Top AI models for complex reasoning, logic puzzles, scientific thinking, and multi-step problem solving. Ranked by reasoning benchmarks and analytical capability.
| # | Model | Score | Benchmarks | Input $/M | Output $/M | Speed | TTFT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GPT-5.2 (xhigh) OpenAI | 95 | 100 | $1.75 | $14.00 | 66 | 74.69s |
| 2 | 94 | 98 | $2.00 | $12.00 | 117 | 39.61s | |
| 3 | 94 | 98 | $0.50 | $3.00 | 180 | 6.33s | |
| 4 | GPT-5 (high) OpenAI | 93 | 98 | $1.25 | $10.00 | 94 | 83.34s |
| 5 | Grok 4 xAI | 92 | 96 | $3.00 | $15.00 | 47 | 8.38s |
| 6 | GPT-5 (medium) OpenAI | 91 | 95 | $1.25 | $10.00 | 69 | 45.44s |
| 7 | GPT-5 Codex (high) OpenAI | 90 | 93 | $1.25 | $10.00 | 216 | 12.05s |
| 8 | GPT-5.2 (medium) OpenAI | 89 | 93 | $1.75 | $14.00 | — | — |
| 9 | GPT-5.1 (high) OpenAI | 89 | 92 | $1.25 | $10.00 | 87 | 31.07s |
| 10 | GPT-5.1 Codex (high) OpenAI | 88 | 91 | $1.25 | $10.00 | 139 | 7.13s |
| 11 | Claude Opus 4.5 (Reasoning) Anthropic | 88 | 92 | $5.00 | $25.00 | 64 | 10.40s |
| 12 | 87 | 91 | $0.60 | $2.20 | 80 | 0.72s | |
| 13 | o3 OpenAI | 87 | 91 | $2.00 | $8.00 | 94 | 7.87s |
| 14 | Gemini 2.5 Pro Google | 87 | 90 | $1.25 | $10.00 | 131 | 23.22s |
| 15 | DeepSeek V3.2 Speciale DeepSeek | 87 | 91 | $0.00 | $0.00 | — | — |
Models are scored using a weighted combination of benchmarks, pricing, and speed metrics relevant to this use case.
Models specifically designed for reasoning (like OpenAI o-series and DeepSeek R1) typically score highest on benchmarks like GPQA, AIME, and HLE. Check the rankings above for the latest results.
For tasks requiring genuine multi-step logic — math proofs, complex analysis, scientific research — yes. For simpler tasks, general-purpose models are more cost-effective.
Chain-of-thought (CoT) is when a model shows its step-by-step thinking process. Some models do this internally (hidden tokens), while others expose it. CoT generally improves accuracy on complex problems but increases token usage.