As of , you should be using...
I'm on a budget.
$100 Claude // $20 OpenAI is still the move.
Google? Meta Muse Spark?
Extremely Mid
What about open models?
GLM 5.2 and Kimi K3 are good. They're slow and think too much. But good.
IQ/$ maxxing?.
Grok 4.5 · DeepSeek V4 Flash · GPT 5.6 Luna Max are pareto optimal
What if I'm curing cancer or proving theorems?
What about Cursor/OMP/OpenCode/3P Harness?
Don't waste your time
Is OpenClaw still a thing?
Not really. Probably just use Hermes.
What about running models locally?
Fun thing to screw around with for a bit.
What about [benchmark]?
Vibe check is the only benchmark that matters.