: Not availablePerplexity: Not available
Use DesktopChatGPT: Best in classClaude: AvailableGemini: AvailableGrok: Not availableManus: Best in classPerplexity: Available

Open-Source vs Closed-Source: Why It Matters

A year ago, there was a meaningful gap between open-source and proprietary models. That gap has effectively vanished in 2026. Open models like DeepSeek, Kimi K2, and LLaMA 4 now match or exceed older closed models on most benchmarks.

Why care? Three reasons: cost (open models are free to use), privacy (you can run them on your own hardware), and control (you can fine-tune them for your specific needs). If you're a business handling sensitive data — legal firms, healthcare, financial services — the open-source option is worth serious consideration.

Closed-Source (Paid) Models

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ModelLabContext
Windowⓘ
Claude Sonnet 4.5Anthropic200K
Claude Opus 4.6Anthropic200K
GPT-5.2OpenAI400K
Grok-4.1xAI128K
Gemini 3.0 ProGoogle DeepMind1M+

Open-Source Models

These are free to use and can be self-hosted, which matters for privacy-sensitive work:

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ModelLabContext
Windowⓘ
DeepSeek R1DeepSeek131K
Kimi K2Moonshot AI256K
LLaMA 4Meta1M
Mistral Large 3Mistral AI256K
Qwen 3Alibaba128K
GPT-OSS-120BOpenAI128K

Want Help Choosing?

In a 90-minute 1:1 session, I'll help you figure out which models and tools make sense for your specific work. We'll set up the ones that fit, build your first prompts together, and you'll leave knowing exactly what to use and when.

Book a Session

Last updated: February 2026. This page is updated monthly as new models are released.

Written by Riz Pabani, AI Trainer based in London. MIT AI Certified, 20+ years in technology.

Related: What Is a Large Language Model? | Best AI Tools 2026 | Best Tips to Get Started with AI